Burton defeats DiFolco for Dem Senate nod, against wishes of party leaders

Former Pemberton Councilwoman Gaye Burton won the Democratic nomination for State Senate tonight, with county committee members rejecting a former Republican who had the backing of top party leaders.

Burton defeated Janet DiFolco, a Mount Holly school board member, with roughly 60% of the vote to run for an open seat in the potentially competitive 8th legislative district.

She replaces Heather Cooper, an Evesham councilwoman who dropped out of the Senate race on Friday.

That sets up a contest between Burton and Republican Latham Tiver, a former Burlington County freeholder and an official at Operating Engineers Local 825.

The incumbent, State Sen. Jean Stanfield (R-Westampton), is not seeking re-election to a second term.  She defeated Republican-turned-Democratic incumbent Dawn Addiego (D-Evesham) in 2021.

The two Democratic Assembly candidates in the 8th, Chesterfield Democratic Municipal Chair Andrea Katz and Hammonton Education Association President Anthony Angelozzi, endorsed DiFolco.

Looming large during a special meeting of Democratic county committee members was DiFolco’s party affiliation; she had been a Republican until just a few weeks ago.

Katz, and Angelozzi acknowledged DiFolco’s Republican past, saying she “watched in horror for a long time as her party grew more and more extreme while they celebrated the end of Roe v. Wade and passed draconian new state laws that curb the right to choose across the country.”

“The last straw for Janet was when virtually every major candidate for the Republican party endorsed a national ban on abortion, which would impact women all across South Jersey,” they said.  “She knew she could no longer sit on the sidelines as the future of our region and our state is being threatened by MAGA extremists.”

But rank-and-file county committee members demonstrated a rare independent streak and bypassed the recommendation of party leaders by selecting Burton, a 60-year-old retired teacher who served one term as a councilwoman before losing her seat last year.

DiFolco’s husband had been a Republican mayor of Mount Holly and sought GOP support for an Assembly seat in 2021.

Earlier today, Democratic leaders touted DiFolco as “the right candidate to beat gas-tax-raising Latham Tiver, who will answer only to his tax-happy bosses and not to you and me.”  One of the signers of the letter, Assemblyman Herbert Conaway, Jr. (D-Delran), voted for the gas tax.

Cooper said a health issue caused her to withdraw from the race.

Raymond Coxe, who is currently a candidate for local office in Medford, had offered to run if Democrats were unable to find a new candidate.

Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story, since deleted, incorrectly reported that Burton had dropped out of the race.