Democratic committee members from the 7th legislative district will meet Saturday to select now-Rep. Herb Conaway (D-Delran)’s successor in the Assembly.
Burlington County Democrats must choose between Burlington Commissioner Balvir Singh and Moorestown Councilwoman Nicole Gillespie, a U.S. Navy veteran and Annapolis graduate who served as mayor until this January.
As a county official, Singh likely has a name-recognition advantage among the committee members. Though Gillespie was a popular mayor, Moorestown accounts for less than 10% of the district’s 422 Democratic committee members — she’ll have to extend beyond the lines of her town to win the seat.
The campaign isn’t as public as a typical election, but the ground game has been extensive nonetheless. Gillespie and Singh said they’ve both been knocking on the doors of committee members and hosting meet-and-greets in recent weeks.
“The 7th legislative, we’ve not had anybody representing us with municipal government experience in several decades,” Gillespie said in an interview. “So I have spent the past six years trying to navigate the territory between state mandates and local implementation. And I would like to take that experience to Trenton to help make the work better.”
In his letter announcing his candidacy, Singh, a public school teacher, said he hopes to protect immigrants, public education, and affordable housing in Trenton.
“As the son of an asylee, I understand the challenges immigrants face, particularly in an era where our families may once again become targets of political extremism,” Singh said in the letter. “I am ready, as I was after the 2016 election, to fight Republican overreach and defend our communities from regressive policies.”
This weekend’s special convention will fill Conaway’s seat for the rest of the year. Conaway resigned from the Assembly after winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives — he took now-Senator Andy Kim’s seat. Voters will choose a full-term successor in June’s primary and November’s general election.
Saturday’s competitive special convention wasn’t always a given. Burlington County Democratic Chairman Matthew Riggins said in November that he hoped to appoint a caretaker to the seat and let voters pick the successor in a line-free, office-block ballot June primary.
But Burlington County Democratic Committee members, in a nonbinding but ultimately decisive vote last week, rejected Riggins’ caretaker plan 60-74. Committee members have long held the power to appoint temporary successors in the event of vacancies, and the vote signaled a desire from those Democrats to keep that power, especially in an era where they can no longer control the county line.
A main opponent to the caretaker plan was Singh, who said he would run in the special convention even if Riggins tried to move forward with the plan.
“At no point did any candidate seeking a temporary appointment or party leader express concerns about the timeline. Even with a November election, county committee members have historically filled vacancies as late as September, just two months before the general election,” Singh argued at the time. “What about the future? Is each municipality, county, or state legislative vacancy from here on going to be filled temporality? Rules for thee and not for me?”
Gillespie told the New Jersey Globe that she generally supported the caretaker plan but would follow the will of the committee members.
“We did the right thing,” Gillespie said. “We asked committee members to vote. Of those who showed up, the majority said no, and now we move forward.”
Singh has expressed a desire to continue running for the June primary regardless of Saturday’s results, while Gillespie said she’ll wait to decide definitively until seeing what happens Saturday.
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