By Camden County Republican Committee

In Case You Missed It:
Gloucester Township Democrats Finalize Ticket
With Candidate Possessing No Municipal Experience

With three tax raisers on the ticket, leading Dems
could do no better than first-time candidate with no experience

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP -- Several weeks after announcing Trenton tax-raiser David Mayer as their standard-bearer for this year's election, leading Gloucester Township Democrats have finally named the last member of their 2009 ticket. They experienced significant difficulties finding a candidate willing to run on a ticket headed by three candidates with long and deep records of raising Gloucester Township's taxes.

It was predicted on Tuesday that the difficulties would be so great that the ticket of David Mayer, S. Daniel Hutchison, and Franklin Schmidt will have to name a fourth candidate to their slate who has no previous elected experience.

On Thursday afternoon, former Trenton Assemblyman David Mayer revealed by email that all the predictions were true, announcing 40-year-old Michelle Gentek as the final member of their ticket.

Gentek has no experience with a public budget and has never run for political office before. Despite the dire need for seasoned, experienced leadership in today's tough economic climate, the Gloucester Township Democrats could do no better than a first-time candidate with no experience.

Political veterans and former elected officials are often careful to choose when they run for office, knowing that the electoral climate and their running mates will have a great deal to do with whether they are ultimately successful. The failure by the Mayer-Hutchison-Schmidt ticket to recruit a candidate with any previous elected experience will show that top Democrat candidates balked at running this year on with a team that has such a poor record to stand on.

On Tuesday, Councilwoman Shelley Lovett predicted, "We will know soon whether or not any of the veterans of the Gloucester Township Democrats are willing to step up and appear on a ballot with the tax-raising team of Mayer, Hutchison, and Schmidt."

"The fourth member of their ticket will tell us a lot about what kind of a chance the Gloucester Township Democrat leadership thinks they will have in this year's election. Running a first-time candidate will prove beyond a doubt that they know this is not going to be their year," Lovett said at the time.

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