Jennifer Cooley Fleisher, who resigned from the Cherry Hill Board of Education in 2024 after her husband, David Fleisher was elected Township mayor, on Tuesday was named to the slate of Democrats running for Camden County Commission in the June primary.
The Camden County Democratic Committee also added Haddonfield Mayor Colleen Bianco Bezich to the slate.
Camden County Commissioner Virginia Betteridge will not seek reelection.
Commissioner Virginia Betteridge will not run for reelection. "In 2005, Betteridge broke barriers and made history when she was elected mayor of Runnemede, making her the first Latina mayor in the entire state," according to her biography on the county site. She is a native of Havana, Cuba and immigrated as a child with her family to Gloucester City. She is a licensed Realtor at Weichert Realtors in Haddonfield.
Bianco Bezich and incumbent Commissioner Edward McDonnell will run for three-year terms. Cooley Fleisher will run for the unfinished term of Melinda Kane, who now is a member of the New Jersey General Assembly.
The committee also endorsed Steve Sweeney in his run for governor.
Cooley Fisher's background, according to the committee: "Cooley Fleisher has been giving back to the Camden County community since she was the director of the Alliance on Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Cherry Hill Township in 1994. Prior to serving in that capacity she graduated from Ithaca College and worked for the American Heart Association. Cooley Fleisher has been running a small business and deploying her time back into her community focusing on education in a variety of ways through the Cherry Hill PTA to serving on the Camden County College Board of Trustees." She lives in Cherry Hill with husband David and three children.
Bianco Bezich's background, according to the committee: "Born into a labor family in Pennsauken, Bianco Bezich moved to Cherry Hill at age 10, and attended Camden Catholic High School before pursuing dual degrees at Ithaca College. She attended graduate school at Rutgers University, while working full-time to fund her education. Soon thereafter she became the youngest woman to manage a municipality (at age 24) and launched her own law practice just one year before becoming a mother. In 2019, Bianco Bezich won a special municipal election, becoming the second woman in Haddonfield’s history to be elected; and as the top vote-getter in 2021, she became mayor. ...She left the practice of law in 2022 to pursue her passion for communications and policy, accepting a role within the global office at GSK, a global bio pharma company, where she generates strategic insights around global health policy and biotech innovation."
