Atlantic County Democrats today picked Peggy Capone as their candidate for County Executive against six-term Republican incumbent Dennis Levinson.
Capone represents Hamilton Township as a member of the Greater Egg Harbor Township Regional Board of Education.
Democrats will back Kim O’Brien, a public school teacher, and Habib Rehman, an Atlantic City businessman, to run for County Commissioner At-Large. Rehman mounted a countywide race for commissioner in 2022, winning 41.6% against incumbent Amy Gatto.
They will face Republicans John Risley (R-Linwood), an eight-term incumbent term incumbent and Linwood Councilwoman June Byrnes.
The only Democrat to hold an at-large seat, Caren Fitzpatrick, is giving up her seat after six years to run for the State Assembly.
In District 3, Democrats picked Hector Tavarez, a retired police officer, to take on first-term Republican incumbent Andrew Parker.
The 3rd commissioner district, which includes parts of Egg Harbor and Hamilton Townships, was home to one of the most chaotic races in the state in 2020. Democrat Thelma Witherspoon defeated Parker by 286 votes, but the results were thrown out after because then-County Clerk Ed McGettigan had mailed the wrong ballots to more than 544 votes voters; Parker went on to win a November 2021 do-over election conducted during an entirely different political climate.
Since then, the 3rd district has been redrawn to be more Republican, ironically due to a Democratic redistricting proposal. The old district was carried by Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli 54%-45%, while he won the new district 56%-43%.
Republicans have a 7-2 majority on the board.
The Democratic sheriff, Eric Scheffler, is seeing re-election. He was elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2020. He will face a rematch with Joseph “Tokyo Joe” O’Donoghue, a retired sheriff’s officer and Egg Harbor Township Committeeman, who won 45% against Scheffler in 2020. To win the Republican organization line, O’Donoghue defeated Egg Harbor Township police lieutenant Cherie Buran at Saturday’s GOP county convention.
Scheffler on the post in 2017 by 3,838 votes, 53%-47%, against Republican Jack Glasser. The GOP incumbent, Frank X. Balles, now a county commissioner, did not seek re-election.
