By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
Elizabeth “Liz” Casey, a lifelong Democrat, decided to battle for a freeholder position in Cape May County because she believes in transparency in government.
It’s a battle because as of mid-June, there were 29,347 registered Republican voters in the county compared to 17,126 Democrats. There are also 25,726 voters not enrolled in either party, but many of them lean toward the GOP. There has been only a lone Democratic freeholder on the board in the past 25 years.
“Even though we are in the minority in terms of party-affiliated voters in Cape May County, there is a huge chunk of independents. That’s a group I think we can try and persuade and show we should have diversity on the freeholder board,” Casey said. “Plus, I’m never one to shy away from a challenge.”
She believes the hardest thing she will have to overcome to get elected — she ran unsuccessfully for freeholder before — is to get voters beyond a label.
“I think there is a tribalism. And we see that nationally,” she said. “And I think it’s getting people to look at me as an individual as opposed to a member of an opposing team.”
She said voters should see her “as an individual who has lived in Cape May County for 25-plus years, who has raised her kids here, who has a business here, whose husband has a business here. I have a lot to offer.”
She said the same of runningmate Brendan Sciarra.
Asked why she may fare better than the last time she ran, Casey cited the “logistics of the election. It’s a presidential year. People pay attention. People pay attention in presidential years and I think from the primary turnout you saw in our region … the Democrats are fired up. I think the Democrats are going to show up and I think there are a number of independents that are going to align with the Democrats this year (more) than they have in the past.”
Among the key issues for her are the economy and the opioid crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic pain throughout the county and the nation, but she sees an opportunity.
“I think our work environment is going to change going into the future, particularly people who learned they can telecommute. There is an opportunity to attract people to live in Cape May County who telecommute, who don’t want to live in big cities, who don’t want to live in north Jersey,” she said.
That increase in the year-round population, she said, would “absolutely” lead to a growth in small businesses to serve them, whether it’s bakeries or landscapers or other types of businesses.
“You’re going to have all the attendant growth,” she explained. “I like to compare it to college towns. You look at college towns and you look at the rings of growth that expand because those students come. I think that is an opportunity for us right now to say ‘move to Cape May County. We have affordable housing, we have great schools, we have a terrific lifestyle. Come here and telecommute.’ Or if you have to work in Philly one day a week, you (only) have to drive up one day a week. But there is an opportunity to capture those people who are deciding to leave the cities, whose businesses are realizing they don’t have to pay commercial real estate prices to have their businesses run more efficiently than they did before. I think that is a real marketing opportunity for us.”
Cape May County, like places all across the country, has been battling the opioid crisis, even if that has been out of the news during the COVID-19 pandemic. Casey said she has seen the impact here and although she doesn’t have a magic bullet to fix it, there is more than can be done.
“I’d like to tell you I have some new and novel plan for dealing with this, but I don’t,” she acknowledged.
She believes what the county can do is increase the support for the front-line workers — medical providers, drug prevention specialists, law enforcement.
“It’s really just making sure we are backing our workers and are relentless in trying to deal with this issue, as opposed to putting it on the back burner. It really needs to be front and center,” she said, noting when she ran for office before she mentioned she has “done wills for clients, where we’ve had drug testing as a provision for their children receiving their inheritance because the parents are so worried about them getting a lump sum of money and overdosing.”
The problem, she said, spans “all socioeconomic boundaries and as a board we need to lend more support in terms of financial and awareness and make sure this is a problem we don’t turn a blind eye to, that we address head on.”
The Casey-Sciarra campaign has made it a point they will fight nepotism and political patronage in county government, but even if both are elected, they would still be in the minority on the freeholder board. How would they make a difference?
“I think it is being a voice on the board,” she said. “You’ll be in the know, you’ll be able to look at decisions the board is making and at least raise the issue. If we have unanimous voting all the time, that issue is not being raised. I think we need to hire on merit rather than on political appointment. I think we need to do more in terms of rewarding our employees. There is this invisible feeling that they can only get so far because a political person is coming in over them and we are losing (county employees) because they’re seeing they can only go so far.”
Along with supporting veterans and senior citizens, Casey said the county needs to improve its road repairs and bridge work, both expensive propositions, while keeping county spending in check.
To do that, she said, involves “leveraging state money. A lot of times you’ll hear the freeholders, particularly Gerry Thornton, talk about the price tag of a new bridge as though we’re buying it on a Monday. That’s not what happens. There’s no reason we can’t go out to bond. I was just starting to look at the regional transportation plan for south Jersey. There are ways we can advocate for our county. … We contribute a large percentage of funds to our gross domestic product as a state, and we’re not seeing those funds come back. We need advocates on the state level, county level, municipal level. We need advocates for Cape May County to make sure those funds come to us.”
