Incumbent Freeholders Take Only Contested Primary in Camden County

Democratic incumbent freeholders Edward T. McDonnell and Carmen G. Rodriguez romped in Camden County’s only county-wide contested primary, according to partial unofficial totals reported as of early Wednesday.

With 95.92 percent of the vote tabulated, McDonnell and Rodriguez amassed more than 10 times the votes of their closest Democratic challengers, Thomas Stearns Jr. and Amy LaConte-Smith, with Chris Kehner and Ralph T. Gorgo Jr. trailing even further behind.

Fourteen districts from around the county had yet to be entered into the final totals by the early-morning Wednesday house, but there was zero chance of Stearns and LaConte-Smith catching up, based on the unofficial results to that point.

On the Republican side of the freeholder race, Ian Gill and Caren Sokolow had received all but 13 votes—all write-ins—out of more than 13,000 cast in the election, with the same 14 districts missing from the total.

In the gubernatorial race, Gov. Chris Christie and state Sen. Barbara Buono mirrored their statewide performance, trouncing their challengers by a nine-to-one and five-to-one margin, respectively.

All the other major races were uncontested.

Turnout barely topped double-digit percentage points on the Democratic side, and wasn’t much higher for the Republicans. The last updated total from the unofficial results indicated 15,213 Democrats cast a ballot—just 10.7 percent of the 142,159 registered in the county.

On the Republican side, there were fewer votes—7,739 turned out—but with only 44,232 registered members of the GOP in the county, turnout hit 17.5 percent.

Results from the county Board of Elections trickled in slowly through the night Tuesday, before stalling around 10:30 p.m., with 14 districts yet to report.

Unofficial results: