My Lessons from the Camden 2017 Primary Election

Part 1 of 3: Election 2017
Note: I wrote this in late June 2017 but didn't publish it. The general election in in a few weeks, so here it is.

Background: I was a part of the team that helped with Ray Lamboy, Tracey Hall Cooper, Namibia El, and Quinzelle Bethea run for mayor and city council in 2017. This is a short list that discusses why the team lost, in my personal perspective. I hope that these lessons help us improve our community. [Note:If you want more details, Rutgers professor and Camden resident Stephen Danley and his team wrote about the election here.]

Candidate for council Quinzelle Bethea stands with campaign volunteers on the left as dozens of Moran supporters, including many city hall employees stand across the street.

Money: I could really make this a one paragraph article. To win against the establishment takes over $50,000. Moran’s team spent more on election day then Ray spent in the entire election. They were not raising money because of huge support coming in the form of thousands of $20 donations. They raised $5 million in one night a few weeks before the election. We could not compete with that.

Below you see that Councilman Jenkins, a person that most people have never heard of, has little to show for his almost eight years on council, raised $23,000 without even trying. Money just went from one pot to another. It's the way the system works. Or at least works for the political establishment.

Until a team has real large sums of money to raise, the policy fight has to happen in other ways besides elections. Most wealthy people in this area will not donate the legally capped $2,700 in an election unless they are 90% sure the person will win.

We heard from many people that did not want to donate over $299 so their donation would stay undisclosed.

Time: It took Ray many conversations and commitments to decide to run. He made his final decision just a few weeks before the petitions were due in early April. Some people were reluctant to support someone that they were not sure was ready to run. This delayed fundraising and team building.

No machine infrastructure - “The Machine” is used to describe what is a combination of George Norcross, his brothers Congressman Donald and lawyer Phil [their other brother is a psychologist], the county Democratic party staff and others throughout New Jersey all working together to keep current and their selected Democrats in power. The Machine, or more accurately labeled - the Camden County Democratic Party has paid full time staff. They have committee people that are tasked with working to help their team win.

Candidates Lamboy, Bethea, El, and Hall Cooper did not know each other well, did not have huge amounts of cash raised or todonate to the campaign themselves, and did not have paid staff that lasted throughout the campaign. There was no campaign manager. I helped as much as I could, but I also worked a full time job throughout the campaign.

The team relied heavily on volunteers to knock on doors and hang signs.

Voter education for low information voters - The most telling moment of why and how we lost happened on election day. City Council candidate Qunizelle Bethea and I were in East Camden. First, I parked on Westfiled Ave., to walk to Davis to check things out at the polls their. Across the street, I saw over a hundred people at a rally for Moran and his team. Quinzelle talked to a few that said they were there to get paid. People were lined up to go door to door and then get their $100 check. They didn't know who Moran, Lamboy, or Spencer were. They didn't watch debates or read Q & As in newspapers. They didn't know that Holtec wasn't paying taxes or that candidate Fuentes was also in charge of the county's vote by mail system. They just wanted or needed money. It was an easy one day check in America's poorest city.

As the day continued, we knocked on the door of a household that we already knew had registered voters. A young lady opens the door. “Cousin!” she yells in excitement of recognizing the young man behind the bowtie. By the time the conversation ended, I heard her say she didn’t know he was running, she didn’t know what a sample ballot was nor ever saw it, and as she put it - “I can’t vote for you because I’m only registered to vote for president”.

When I heard it I screamed inside my head. This young lady represents so many people in our community. She cares about issues, she watches the news, she voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Obama in 2012. Outside of that, she thinks the mayor is Dana Reed and unintentionally ignores local politics, unaware of its vast impact.

Vote by mail - We did not have an effective strategy to go door to door with seniors, disabled, college students, or others that prefer or exclusively vote by mail. The main reason was that we didn’t trust the process. The other reason was that with less than $30,000 raised, it wasn’t a priority. Over 700 people voted that way.

Corrupted legal process - The control of elections in New Jersey is split between different departments so that no one person or committee has too much power. The law supports and allows unethical practices.

The assumption of winning - Political insiders argue if Milton Milan and Gwendolyn Faison were supported by the Democratic party officially or unofficially in 1997, 2001, and 2005 [2005 is when the party endorsed and supported then Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz Perez].

I thought Ray was the best person to use the power of the fourth floor of city hall to implement that change.