Gloucester County Commissioner unexpectedly resigns

Gloucester County Commissioner Denice DiCarlo has resigned, effective today.

Chad Brunner, the county administrator and the Democratic county chairman, said she resigned “due to professional obligations.”  She is currently the vice president of finance and accounting at Comcast; in 2020, she and her husband purchased the Southwood Bar and Grill in West Deptford.

DiCarlo is up for re-election this year – she was unopposed in the June 10 Democratic primary — and faces a competitive general election contest.   Democrats have until August 28 to pick a replacement candidate to run with seven-term incumbent Frank DiMarco.

Democrats have a 5-2 majority on the Board of County Commissioners, and Republicans need to pick up two seats to take control for the first time since the 1980s.   The GOP is running former Gloucester County Sheriff Jonathan Sammons, who lost re-election in 2024 by 569 votes, and Bryan Driscoll, a businessman and philanthropist who is the owner of the popular Mount Laurel Inn.

In 2021, Jack Ciattarelli carried Gloucester County by ten percentage points against Gov. Phil Murphy.   Donald Trump won Gloucester last year by nearly three points, wth Democrat Andy Jim winning the county by three points; Joe Biden won it by two points in 2020, and Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 674 votes in 2016.

DiCarlo has missed several meetings this year.  She was in attendance last night, but her resignation was never mentioned.

“We are deeply appreciative for everything she has contributed to our county and its residents,” Bruner said.  “We wish her the very best in the future.”

DiCarlo served as mayor of West Deptford from 2015 to 2021 and previously held the positions of township committeewoman and school board member.

Democrats won control of the Gloucester County Board of Freeholders in 1973 and lost it only once, in 1979, when the GOP won a 4-3 majority.  Republicans expanded their control to 5-2 in 1980, but then lost two seat and their majority in 1981, when Democrat Rep. Jim Florio led the ticket in his nearly successful bid for governor against Republican Thomas H. Kean.

Republicans ended an 11-year losing streak in Gloucester County in 2021 after Nick DeSilvio and Chris Konawel defeated eight-term incumbent Robert Damminger and DiCarlo, who was seeking the open seat of retiring Commissioner James Lavender.

After DiCarlo’s loss, she was appointed county commissioner in March 2022 after Democrat Dan Christy resigned two years into his fourth three-year term.    She and DiMarco narrowly defeated Adam Wingate, now the mayor of Harrison and the Gloucester County GOP chairman, and Steve Pakradooni, now the Washington Township GOP municipal chairman.

Republicans lost again in 2023, but DeSilvio and Konawel were re-elected in 2024. Konawel is on the ballot again this year as a candidate for State Assembly in the 3rd legislative district.