Haddon Township hasn’t had a contested race in 16 years and ’23 will be no different

Three incumbents are running unopposed in Haddon Township, where there hasn’t been a contested race for township commissioner in sixteen years.

Four-term Mayor Randy Teague is seeking re-election with two other incumbents, James Mulroy and Ryan Linhart.

Teague was first elected in 2007 on a slate with John Foley and Paul Dougherty that prevailed in a ten-candidate field for seats on the three-member township commission.  The lone incumbent to run in that election, James Broderick, Sr., was defeated by a 10-1 margin.

The 59-year-old Teague, one of just a handful of unaffiliated voters to serve as mayor in New Jersey, is just the third mayor since Haddon Township switched to the commissioner form of government in 1951.

William G. Rohrer, a Republican elected to the township committee in 1947, became the first mayor and served for 36 years, from 1951 to 1987.

Rohrer owned First Peoples Bank, which became the first in South Jersey to have more than $1 billion in deposits.  He lost two close races for the State Senate in the 1950s against Democrat Joseph Cowgill; he was defeated in 1955 by 290 votes out of nearly 109,000 cast and lost a rematch in 1959 by a 52%-48% margin.

But Rohrer, then 74, suffered politically when his 43-year-old wife was charged with abusing and killing their 3 ½-year-old son in 1975, three months after he had been adopted from El Salvador.  The Camden County Medical Examiner initially ruled the death was self-inflicted; Mimi Rohrer claimed he suffered a fatal brain injury after falling from a highchair.

Mimi Rohrer was charged with murder seven years later; a jury could not reach a verdict after a 13-week trial in 1984.  The two separated after that.

In 1987, voters wanted a change, and Rohrer finished fifth in a seven-candidate race for three seats.    He died of a heart attack two years later at age 70.

Rohrer was succeeded by William Park, who served from 1987 until his retirement after 20 years.

Mulroy was appointed after Foley resigned in 2017, and Linhart was appointed in 2018 after Dougherty pled guilty to a criminal charge.

Among the candidates Teague defeated in 2007 was Rohrer’s daughter, Linda.