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Victoria Lods

Commissioner Lods is running as a challenger against Celeste Riley for the County Clerk seat. She has been involved in politics for decades, having previously held positions such as Chief of Staff for a State Senator and she was the Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity. She is currently a County Commissioner. At a recent Republican breakfast meeting, Lods pointed out several things that could be seen as why she is running for the position and how she differentiates herself from the incumbent:
1. Competence for the role of County Clerk is important because they are responsible for elections and could make election related errors. The following might be an example of this: NJ Globe Article
2. It is important for the Clerk to actually show up for work on a regular basis and not focus on peripheral tasks such as ribbon cuttings.
3. It is common for administrative politicians to make excuses for why things aren't getting done, like broken printers in the office.
4. Appropriate execution of job duties is important. For example, the current clerk has recused herself from election duties, but has her picture on election information mailers. So two questions arise: 1. How can she recuse herself from one of her most important duties? 2. Why would her picture appear on mailers that are meant to present neutral voting information (election date, how to vote early, etc.)? Cumberland GOP Release

Mailer Photo 1

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Mailer Photo 2

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Mailer Photo 3

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When asked in person about what the specific role is of the County Clerk and how she would differentiate herself from the incumbent, she responded "If you don't know what the County Clerk does, that should tell you enough about how the role is being executed.", which I believe implies that the County Clerk should be acting as the known liason between the public and the government. She also released the following video to help clarify the role of the clerk: Facebook Reel. You might also get some more updates by following the Cumberland County GOP facebook group for the remainder of the campaign season. Click the x at the top red of this box to go back to the page, then scroll down for more info.

Victoria Lods

Running for:
Cumberland County Clerk
Incumbent
Challenger

Websites

This election is on November 5th, 2024

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individual agenda

  • Ensure election integrity
  • Funding for quality education
  • Quality recreation for children
  • Improve the affordability and quality of the county for future generations

party messaging

To be clear, with the lack of a proper newspaper providing thorough, professional-level election coverage, both sides of the aisle in *local* politics seem to be suffering from a lack of clear messaging. This is not to say that they aren't putting forward a lot of effort to message, but the information is oftentimes scattered across the internet, spoken about at meetings/events that appear partisan or have expensive sponsorship fees, or mentioned at lengthy meetings most people simply won't attend. Oftentimes people get brief literature like
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. They also might get vague impressions of what local Republicans or Democrats might believe based on what they know about national politics. While we have been able to gather some specific information about Lods run for County Clerk, as shown by the above agenda and our references to the issues surrounding the ballot design and election mailers from the clerk's office, there is probably a lot more detail that we could go into about the specifics of the clerk's office and Lods campaign bid.

The one general point that the party has made clear regarding the local level, is that the Democrat party has been predominantly in control for the past 40 odd years, and they have made a mess while doing so, so perhaps it is time to let the Republicans take control for a while so they can clean it up.

policy positions and issues

After reaching out to Commissioner Lods and receiving no response, it is unclear how any policy positions she may have relates to the office of County Clerk other than she might be more cooperative with the overall Republican party at the county level and therefore might help them complete tasks more efficiently.

However, there have been some clear issues regarding the clerk's office's handling of the general election ballot design and election information material coming from the clerk's office... and Lods has made it clear that she will ensure election integrity moving forward if elected.

experience

  • Bachelor's degree in Communications and Journalism
  • Former executive director for Cumberland County Habitat for Humanity
  • Member of the Greater Vineland NAACP
  • Served as Chief of Staff to State Senator Nicholas Asselta
  • Current County Commissioner