THIESSEN HAS NARROW WIN OVER BROTZ

MULTIPLE FACTORS BOUYED THIESSEN'S AMBIVILENT CANDIDACY

Jules Thiessen has had a decades long political career in Mount Holly which began as a Council Member during the times that Republicans ruled Burlington County, and Mount Holly. In fact, he was the man who recruited me to Democratic party politics in 1996 when he was the Chair of the town Democratic Committee. Jules has wide name recognition and appeal that crosses the political divide. So much so that he told me a humorous anecdote about a prominent local Republican who said “You’re not so bad for a Democrat”.

So despite an “on, then off, then sort-of on again” campaign, Jules was buoyed by his name recognition, wide appeal and a Democratic surge in this election cycle that synched perfectly with a scofflaw ad campaign by the Burlington County Labor Voice. That campaign proclaimed Jules the Democrat candidate and urged residents to “Vote Democrat” despite the town’s non-partisan elections.

Thousand were spent by the Burlington County Labor Voice to get this message out to voters. Along with a false message that described Gary Brotz as a “Trump Republican”. Gary is registered as a “non-affiliated”, ie, independent voter. But once a bell is rung, some voters will not unhear it.

And finally, there is the factor of placement of names on the ballot. This is done by lottery so the “better” position of being on top is fairly assigned. Jules won that lottery and if the following article by MIT can be believed, that was also responsible for some number of votes going to Thiessen.

https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/ballot-order-effects

Despite all these factors, the vote was close with Jules getting 51.81% to Brotz’ 47.38%.