Platkin enters the battle for Cherry Hill

Politico

08-07-2025

Good Tuesday morning!
Attorney General Matt Platkin is weighing in on the fight to fill Cherry Hill's 71 vacant Democratic committee seats. And here's a shocker: It's not on the South Jersey Democratic machine's side.
Platkin filed a motion to intervene Monday in favor of the South Jersey Progressive Democrats, who won a shocking landslide victory in last month's Democratic primary, when their slate of just three candidates for Democratic committee in Camden County's largest town beat the full slate of 74 backed by the Camden County Democrats.
The Camden County Democratic Committee is suing and convinced a judge to block the progressives from filling the seats ahead of a court date on Friday. But Platkin's office says there's no ambiguity about the law for filling vacancies: It's up to the elected county committee members to do it. He accused the Camden County Democrats of trying to 'rewrite the rules of the election after the rules were already set.'
I try not to assume readers' knowledge about political relationships, but if you're an even semi-regular reader you don't need me to explain the state of affairs between Platkin and the Camden County Democrats' unofficial boss, George Norcross.
But from my non-lawyer's perspective, Platkin and the South Jersey progressive Democrats have the plain language of the law on their side.
'In any election, voters go to the polls and cast their ballots based on the understanding that their properly cast ballots will be counted according to settled rules, and that their ballots will likewise be translated into election outcomes according to settled rules,' read the filing for Platkin, written by Assistant Attorney General Christina Brandt-Young. 'It would severely undermine voters' confidence in the electoral process. It would effectively deprive voters of the franchise, denying them the benefit of the rules according to which they cast their ballots.'
State senator and Camden County Democratic chair James Beach suggested in a phone call that Platkin's intervention was related to Beach's bill, proposed a couple weeks ago, to remove the State Police from Platkin's purview. 'He's proven himself time and time again to be more focused on headlines and politics than doing his job for the people of the state of New Jersey,' he said.
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