West Deptford GOP Picks Cianfarini, Chintall

They’ve been the voice of opposition at township committee meetings. They’ve been Web gurus in charge of sites aimed at a local government they see as spendthrift. They’ve even been part-time videographers, in an effort to give committee meetings a wider audience.

And now they’re candidates.

Sam Cianfarini and Ray Chintall were announced as the West Deptford Republican Party’s official candidates for township committee at Westwood Golf Club Monday night, and they wasted no time in starting their campaign with the 40-odd GOP faithful in attendance, working a buzzing room before and after their presentation in an effort to mobilize the Republican cohort.

“We have the ability to make a real run at it this year and reverse some of the problems we have,” Cianfarini said. That run will take the efforts of more than just the two candidates and West Deptford Republican chair Joann Priga, though.

“We need the involvement of the people in this room and beyond,” Cianfarini said.

Chintall likened the effort to a basketball team, as he told an anecdote about coaching a team in Camden, where he was able to get key efforts from role players to win a championship. Those same role players–district committee members, get-out-the-vote volunteers and so on–are just as important in local politics, he said, and added that the turnout Monday night was encouraging.

“The enthusiasm is running through my blood right now,” Chintall said.

Cianfarini noted that when he started with the West Deptford Republicans, there were just three people active in the organizational side; now that number’s at 30 and climbing.

“Now we can be a serious opponent,” he said.

Dave Ferrucci, who runs the county-level campaigns for the Republicans, said the crowded room was the biggest turnout he’s seen at a West Deptford event in years–maybe ever.

“This is what it takes to win,” he said.

Freeholders Larry Wallace and Vincent Nestore also came out to show their support and lend their voices in the crusade against the Democratic-dominated township committee.

“West Deptford is a pit,” Wallace said. “It’s been run by incompetent, money-grubbing fools for a long time.”

Cianfarini and Chintall also took shots at the committee and spending in the last decade. Chintall brandished a half-dozen tax bills as he decried the 63-percent increase in his local taxes over that span, and both men hammered at the township’s debt level, which totals $142 million between the general fund and the water and sewer department.

Cianfarini pointed out that he and Chintall have repeatedly brought the debt level, among other problems, to the township committee, to no avail.

“They don’t care,” he said. “They don’t care about your money, and they don’t care to fix it.”

“This is our town...it’s time for them to leave.”

Notably absent from the meeting was current Republican committeeman Sean Kilpatrick, though Priga said an invitation was extended to him via phone and email.