Most weren’t even registered Democrats as of last year, according to public documents. One was a registered Republican. | AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan Anti-machine Democrats in Camden County complain of ‘phantom candidates’

Jason Witte has never run for public office.

In fact, the Bellmawr resident acknowledged he wasn’t even registered to vote until just before he filed his nominating petitions to run for Camden County freeholder under the ballot slogan “Real Progressive Democrats for Camden County.” Witte also said he didn’t know the name of his running mate and only had a vague idea of why he was running in the first place.


“Just stuff like parks and stuff like that, how kids don’t really have anywhere to go or anything like that,“ he said in a telephone interview with POLITICO. “It’s mostly like, I don’t know, I didn’t really think it was going to be taken as seriously as it’s being taken.”

Witte is one of six candidates who came from obscurity and filed petitions this year to run in the June Democratic primary for Camden County freeholder. Most of them, despite being the types of candidates who would typically jump at the chance for publicity, have no interest in talking to the press. They have no campaign websites that explain why they’re running or their positions. Most weren’t even registered Democrats as of last year, according to public documents.

These are “phantom candidates,” according to activists who are helping to organize an actual long-shot effort to challenge the well-entrenched Democratic establishment in Camden County. The purpose of the alleged phantom candidacies, the activists say, is to take up space on the ballot so actual primary challengers to the establishment Democrats for county and local officers are hard to find by voters, lost in a confusing mesh of ballot slogans.

It‘s a practice some say has been going on for years.

“They’re specifically asked to run to make the ballot bigger. These people have no interest in running,” said Sue Altman, a board member of the group South Jersey Women for Progressive Change, which is highly critical of Camden County Democrats and their top, if not official, leader: Democratic power broker George Norcross.

To understand the reason behind running “phantom candidates,” one must understand the way ballots are structured in most New Jersey counties, including Camden. The party establishment gets the “line,” bracketing all of its endorsed candidates for various offices on one straight, coherent line down the primary ballot.

Challengers without party support typically don’t run with a full slate of candidates, and usually get a less favorable, randomly-placed ballot position. The more candidates there are, the more crowded the ballot becomes. It can get confusing when many of those challengers claim in their ballot slogans to be some form of “progressive” or “change” candidate, as anti-machine candidates often use similar slogans.

The Camden County Democratic Committee has one of the strongest locks on county government in the state. Norcross has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help candidates in Camden County and elsewhere in South Jersey by simply organizing fundraisers. In September, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg headlined an event for Camden County Democrats hosted by Norcross.

Even if they were running without other alleged phantom candidates on the ballot, the off-the-line challengers would still be the longest of long shots. But running more freeholder candidates also ensures candidates running for mayor or council even in the smallest towns are relegated to what activists call “ballot Siberia,” since they’re not bracketed with anyone.

“Imagine you live in Camden County. You are not happy with the behavior of the machine. You want to vote for an opponent. Well, instead of your opposition vote being spread among one pair of freeholders, it’s now being spread across four, five, six pairs of freeholders, and therefore the opposition does not have a legitimate chance,” said Rena Margulis, who’s challenging County Clerk Joe Ripa in the Democratic primary.

Two incumbent Camden County Democratic freeholders — Edward McDonnell and Carmen Rodriguez — are up for reelection this year and both are on the primary ballot. Anti-Democratic machine activists fielded two candidates to challenge them — Jennifer O’Donnell and Jerome Taylor, though Taylor resigned and was replaced by Michael Lovett. They’re running under the slogan “Democrats of Camden County.”

A third, unexpired freeholder term is also on the ballot because Freeholder Bill Moen was tapped by Camden County Democrats to run for Assembly.

To challenge the incumbents and the two anti-machine candidates, six alleged phantom candidates have filed to run.

Randall McGinnis, Jr. and Steven Panarello are running together under the slogan “Progressive Democrats for Change.” According to the voter registration database in Lexis Nexis, as of March 2018, McGinnis was a registered voter but not affiliated with a political party. He has not voted since 2003, according to the database. A search of the database yielded no voter registration for Panarello.

Dori Larm and William Efymow are running together under the slogan “Change Today for a Better Tomorrow.” According to the database, Larm was a registered voter as of March 2018, but not affiliated with a party. Efymow was a Republican, according to the database.

However, even the anti-machine Democrats don’t have deep histories with the Democratic Party. O’Donnell, who’s on the anti-machine ticket, ran for Gloucester Township Council as a Republican in 2017.

POLITICO filed a public records request late Friday with Camden County for up-to-date voter registration information, but has not yet received a response. However, Deputy County Clerk John Schmidt said in a phone interview that all of the challengers are registered Democrats. It’s not clear when they registered.

The only one of the six alleged phantom candidates for freeholder who showed up as a registered Democrat in the database as of last year was Amanda Semple, who’s running with Witte.

Witte could not name Semple as his running mate until told by POLITICO.

“I know who Amanda is. Amanda is the curly-haired girl,” he said.

Semple, when reached by POLITICO, said she could not talk because she was heading into work. She did not respond to a subsequent phone call.

Witte said he decided to run after being recruited by Bill Murray, president of the Black Horse Pike Board of Education, who put him in touch with his “buddy,” Kevin, whose last name Witte said he did not know.

Asked if he understood why some Democrats would view his candidacy as suspicious, Witte said he “didn’t look at it that way until (now), but I’m seeing it that way now” and said he was considering withdrawing his candidacy.

Murray did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.

Witte was the only one of the six alleged phantom candidates who would speak with POLITICO. McGinnis, reached by cell phone, said he could not hear a reporter because he was in an underground parking garage and asked to be called back later. A follow-up call placed to him Monday evening was not returned.

None of the other candidates responded to phone calls or emails seeking comment.

An examination of the nominating petitions of the six candidates shows several were signed by people with close connections to the Camden County Democratic machine.

Kevin Bucceroni, vice president Black Horse Pike Board of Education who is listed as a party-backed candidate for the Camden County Democratic Committee on the 2017 ballot , signed the nominating petition for Larm and Efymow.

Reached by phone, Bucceroni, who is the public works supervisor for Gloucester Township, said the number was his work phone and that he was not permitted to talk politics on it. Asked to provide a different number to reach him, he said “I’m going to end this conversation,” and hung up.

Joseph Pillo, a member of the Camden County Democratic Committee, signed the nominating petition for McGinnis and Panarello. Pillo, who did not return a phone call seeking comment, is vice chairman of the Gloucester Township Municipal Utilities Authority and a member of the Camden County Planning Board. In 2015, he received the George E. Norcross Jr. Humanitarian of the Year award from the Southem New Jersey AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. The award is named after the power broker’s father.

Other Camden County Democratic Committee members appear on the alleged phantom candidates’ nominating petitions as well.

Margulis, the county clerk candidate, said her team is challenging the alleged phantom candidates’ petition signatures, and that her own allies are facing petition challenges as well. Schmidt, the deputy county clerk, said the challenge to the nominating petitions of O’Donnell and the since-resigned Taylor was filed by Bill Tambussi, an attorney for the Camden County Democratic Committee. According to a report by New Jersey Globe, Tambussi alleges Taylor forged some signatures on his petition.

Decisions on the challenges are due Wednesday.

Calls Monday and Tuesday to the Camden County Democratic Committee were not returned.

Schmidt, the deputy county clerk, said it’s not up to his office to determine if people are sincere about their candidacies, as long as they file the correct paperwork.

“Every petition for nominating in apparent conformity with this title shall be deemed valid,” he said, quoting state law. “The petitions were received. They had enough signatures. It’s considered valid.”

Margulis said that, if elected, she would work to get rid of the ballot structure in favor of one in which the party’s endorsement doesn’t bestow favorable placement.

“The key point is that this ballot structure is controlled by the county clerk. This same ballot structure has been used in Camden County for years under the current clerk,” she said. “And it disadvantages anyone who is not endorsed by the party machine. It is profoundly unfair.”

Margulis said alleged phantom candidates have been turning up on the ballot for years.

In last year’s primary, she said, Maria “Nina” Scarpa, an anti-machine candidate, managed to eke out a primary victory for a council seat in tiny Merchantville. But that was an exception, since Scarpa, because she was not bracketed with any freeholder candidates, was in the ninth column of the ballot at the bottom right corner. There were 13 candidates running in the primary for freeholder, most of whom Margulis said were phantom.

In 2010, at the peak of the tea party movement, Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District — which at the time included Cherry Hill, in Camden County — recruited former NFL lineman Jon Runyan to take on freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. John Adler, who was closely tied to the Camden County Democratic machine. (Adler has since died).

The Courier-Post reported at the time that Camden County Democrats recruited a “tea party” candidate named Peter DeStefano to run as an independent in an attempt to siphon GOP support away from Runyan’s candidacy. DeStefano gave few interviews and ran a bare bones campaign. In the end, it didn’t work as Runyan defeated Adler.