Stacking the Deck in Camden County

by: Martin

Fri Jan 25, 2008 at 11:06:01 PM EST

Many of us who read Blue Jersey and favor transparency and an end to pay-to-play, even in our own party, have problems with what has been happening in Camden County; but this post is only tangentially related to the Norcross machine. Instead, I took Juan's challenge and decided to see in person whether the Camden County Democratic Committee would allow use of their headquarters for a presidential campaign other than Hillary Clinton's.

Upon walking into the headquarters in the Garden State Pavillion, one might mistake the building for a Clinton campaign office. Hillary signs dot the doors outside, and only, you guessed it, Hillary literature is available inside. One wouldn't know that John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich or Barack Obama even existed in this Democratic office because of the lack of material available on any other candidate than Clinton.

And here's the kicker: According to the municipal chair with whom I spoke, the Committee hasn't even voted on endorsing Clinton. Instead, the Committee hasn't voted on any candidate, but some members have endorsed Clinton personally.  

Hence, I asked a Camden County Democratic Committee representative whether the Edwards campaign could use the offices for phonebanking, access to voter rolls, etc. Well, you would have thought I was asking whether the Huckabee campaign could use the offices. The person mentioned that she would ask, but that she didn't think it would be possible since Hillary had been endorsed (of course, she hasn't been voted on). Blue Jersey has noted that activists from campaigns other than the Clinton campaign had the same problems in BurlCo, even though the BurlCo Chair has supposedly taken steps to rectify the exclusion there. Will the Camden County Democratic Committee do the same?

The representative told me that since the Committee was a private organization, that they could endorse whomever they wanted and use their space to support whomever they wanted. County campaign offices and resources were used for the Clinton presidency campaign; at the very least, the Committee's decision to exclude the Edwards campaign from its headquarters and resources smacks of elitism and behavior that doesn't encourage Democratic consensus and unity.