Beach set to replace Adler in N.J. Senate

Camden County Democrats are set to choose County Clerk James Beach to take over the state Senate seat of John Adler, who has been elected to Congress, according to several party sources.

Beach, 62, of Voorhees, was elected to the freeholder board in 1991 and later became freeholder director. He won the county clerk's seat in 1995, replacing Michael S. Keating, who was found guilty of taking bribes from printers seeking ballot contracts.

Beach, a former director of vocational education for the Black Horse Regional School District, was widely praised by fellow Democrats this morning as a popular politician who has used his office to help veterans and senior citizens.

Adler won a tight race for Congress last month, becoming the first Democrat to represent the 3rd District congressional seat in decades.

A state senator since 1991, when he took the seat from a Republican, Adler rose quickly through the upper house and heads the Senate Judiciary Committee.

It is not yet known whom Democrats would select to replace Beach as county clerk.