The South Jersey Progressive Democrats have begun seating delegates to fill vacancies on the Camden County Democratic Committee (CCDC) after a year-long battle that ended with an appellate court decision on April 17.
The appellate judges reversed a lower-court ruling that had ordered 71 organization-backed candidates for CCDC seats in the township to be seated alongside three Progressives who won the June 2025 primary, concluding that voter intent must prevail.
The decision means the Progressives – a faction of the township’s Democratic party that has long criticized party leaders in the region – can begin filling the vacancies. A temporary restraining order that would have stayed the appellate decision was denied on April 20, and the group has now seated 21 delegates a year into two-year terms.
The CCDC has since filed an appeal with the New Jersey Supreme Court, a move Kate Delany, president of the Progressive Democrats, said is likely to be rejected by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
“All signs point to them not being able reverse this (appellate) decision,” she predicted. “It’s been a really long fight. It’s a two-year term and we’ve lost almost a year of it. But we do have tons of people in Cherry Hill from across the municipality who are excited to get involved. A really diverse group of people: educated, activist.
“So, I think it would be really great once we get it up and rolling.”
In response to a request for comment, the CCDC provided a statement from committee chair and state Sen. Jim Beach.
“The decision to overturn a well-reasoned decision from the trial court allows three individuals to pack the Cherry Hill Democratic Committee with individuals who were never selected by the voters,” he argued. “This result is unprecedented and contrary to our democratic principle that voters decide, not politicians.”
The dispute began after the June primary last year, when three Progressives – David Stahl, Rena Margulis and Susan Druckenbrod – beat 74 candidates backed by the committee by a margin of 5,547 to 3,350. After their win, the CCDC and Beach sued to prevent the Progressives from controlling the committee and filling the 71 vacancies.
So far, the Progressive Democrats have received more than 80 applications for the vacancies and have filled 21. While the group had hoped to get an applicant from all 48 voting districts, it has yet to see any from about 12 of them.
Stahl said candidates fielded by the CCDC last year were missing 13 districts; district 35 drew most of the applicants. A subcommittee within the CCDC will decide if the Progressives can fill positions without representatives from every district.
While the Progressives’ candidates have been running since 2017, it was only last year that they had enough votes for the win by Stahl, Margulis and Druckenbrod. Delany credits the victory in part to a change in the primary ballot design.
While in previous years, CCDC and Progressive Democrats candidates were in their own vertical line – with boxes for each office – a law signed last year by former Gov. Phil Murphy forced a change. The result was that council members, general assembly members and county committee members were each in their own group with separate parties.
As a result of a random drawing, the Progressives were randomly chosen to appear on top of the ballot, above the CCDC candidates.
Deputy Clerk John Schmidt isn’t sure what the CCDC will do about next year’s ballot until it has a list of candidates. But he expects there will be an oval next to every candidate’s name – as the new law requires – instead of what appeared on the 2025 primary ballot.
A side by side comparison of the 2023 ballot (left) and the 2025 version.
Delany also attributes the Progressive Democrats’ victory to a change in voter attitudes.
“I do think there is a weariness of machine politics in South Jersey, including here in Camden County,” she explained. “I think that people know that business as usual in Camden County is why we have failing air quality because of the lack of action on environmental justice. We have the second-highest tax rate in the entire nation …
“So people are interested in change and also we’ve been on the ground organizing for a very long time.”
Delany said the Progressives have previously run for county committee seats in the township with more candidates, but the number has decreased over the years in part because of the “machine politics” Delany referenced.
The term usually refers to the long-time dominance of insurance executive George Norcross, head of the CCDC and a regional power-broker whose brother Donald is a long-time Democratic congressman.
“I felt less inclined over the years to participate in a system that was clearly engineered to make it impossible, or nearly impossible, for new people to pick up a seat,” Delany stated. “We’ve had on Merchantville over the years, and that’s really because Merchantville is really small, and if you’re industrious enough, you can knock on every door (there).
“But that’s not the case in Cherry Hill.”
The Progressives ran 34 candidates in 2019 – including all three who won the primary last year – and lost to the CCDC, 4,246 to 1,34. Four years later, they ran 13 candidates and again lost to the CCDC, 4,374 to 1,523.
Out of about 500 CCDC candidates elected, Progressives had candidates in only a few other towns, including Collingswood and Merchantville, where they are aligned with the Lindenwold Democrats. Delany describes the latter as “independent from the Norcross machine.”
Since the appellate ruling, Stahl pointed out, the Progressives hope to have every vacancy filled by the next reorganization meeting in July. There has yet to be a response from the CCDC about the positions filled.
Stahl, a software engineer, said by winning in court, the Progressive Democrats hope to diversify what they see as a stagnant county Democratic party.
“This is an opportunity for to advocate and develop committees that will advocate for better policy at the local level, county level, state level for New Jersey,” she related. “So I’m not going to have all the answers myself. That’s why we’re recruiting, to (fill) this team of 74 people with diverse voices and backgrounds, so that we can have a strong showing of what is possible.”
