Philadelphia Inquirer
By: Robert Strauss
Penni Heritage’s family has been farming in Gloucester County for six generations, now that her oldest son, Rich, has decided to go into the family business. But she worries that many of those who have farmed around her husband, Bill, and their family for those decades are less confident of the future than she is.
“The business climate is bad, and my neighbors, as they get older, just can’t afford the taxes anymore. They aren’t moving far away, but maybe to Delaware, where they feel they can live like they have in the past,” said Heritage, one of the three Republicans running in hopes of gaining a majority on the seven-member Gloucester County Freeholder Board in the Nov. 8 election.
The Heritage Winery and farm stand is on a still-rural section of U.S. Route 322 a few miles east of the center of Mullica Hill. Heritage said that she and her husband had taken extra jobs over the years to support their love of the farmland.
She said she was running for office for the first time in hopes of enhancing business opportunities in the county, in agriculture and otherwise.
“I realize farming is only part of things here,” she said, “but as we grow, we have to see what we can do here in Gloucester County to support the small-business person. I think that is the big issue now,” she said.
Heritage and her running mates, Barbara Capelli, a former Wenonah council member, and Mike Pantaleo, 63, an Elk Township committeeman, are stressing bringing business principles to the freeholder board and more business to the county.
Unlike the politicians in Washington, though, the Republican candidates are eschewing bitterness in their campaign.
The freeholder board is still dominated by Democrats, though Vince Nestore and Larry Wallace broke the party’s unanimous hold on the board in last year’s election.
“I am happy to work with anybody,” said Capelli, a consultant to financial businesses who grew up in Pitman and is the single mother of three teenagers. “I think what I bring – what Mike and Penni bring – to the table is a familiarity with business and efficiency. I know I will have to work with Democrats if I am elected, and, frankly, that is the way to get things done for the people of the county. I’m all for listening to all sides. If you draw a line in the sand too often, you get stuck at one point.”
Pantaleo is the general manager of Integra Technologies Inc., of Claymont, Del., an engineering consultancy to the power industry. He said that Nestore and Wallace had already identified inefficiencies in county government and that if elected, he would look for more.
“Whether it is overpaying attorneys or having administrators with overly high salaries, I just think we can do better,” Pantaleo said.
He said the 2011 county budget showed that 16 percent of expenditures went for debt service.
That is well under the county’s debt capacity, according to the county spokeswoman, and Democratic incumbent Heather Simmons said the county’s bond rating was “stellar.” Even so, the number alarms Pantaleo.
“That is just not the way to run a business, or a government. We just have to do better,” he said.
None of the candidates tries to skewer their Democratic opponents – Simmons and newcomers Adam Taliaferro and Lyman Barnes – at least personally.
“That is just not the way I do things,” said Heritage, who was particularly complimentary of Taliaferro, the former Pennsylvania State University football player who has recovered from a spinal injury he suffered during a game in 2000.
“He is an impressive young man, but I just think I have the experience in business here, having lived here my whole life and knowing about the people of the county.”
The Republicans must overcome a huge disparity in campaign funds.
The Democrats have raised nearly $235,000; the Republicans less than $30,000, according to the latest campaign disclosures. But they note that Nestore and Wallace faced a similar deficit when they won.
“I think people see through that,” said William Fey, the county Republican chairman.
When he came to the position in 2009, he said, there were 37 elected Republican officials in the county and its municipalities. Now, he said, there are more than 50. “I think the people of Gloucester County view us as more able to look out for their interests without overspending.”
Simmons, who replaced State Sen. Stephen Sweeney when he left the board, said she, too, respects her competition. As the only woman on the freeholder board, she said she was glad other women in the county were choosing to run for office.
“But the Democrats have also seen inefficiencies and have done our best to hold the line on taxes. This has been the best job I have ever had, and I hope I can do it for a long time,” Simmons said.