2013 Election Flipped at District Level, Data Show

Red flags started going up almost as soon as the polls closed on Election Night last week—as Republican campaign chairman Phil Guerrieri pored over a spreadsheet, he could only shake his head: Turnout was down at least 20 percent in spots, and things didn’t look good.

That depressed turnout ended up flipping the results of 2009, where Gov. Chris Christie was beaten in two out of every three districts, but the local Republican candidates won in 18.

This year, in the blue heart of blue Camden County, the popular Republican governor won over Democrats—but the successes at the state level weren’t duplicated across the board.

The governor claimed victory almost everywhere, but the local party lost control of at least 11 districts across the township as Democrats held on to total control of the township council, according to unofficial district-by-district votes.

Christie ended up winning 44 districts by a combined 4,342 votes, including two districts where he won by more than 200 votes, and piled up triple-digit wins in 16 different districts across the township on his way to beating Democrat Barbara Buono by 4,317 votes in Cherry Hill.

His losses were rare, and by little—the worst loss for the incumbent governor was by 19 votes, and his three other district losses were by three votes or less.

The local race almost reversed those results—the four Republicans gathered enough votes, on average, to win in just seven districts, and three of those district wins were by an average of between two and four votes.

The local Republicans fared best, perhaps not surprisingly, in the districts covered by the Barclay Area Civic Association, where a lawsuit is pending against the township zoning board over the proposed apartment complex at the old Haddonfield Lumber property.

There, in districts 35 and 13, the Republicans won by an average of more than 100 votes each, but elsewhere, the Republicans couldn’t hold on to their wins of 2009.

With the addition of two new districts, the comparison is somewhat clouded, but the Democrats seized 12 districts where the GOP had won four years ago and ceded just one.

“The reduced turnout shifted the whole thing,” Guerrieri said on Election Night. “It tells me the Republicans stayed home.”

“Everyone—Democrats and Republicans—had their numbers go down.”

Voter fatigue and disinterest in the governor’s race, where a Christie victory had been assured for months, according to polling data, may have accounted for that reduction at the voting booths—just 37.66 percent of voters cast a ballot in Cherry Hill, down almost 10 percent from 2009.

Despite the losses at the district level, the Republicans suggested it may be time for a change in how council members are elected.

While Cherry Hill currently votes in council members on an at-large basis, the Republicans pointed to provisions in the Faulkner Act that would allow a switch to district or ward elections.

“We want district elections,” Guerrieri said. “When you have a community of 70-some thousand people, all at-large candidates doesn’t work…it doesn’t work for the neighborhoods.”