Woodbury is a small city in NJ with just about 9,700 residents, that since the 1970’s, has lost nearly a quarter of its population. Woodbury’s once bustling downtown, which includes the Gloucester County Court House, now looks more like a ghost town. Like many South Jersey municipalities, Woodbury has been under the thumb of the Democratic Machine for decades, with their decision making process being as transparent as a muddy swamp.

The party bosses hand select the machine candidates, who they make sure that they are beholden to by providing them patronage jobs to their family members and themselves. This means that they are not beholden to the people, as they take an oath to be, but they are beholden to keeping the machine’s stranglehold on the Southern NJ region, and they do it by whatever means necessary.

One of those unscrupulous means was recently employed by the Machine backed candidates in Woodbury, when they sent out mailers claiming the new progressive batch of non machine backed candidates, are Republicans in disguise.

The letter, which was signed by a mystery person named Norlyn Garlic, makes claims that “Woodbury United“, which is the new progressive ticket running against the machine in Woodbury, are running with the MAGA crowd. The letter was sent from the address of a long time friend of the machine, Chuck Rose, but it was signed by Garlic. I reached out to Rose for comment, but he refused to answer, and pulled the classic victim move by claiming I was being aggressive by simply asking him if he was the one who wrote the letter.

“As a long time Democrat, I feel it’s critical to ring the alarm about the so-called “Democrats” running as “Woodbury United” in the city’s Democratic primary.” wrote Garlic.

The letter goes on to claim that since Jared Hunter, who is running to be the Mayor of Woodbury, used petitions similar to ones used by Republicans in Monroe County to challenge signature, which is a very common practice in politics, he is somehow an undercover Republican. Hunter, who a 27 year old openly bi-sexual black man, and has been organizing and working with nonprofits in Woodbury for the last several years, finds the accusations, “ridiculous”.

“After years of organizing in Woodbury, talking to folks about what matters most to them in their community, I realized that our public leaders weren’t making decisions that matched up to our community’s values.” said Hunter. “When decisions are made that go against the wishes of the people, our entire democratic process is threatened. I did my best for years as an organizer, wearing multiple hats and connecting with hundreds across the city to push against the poor decision-making coming from city hall. Realizing that there was only one thing left that I could do, I threw my hat in the ring.”.

Hunter is joined in that ring by Jason Woolf, Pascual Ortiz, and Steve Cope, who are all vying for the the three council ward seats against the machine backed Candidates. Cope is also mentioned in the letter, which says “If you want to know what Steve Cope is really about, take a look at this “Democrat” supporting Trump, VanDrew, and other right wing republicans on his social media”, which shows only a single like that Cope made on a post from 2020 as their proof of his loyalty to the MAGA crowd.

It’s seems like a typical political hit piece, but when you look at it closely, you can tell that it was done by someone with the intellect of a small child, a true mental midget. Now I am not trying to insult Norlyn or Chuck, or maybe I am, but the truth is that they are the result of what many years of what nepotism and cronyism does to a corrupt organization with the transparency of cement, it produces people who are dumb as rocks. Critical thinkers have been pushed aside for groups of low level thugs, who troll FaceBook, and town meetings, to bully and intimidate those who speak out against any plans that the Machine has in mind.

You see, Rose is the chair if the Woodbury Democratic Committee, and he is also employed as the director of parks and recreation for Gloucester County, where he makes nearly $100,000 per year plus benefits. Just like the Director of the Bridge Commission, Joe Andl, who gets almost 200K per year for that gig, who at the same time is also the head of the Burlington County Democratic Committee. Delran’s Mayor, Gary Catrambone, is not only the head of the Delran Democratic Committee, he is also the manager of the Delanco DMV, where he get’s nearly 100k per year. These are like the old school mafia henchmen, only we pay their salaries now, and they operate with what seems like absolute immunity.

Just this morning, while I was writing this article about the thuggery, Hunter was outside of his home helping a neighbor to catch their loose dog, when Chuck Rose suddenly pulled up in his big black jeep, yelling at Hunter that he didn’t write the letter seen below. Shocked, Hunter asked Rose why it was sent from his address, with Rose firing back that Hunter also uses a different address to send his mailers other than his own.

I myself had a person make a blog about me claiming that I faked having cancer, and that I stole money from a memorial in Maple Shade dedicated to MLK, all because I was exposing the Delran Democratic Machine for the crooks that they are.

It’s time that we remove every machine politician in South Jersey and replace them with people from outside of the hand picked bunch of bad bananas that are controlling our lives. Taxes are through the roof so the machine can pay for the patronage positions that are handed to their loyal followers, but that can change very quickly this June 7th by voting in tickets like Woodbury United.

I encourage all unaffiliated voters in Woodbury to become a Democrat for a day, and vote for the Woodbury United ticket so the same old status quo, is given the boot they deserve. More importantly, I want to appeal to the Democrats in Woodbury who have a conscious and want a more transparent government. The government that you create today, will be the one you leave to your children, do you really want to leave them with a government full of people willing to stoop to the depths that those who endorsed the letter below? If not, I ask you to vote for the four candidates from Woodbury United, and begin to bring the much needed change to the City of Woodbury.