Disqualified for not meeting the residency requirements of a municipal client, businessman Bill O’Hanlon has dropped his lawsuit to get on the ballot in the Democratic primary for mayor of Washington Township (Gloucester County) and is expected to run as an independent.
“Mr. O’Hanlon is contemplating a candidacy as an independent candidate for mayor in November,” his attorney, Frank Capece, wrote in a letter to Superior Court Judge Benjamin Telsey. “In this matter, the question of residency raised by the township clerk’s office can be addressed.”
Contemplating might be an understatement since O’Hanlon issued a press release saying he’ll have enough signatures to get on the ballot as an independent by the end of next week.
“Normally I wouldn’t have considered running as an independent, however in 2024 the people of this nation has showed its fed-up with the political circus the Trump – Biden race has bestowed upon us,” O’Hanlon said. “There is an air of dissent running throughout this country, and it’s not the system rather it’s the people running it. Somehow the worst people in our society have been attracted to government positions.”
O’Hanlon’s candidacy faces three obstacles: his residency – Deputy Municipal Clerk Barbara Moore tossed him off the Democratic primary ballot after finding that he didn’t meet the one-year residency requirement, something O’Hanlon disputes; his indictment on federal fraud and tax evasion charges; and New Jersey’s Sore Loser Law.
The Sore Loser Law may seem like the least of O’Hanlon’s problems, but the Gloucester County court vicinage has the most liberal interpretation of the law in the state.
Last September, Superior Court Judge Benajmin Morgan removed Penns Grove Mayor LaDaena Thomas, an independent, from the ballot after finding that a post from the mayor’s Facebook account alluded to a Democratic primary write-in campaign, even though that effort was mounted by someone else and she did not actively participate.
O’Hanlon was arrested last year after U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger charged him with conspiracy related to his telemarketing business, which offered sold timeshare services, mostly to seniors, in exchange for an upfront fee.
After a challenge to O’Hanlon’s nominating petition, Deputy Municipal Clerk Barbara Moore determined that O’Hanlon was a resident of Florida and ineligible to run for mayor.
Moore found that O’Hanlon listed an address on his nominating petition that was not a real address and didn’t match the ones on his driver’s license and voter registration. She said O’Hanlon was not the owner of that property, nor was it registered as a rental property. He registered to vote out of a home owned by Earl and Florence Trewin.
Laurie Burns, the Democratic incumbent, faces a challenge from Republican Councilman Anthony Dellapia. Burns became mayor earlier this year after Joann Gattinelli resigned to become a Gloucester county commissioner.