The last Democrat standing in Cumberland County, County Clerk Celeste Riley, will seek re-election next year in a part of the state where Republicans flipped the sheriff and surrogate posts in 2023 and now hold all seven county commissioner seats.
“I will be running for a third term,” Riley told the New Jersey Globe. “I’ve done a lot of really good things to expand this office. I’m hoping the general public understands that.”
Riley could face a rematch with Victoria Lods, a former Senate staffer and Habitat for Humanity executive director in Cumberland County. Riley was re-elected by 1,422 votes, 53%-47%, even as Cumberland County GOP Chairman Michael Testa, Jr. (R-Vineland) flipped a State Senate seat and Republicans captured two Assembly seats.
Lods was elected county commissioner in 2022, ousting a Democratic incumbent by 3,078 votes.
The Riley name comes with some stature in Cumberland County. Her late father and her brother had served as freeholders, and she was in her third year as a Bridgeton city councilwoman when Democrats picked her in early 2009 to fill a vacant seat in the State Assembly.
In 2014, she challenged four-term incumbent Gloria Noto, an 82-year-old Republican, and won by 557 votes, 51%-49%.
In the Testa era, Cumberland County Republicans picked up two county commissioner seats in 2021, two in 2022 to take a 4-3 majority, and three more last year. The Democratic sheriff, Robert Austino, lost re-election by ten percentage points.
Republican Jack Ciattarelli carried Cumberland by 12 points against Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021. But Joe Biden won Cumberland by six points in 2020.
Riley pointed to her work digitalizing county records and opening a satellite office at the Cumberland Mall in Vineland as reasons why she deserves to be re-elected.
“I’m looking for one more term,” she said. “There still some more I’d like to accomplish.”