With the Democrats unbreakable hold on most Camden County elections, it was difficult to find excitement in Tuesday's general election.
If you hunt deeply, however, a bit of intrigue could be found.
Consider the battle for mayor of Berlin Township. Incumbent Phyllis Jeffries Magazzu, a Democrat, won with 1,241 votes — but that total was only 15 votes more than her Republican challenger, Anthony "Tony" Kubat, according to unofficial results from Camden County.
In the city of Camden, incumbent City Council member Sheila Davis ran and won in the June Democratic primary even after the traditional Camden County Democrats — led by power broker George E. Norcross III — dropped her as part of their ticket.
What happened on Tuesday? Davis was the top vote-getter among the three unopposed incumbents who were re-elected. The other two had been on the traditional Democrats' ticket in June.
How did Davis react before the June primary to being dumped by the traditional Camden County Democrats?
"It's freedom. I went against certain votes (on City Council) and didn't show up for certain votes. But I'm elected by the people to ask questions. Now I get to speak my truth, I don't have to worry about retaliation. It was more of a dictatorship than a democracy,” she said in an interview with TAPinto Camden at the time.
Republicans found a couple of footholds in Camden County in Tuesday's elections.
In Berlin Township, Democrats Francis A. McHenry and Michael J. Lydic were running for re-election. But leading the pack in votes was Republican Kimberly E. Reed. She bumped incumbent Lydic in what was a close election. Reed got 1,248 votes, McHenry 1,225 and Lydic 1,217. The other Republican candidate, Ronald Odegaard, got 1,197 votes.
The only two candidates running for seats on the Berlin Borough Council, Republicans Millard Wilkinson and Carl Mascarenhas, were elected.
Republican James M. Hassett was one of two candidates voted onto the Audubon Park Borough Council. The other, Democrat Thomas Goebel, is an incumbent. The two losing independent candidates, Patricia L. Farley and Robert D. Fisher, made a decent showing with just over 100 votes each.
And in Waterford Township, incumbent Republican Stephanie Jones-Freitag led the voting for two seats with 2,596 votes. However, fellow incumbent Joel Thompson, a Democrat, failed to win re-election with the lowest vote total among four candidates. Republican Edward Yucis captured the second seat with 2,583 votes.
In Cherry Hill, Township Council incumbent Democrats William A. Carter III, Jill Hulnick, Sangeeta Doshi and Rob Connor were unopposed and re-elected.
Jacklyn Fetbroyt, a Democrat incumbent on the Voorhees Township Committee, also ran unopposed.
Democrats Jennifer Fleisher, Edward T. McDonnell and Colleen Bianco Bezich easily were elected to the Camden County Board of Commissioners with about double the votes of their Republican challengers.
