New Jersey politics can be jagged, but a move by Evesham Democrats may have taken heartlessness to an entirely different level after announcing they would dump a councilwoman from their ticket hours after learning she had suffered a miscarriage.
Local Democrats were informed that Ginamarie Espinoza had lost her pregnancy on Friday morning but decided to proceed with an announcement that they had voted not to support her re-election later that day.
“Our party has a responsibility to communicate to our members, and this decision was almost a day old,” said Phil Warren, the Democratic municipal chairman.
Espinoza disagreed.
“It speaks to their character,” she said.
Democratic Councilwoman Heather Cooper and Warren told the New Jersey Globe on Thursday evening that the local county committee had voted 18-7 with two abstentions that Espinoza and another incumbent, Eddie Freeman, were part of a “rogue caucus” in opposing Democratic Mayor Jaclyn Veasy.
Instead, they decided to support Joseph Fisicaro, Jr., a government teacher at Cherokee High School and a former Republican, and former Fire Commissioner Christian Smith.
Espinoza has lost two pregnancies in the last year, and she was pregnant with her one child when she ran for township council in 2020.
“We’ve been struggling for 2 ½ years to have another child,” she told the New Jersey Globe. “I think many women feel alone and there is not enough advocacy for women or their partners who support them during this challenging loss, because that is what this is, a loss.”
She said sharing her experience – including the insensitivity of Cooper and others in her hometown – might raise awareness and create a better way for politicians at the local level to set aside their partisanship, even for just a weekend, to allow families to grieve without the encumbrances of political attacks that could have waited.
“They did all of this while I was having a miscarriage,” said Espinoza. “Something many women are going through far too often in the shadows.”
“The more we talk about the issue and give it the microphone it needs the more we can shed light on the need for more data, information and knowledge to encourage dedicating the appropriate resources to the issue and to support women and their partners in this time of need and grieving,” she said. “The more we are open about these issues the greater ability we have to positively impact the health outcomes of maternal fetal medicine.”
A press release shared by Cooper and Warren on Thursday evening cited poor performance and policy differences with Espinoza and Freeman as their reason for losing part support for second terms. A new version was sent out on Friday after they learned of the councilwoman’s loss, removing some of the incendiary language.
“We have nothing by the deepest sympathies for what Ginamarie and her family are going through.”
Gone was an attack on Espinoza and Freeman as having “lost the faith of residents.”
“Starting as promising candidates, Freeman and Espinoza’s reputation plummeted with lackluster effort and discipline that dates back to their initial campaign,” the original version said.
Espinoza says internal politics was the reason she was dropped from the ticket.
Espinoza and Freeman, along with Councilwoman Patricia Hansen, voted last year to replace their township solicitor, Robert Wright, Jr. of Malamut & Associates, a Veasy ally, and replace him with Christopher Orlando of Parker McCay, the firm run by Philip Norcross. Espinoza is the constituent services director for Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), Norcross’ brother.
“It’s why they took revenge on me,” she said. “You’re going to get punished, even if you’re doing what’s right.”
Cooper and Warren had criticized Espinoza for “holding the budget hostage to push a political agenda so long that the state warned of sanctions, the town was forced to pass tax increases at the last minute.”
But Espinoza has a different side of the story, saying that the township administration wouldn’t “give her information she need to do her job. She also said her first miscarriage occurred during the budget process and that Cooper knew and still refused to give her extra time.
Espinoza said she hasn’t decided if she will seek re-election off the line, saying she needs more time to think about it.
Editor’s note: The New Jersey Globe contacted Espinoza for comment on Friday morning only to learn that she had learned of her miscarriage just ten minutes before. We decided to hold the story until it was a better time for Espinoza and informed Evesham Democrats of this. Espinoza reached out to the New Jersey Globe on Tuesday.