Two open seats and control of Burlington County?

by: Jason Springer

Mon Mar 02, 2009 at 02:40:16 PM EST

The stars could be aligning for the Burlington County Democrats. I have speculated in a few posts about rumors that at least one of the two sitting Republican Freeholders set to stand for re-election this year would not be running again. Now comes public speculation along the same lines. First, Freeholder James Wujcik last week, with a name everyone will recognize as a possible replacement:

There is speculation among Republican insiders that Burlington County Freeholder James Wujcik will not seek re-election this year. Wujcik has been a Freeholder since 1997. One possible candidate to replace him is former Medford Mayor Christopher Myers, who won 48% of the vote in his bid for Congress last year. Myers, sources say, is involved in a project at Lockheed Martin, where he is a Vice President, and has not made any decisions regarding his political future.

Chris "the economy is basically strong" Myers would be one of the few names already known on a county level from his unsuccessful effort against Congressman Adler last cycle, but that may just be a GOP dream as he doesn't seem to be committed to running. Myers is up for re-election this year in Medford, so if he ran for Freeholder, he would have to give up his local seat. He also lost the Burlington County part of the Congressional District and that was without many of the more Democratic river towns. At the time of that story last Friday, they said it was expected Bill Haines would seek re-election. Now today, comes quotes on the record from Freeholder Bill Haines:

"I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do about freeholder," said Haines, who this year finishes up his fifth term.
[snip]
"I probably would have made the decision a long time ago if Aubrey Fenton and Stacey Jordan had won the last time, but with control up it makes the decision more difficult," he said.

I wonder who wanted the word to get out about Haines's decision. Fenton and Jordan lost to Democrats Brown and Reinhart this past November. I bet Haines is getting a ton of pressure to run again from the party. The internal dynamics of the Burlington County Republicans these days, makes this news even more interesting. There is still talk of rifts within the party between Senator Diane Allen and leadership. They spent over a million dollars losing two seats on the Freeholder board last cycle, lost the County Clerk seat, lost the Saxton Congressional seat and still carry an outstanding debt. The incumbent Republican State Senators are not on the ballot to lead the way and the incumbent Congressman of the same party, which they used to depend on is no more. Given the snow on the ground today, the perfect storm could be forming for Democrats in Burlington County this November.

Jason Springer :: Two open seats and control of Burlington County?