Over the last two years, Cumberland County has flipped to the Republicans, who now hold all seven county commissioner seats and occupy the sheriff and surrogate posts.
The last-standing Democrat is County Clerk Celeste Riley, who faces a tough race for a third term. At the same time, there is a toxic split between two factions of her party going into the first modern-day lineless primary.
Riley, a former assemblywoman, is unopposed for renomination and must wait until Tuesday to learn the identity of her running mates.
Democratic County Chairman Kevin McCann is fending off a renegade group that held its own meeting in March and voted—they claimed to have a quorum—to remove McCann. McCann’s meeting ended without voting to award their organization line to anyone; that came before U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi ordered office block ballots in the Democratic primary.
The party organization has endorsed a marquis name for county commissioner: Robert Austino, a former Vineland police lieutenant who spent fifteen years as Cumberland County sheriff before losing his seat last year in a rematch with Republican Michael Donato by nearly ten percentage points.
Austino’s running mate is Johnny Capizola, a Vineland teacher and coach who had served briefly as a county commissioner last year. He was named to fill a one-year vacancy after George Castellini resigned after announcing he wouldn’t seek a third term
Capizola, who lost a State Assembly race by over 16,000 votes in 2021, finished the 2023 county commissioner race 2,361 votes behind Republican Sandra Taylor.
A leader of the rival faction, Vineland Democratic Municipal Vice Chair Joeigh Perella, is running against Austino and Capizola; her running mate is LaRae Smith, a Commercial Township school board member and Democratic municipal chair.
Perrella and Smith both ran for county commissioner in 2023 on a ticket with Capizola.
A group of anti-McCann Democrats asked a judge to require the organization to turn over financial records and enjoin the county chairman from making any decisions. The judge, Samuel Ragonese, denied the injunction but rejected McCann’s bid to dismiss; the lawsuit continues.
McCann is up this year, but county committee seats are not.
Four years ago, Democrats held two of their three commissioners (then freeholder) seats in a contested Democratic primary with an alternate line headed by congressional candidate Amy Kennedy. Former Freeholder Donna Pearson won by 124 votes, but incumbent Jack Surrency, who was denied party support for re-election, lost his off-the-line bid.
Republican incumbents Joseph Sileo and Antonio Romero are seeking re-election as county commissioners. Another county commissioner, Victoria Lods, is challenging Riley for county clerk.
Lods ran against Riley in 2019 and lost 53%-47%.
Republican Gloria Noto had served as county clerk for twenty years before Riley ousted her in 2014 by 557 votes, 51%-49%.
The Republican county chairman and architect of his party’s resurgence is State Sen. Michael Testa, Jr. (R-Vineland). If his two county commissioners are re-elected and if Lods defeats Riley, Testa would become one of seven GOP county chairs in the state with complete control over every county elected office.
A Republican presidential candidate has not carried Cumberland County since 1988, when George H.W. Bush beat Michael Dukakis, 54%-45%. Hillary Clinton won the county by fourteen points in 2016 and Joe Biden carried the Delaware-adjacent county by six points in 2020.