Conservatives Call for GOP Chairman to Step Down

Count a township-based conservative group among those calling for the chairman of the Camden County Republican Committee to resign.

The head of South Jersey Citizens United issued a statement Monday morning calling for Rick DeMichele to step down as the county's GOP leader, joining Pennsauken Republican Club President Bill Chester and Stratford Mayor John Gentless.

“I have been involved for a long time in and around Camden County Republican politics, and what nobody has really discussed is the big white elephant in the room—the fact that Mr. DeMichele has yet to build a viable party since he assumed the chairmanship more than four years ago," Citizens United executive director Tom Crone said in the statement.

"People show up at my monthly club meetings all the time feeling disenfranchised by the leadership of the Camden County Republican party, and many, including myself, can’t help but think about the good that will come if we, the Camden County GOP, were a united and organized bunch," Crone continued.

Crone and other GOP leaders do not feel the groundswell of Republican growth in New Jersey over the past two years—most notably Chris Christie's run to governor in 2009 and state Legislature and county freeholder board successes in Gloucester County last year—has been realized in Camden County to the fullest extent under DeMichele's leadership.

"The Camden County GOP loses, and will continue to lose, because Mr. DeMichele has failed to garner support to energize the party base. Pennsauken is one of the largest towns in Camden County, yet we have been excluded by Mr. DeMichele because he fails to recognize the value of collaboration, debate and the passion our Republican supporters bring to the table," Chester said in a statement. "In the era of the Tea Party, we were kicked out and replaced with a person we don’t even know or never met."

Republicans who previously held elected posts in Gloucester Township on Monday night issued a statement supporting the beleaguered DeMichele—this, despite their being on the losing end of a 2009 campaign for municipal office.

"It has been many years since we have had the type of leadership that Rick DeMichele has brought to our party. Since taking office in 2006, Chairman DeMichele has been a champion of Republican candidates in Camden County. This has not been an easy job due to the overwhelmingly Democratic registration in our county," reads a portion of the letter signed by former Gloucester Township mayor Cindy Rau Hatton and councilwoman Shelley Lovett and former Black Horse Pike Regional School District board president John Custodio.

The letter goes on to suggest Republicans face an "uphill battle" in overcoming "the stranglehold of the Democratic machine in Camden County."

DeMichele on Monday posted a statement on his blog defending his record, noting GOP fundraising in Camden County has "more than doubled" over the past three years and challenger Jon Runyan, a former Philadelphia Eagles lineman, defeated John Adler, whom he dubbed a Camden County Democratic "golden boy" in the 2010 Congressional race.

"Our freeholder candidates last year garnered a higher percentage of the vote than we have in decades, and we are competitive in towns that people could not have imagined competing in just five years ago," DeMichele added. "We haven’t reached our potential yet, not by a long shot. But that’s a record of progress that I’m proud of and I know you are, too. I want to take this opportunity to thank all you, from the bottom of my heart, for the outpouring of support in response to these attacks against me."

Despite those electoral gains in recent years, Crone says many conservatives feel disconnected from the county GOP in that it doesn't fight for what he often labels "good government."

"The Camden County Republicans have a legitimate responsibility to speak on behalf of its members and the people when something isn’t right. The Camden County GOP, in its current state, is a complete train wreck. Now is the time to transition to new leadership," Crone concluded. "If you think about it, a transition done now can have a very exciting and unifying effect, particularly if everybody acts like adults. In any political organization, if you are going to hold the other side accountable, one must also hold themselves accountable in the same light.”