Atlantic County pol's sexist meme brings Trump effect home to both sides

NORTHFIELD, N.J. — One thing not in dispute: This crowd was the biggest ever to hear a State of Atlantic County address, a state wanly described by the county bureaucrat as "good."

But coming just days after an Atlantic County freeholder had posted a sexist meme on Facebook asking if the women marching the day after the inauguration "would be home in time to cook dinner,"  this obscure Board of Chosen Freeholders had morphed into an unlikely outpost in the country's unfolding Trump-effect combat zone.

One by one, women and men spoke directly to John Carman and explained why his comments had offended them or belittled the seriousness of their beliefs. Some had participated in the march in Washington on Jan. 21 themselves.

Others, like Emily Palmer, 18, a senior at Mainland High School, had not marched. She cried as she told Carman that she looked at the freeholder meeting as another way to do her part. "I wanted to take it upon myself to do something, to feel like I'm helping," she said.

To these women from Atlantic County who overflowed the small meeting room, it was a sudden, bracing opportunity to do what national organizers have urged: Bring the fight home to the most local of levels, to their backyard.

For a time, it seemed Carman, for his part, would be heralding in the local brand of a new postsensitivity, no-apologies-needed Trump era, right there on Route 9.

Carman had listened to hours of it, but in the end dug in and did not apologize, instead praising his own female relatives for being "strong and confident" enough not to be offended.

His supporters, including his wife of 40 years, praised his character and devotion to veteran's causes. They cheered his immunity to the forces of political correctness, to "snowflakes" taking offense at jokes.

But by week's end Carman had capitulated to pressure from within his party, aided by an embarrassing tabloid cover, and apologized, disappointing many  of his supporters. "Now I'm offended u feel u had to apologize!!" wrote his friend Ernest Langbein on Facebook.

Brigid Harrison, a political scientist from Montclair State University, said Carman managed to hit a negative political trifecta.

"He succeeded in alienating one segment of voters by making the statement to begin with, infuriating them by not apologizing, and then alienating supporters who were disagreeing with a climate of political correctness," she said.

For the women who stood in the rain outside the Stillwater building (once the  Atlantic County Insane Asylum), after having walked out on Carman, it was a political awakening.

Most had never been to a freeholder meeting and did not view themselves as activists. After, they joined women's organizing groups on Facebook, took down one another's names and numbers, and vowed reprisal. One started a "Recipes for John Carman" page as a fund-raiser.

Separately, Debra Bennet of Margate began a South Jersey branch of the national Indivisible movement that encourages Trump resistance through local civic engagement. She held the first of planned weekly visits to the office of U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, a Republican, last week, and will be back in his Mays Landing office this Tuesday at 1 p.m., she said.

"We met with a lady in the office, a nice woman, a case worker, Marla, and she invited us in," said Bennet. "We sat down, about six of us. We expect there will be more people next time.

"This is not protesting LoBiondo," she added. "This is saying: 'Do what's right. You have a voice, you can speak up.'  We have to protect our Constitution and our rights."

But will the District 3 freeholder race comprising Egg Harbor and Hamilton Townships take an unlikely place in a movement of Trump resistance? The tea party, the model for the Indivisible movement, amassed political power at the municipal level for years, down to school boards.

Said Harrison: "The fact that people bothered to take time out of their day to go to a meeting to object to the sentiments that he voiced is indicative there still are pockets in the United States and certainly in New Jersey where you can't say whatever pops into your head. There are consequences."

Opposing Carman on a freeholder board that is 8-1 Republican could be tricky in a county where Republicans have held control since the days of Nucky Johnson and Hap Farley. His district voted for Hillary Clinton but has reliably sent Republicans to the county level. On the state level, it is represented by Assemblymen Vincent Mazzeo, a Democrat, and Chris Brown, a Republican. Both are trying to become the area's state senator.

Atlantic County Democrats will decide March 19 whom to support to oppose Carman, said Mary Slomine of Margate, a veteran committeewoman. She praised the passion of the women who showed up in Northfield, but said local politics comes down to raising money.

For Atlantic County, which has the nation's highest foreclosure rate and is still reeling from casino closures, layoffs, the 2009 recession, and Hurricane Sandy, that can complicate political ambition.

"I'm hoping women of Atlantic County will get excited and not only want to run but support a woman that wants to run," she said.

"Atlantic County is in bad shape," she said, departing from the official state-of-the-county line. "We get great women, but they're not wealthy women. The average woman I know in her 50s doesn't have 8- or 10,000 dollars to throw into a race."

Still, at a meeting Wednesday night to interview local candidates, five people showed up to vie for Carman's seat, one of whom was a female, she said.

As for Carman, he said he became "flustered" when the women walked out and had meant to apologize. Despite the egging on, he also said he did not mean to become a standard-bearer for the end of political correctness, or for opposing women's rights. But women, on Facebook and elsewhere, have vowed  to vote him out.

Gail Biel, who spoke at the meeting and had been active in Camden County politics before moving to Linwood, said she was contacted afterward by people from both parties looking for candidates on the state level.

In the meantime, she's planning to make a habit out of a more basic civic activity: going to freeholder meetings.

"I think there's going to be people like me who are going to keep it up," she said. "I think we have to rise up finally and let our voices be heard," she said. "I always was heard, but it went by the wayside because we had normalcy. But now we have abnormalcy."