I got a call Thursday last week from a friend in Haddonfield about a mailer they received that was paid for by Committee for Responsible Governance. I told the caller to email me a picture of the piece and I would write about it Monday.

My friend never sent me the picture of the piece probably because Politico’s Matt Friedman wrote a piece about dark money working its way into Collingswood’s non-partisan election tomorrow. He does an excellent job connecting the dots to show how the dark money group Committee for Responsible Governance is connected to South Jersey Democrat power broker George Norcross by way of a guy named Dennis Culnan.

It was a well-written piece and it makes sense that Machine Democrat and Progressive Democrat dark money would work its way into Collingswood. It is the town the progressives managed to win county committee in to take over the town’s committee.

What jumped out at me, and probably my friend, was the brief mention of Haddonfield in the piece. Haddonfield is another town with non-partisan elections taking place tomorrow in Camden County.

The residents of Haddonfield were proud of their non-partisan elections. The town has held non-partisan elections since 1913, two years after the Walsh Act was passed giving municipalities the power to establish non-partisan elections.

The town had a tradition of not using campaign signs. Folks in Haddonfield were proud of the unwritten no signs rule. The local Patch in 2013 released a video to show voters what color ribbon each candidate was using. The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2009 published a piece about the tradition of ribbons in lieu of signs.

Because of the pride in their non-partisan elections, dark money in Haddonfield is big news!

And, who is the dark money (connected to George Norcross) backing in Haddonfield? According to Politico, incumbent Commissioner Colleen Bezich:

“Culnan Sr.’s nonprofit has not disclosed how much it’s spent and where, but it’s currently active in at least one other town, nearby Haddonfield, where it recently issued a mailer in support of Commissioner Colleen Bezich.”

It is my understanding that Bezich has stated she is not part of the Camden County Democrat Machine. I am not sure I believe that considering she is an elected member of the Camden County Democratic Committee.

On top of that Bezich, by her own admission, is the person responsible for breaking the long-standing no campaign sign tradition in Haddonfield.

So, to all the folks in Haddonfield complaining about your municipal elections becoming partisan you might want to consider it was Colleen Bezich who decided it was time to end the unwritten no campaign sign rule. By campaigning for and getting elected to the Democratic County Committee she by definition is a politician and a part of South Jersey’s political machine – so much so she is being supported by “one of [George] Norcross's closest advisers and friends.”

You don’t have to take my word for it, here’s a screenshot from the Politico article: