If you’ve ever paid attention to Camden County politics, you know all about phantom candidates. A phantom candidate, also often referred to as a sham candidate or ghost candidate, is an individual who runs for office with the primary purpose of influencing the outcome of an election without a genuine intention of winning or serving if elected.
Here's how it works
If you have an incumbent that has a large group of support, but an even greater opposition throwing a phantom candidate on a ballot is how you dilute the opposition. In Gloucester Township’s case, Mayor Mayer has a large following, but has become much more unpopular in the recent years after the attempted sale of our sewer to his employer.
With a lot of upset voters, we assume the Norcross Machine knows the writing is on the wall for Dave. This is their way of splitting the opposition vote.
Could this just be a rouge republican?
It could, but it’s not likely. Mailers like this aren’t cheap. We’ve also never heard of Neil Smith and it doesn’t appear Neil votes either. It’s kind of a stretch to think that some “Proud Republican” decided to all of a sudden care about politics in 2025 and raise thousands of dollars for a mailer in the month since Primary petitions were due.
Where did it come from?
Florida? We know who lives in Florida these days. If you saw this mailer and thought of George Norcross you aren’t alone. It’s one of the first things we thought too. I do recall a hit piece mailer from a year or two ago about Sam Sweet when he ran for Camden County Commissioner. I believe that was from Florida as well. If I’m not mistaken Steve Ayscue was behind that or was promoting it online. Steve is a long time Democrat Strategist for George Norcross.
It’s tough to say who’s 100% behind it because they broke Election law by not putting a “Paid For By” disclaimer on it. I’d urge everyone to do as I did and report it to NJELEC.
Why are there no Republicans running for mayor?
Remember the 2021 election when Sam Sweet and Joe Damico ran for mayor against David Mayer? They received more combined votes than David Mayer, but neither had enough votes to beat Dave. Neither Joe or Sam were phantom candidates, but they did prove there are enough people in GT that would like a new mayor. The problem is, the 2023 election showed us that Gloucester Township is not ready to vote Republican. In 2024 we knew we had an uphill battle to change people’s minds about who we are.
Our 1st priority was to reach out to the people behind the Save The MUA movement and work together. Our second priority was to make sure we didn’t repeat the 2021 election. When we approached Keith Gibbons about possibly running for us he said he wanted to do it his way. While many committee members wanted Keith to run as a Republican, we chose to trust his judgement.
In January of this year Keith Gibbons let us know he would be running as an Independent candidate. Some committee members were disappointed by his decision, but all of us were behind him as a candidate. With his decision, we decided to vote to endorse him rather than run a Republican against him in the general election.
This election is is too important to get caught up in partisan drama. Or wallets, our open space and our sewer depend on it.
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