Update: Andl will not call for a vote to fill a vacancy on the Burlington County Board of Commissioners at a municipal chairs meeting on Friday night, but instead will discuss the process being used to fill the county commissioner seat. A special election could come as early as next week, and Andl has not precluded a proxy vote by municipal chairs.
Burlington County Democratic Chairman Joe Andl plans to fill a vacant county commissioner seat tonight at a meeting of municipal chairs despite being more than a month past the statuary deadline, bypassing the legal requirement that the full county committee vote.
The deadline to fill the seat caused by the resignation of County Commissioner Linda Hynes was February 19, but Andl never called a special election convention. Hynes resigned to become a Superior Court Judge in January.
Under a new state law passed more than 30 years ago, county commissioner vacancies are filled by the county committee of the political party that won the seat in the last election.
But Andl appears to be relying on a section of the Burlington Democratic Party’s by-laws that allow municipal chairs to act as proxies.
“Not even George Norcross or Steve Adubato did this. Not even George Gilmore has done this,” said a veteran New Jersey political leader. “You have a meeting. That’s how you fill a seat.”
Andl’s plan is for Allison Eckel, a member of the Lenape Regional High School Board of Education and a 2021 Assembly candidate, to be elected by a small, behind-closed-doors meeting of municipal chairs.
The party has a full county committee event scheduled for Saturday, a petition-signing party in advance of the April 4 filing deadline. The party is expected to ratify the selection of Eckel and sheriff candidate James Kostopolis, as their organization line candidates in the June primary.
But there has been no notice given to county committee members of a special election vote, the New Jersey Globe has learned.
The Burlington Democratic Party website does not appear to have been updated since last year.
Republicans have pledged to go to court if Democrats try to fill the seat now.
It’s not immediately clear which Superior Court judge will hear the case, although it’s unlikely that Aimee Belgard, the presiding judge of the civil division, will get the assignment. Belgard is a former Burlington freeholder and Democratic congressional candidate and she probably won’t hear the case to obviate any appearance of conflict.
Burlington Democrats are likely to be familiar with the special election law. They held a full county committee vote in January 2019 to fill the seat of Freeholder George Youngkin.
Youngkin had dropped out of the race in late September 2018 after reports of domestic violence charges against him surfaced. Despite his exit from the race, he won anyway in the Democratic wave election that fall. He was sworn in on January 1 and resigned minutes later.
Other counties have held special election conventions to fill vacant freeholder/county commissioner seat in recent years, including Camden, Essex, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, and Sussex counties. None have attempted to circumvent the statute by sending someone to occupy a public office through a municipal chair vote.
Andl has not returned calls seeking comment.
