Egan Jones wants successor to be a woman

Assemblywoman Patricia Egan Jones (D-Barrington) wants a woman to fill her seat after she leaves the legislature.

“I would hope it would be a female. I have a feeling it won’t be, but no,” Egan Jones said when asked if she had a successor in mind. “I don’t want to see the number of women in the legislature diminish at a time when everybody’s working so hard and there are so many talented women out there, but I think the die may have already been cast. And I don’t know who it is, but I’m sure whoever it is will be a wonderful addition.”

Egan Jones represents Camden County, where political careers are often made or broken at the whim of power broker George Norcross.

Egan Jones’ running mate, Assemblyman Bill Spearman (D-Camden) also gave little indication on who might succeed the Assemblywoman, who the New Jersey Globe first reported last week would not seek reelection in 2019.

“We’ll figure that out. There’s a meeting coming up, and I’m sure we will come together as Democrats and come up with a good candidate,” Spearman said. “I don’t know about hand picking. There’s all kinds of rumors out there, but we’ll come together and figure it out.”