CORRECTION: The below story incorrectly stated that Julia Hankerson is the president of the Greater Woodbine Chamber of Commerce and Woodbine AARP. She is a past president of both organizations.
WOODBINE – The Cape May County Democratic Party has chosen the Rev. Dr. Julia Hankerson, of Woodbine, to run for county commissioner. She currently faces no opposition in the June 7 primary.
In the Nov. 8 general election, Hankerson will likely face incumbent Republican E. Marie Hayes and Republican Andrew Bulakowski, who Republicans tapped to run for the seat being vacated by Gerald Thornton. The top two vote getters in the at-large race will be installed.
Hankerson’s experience spans a variety of positions. A native of Cape May County, Hankerson worked in Republican Gov. Tom Kean’s Department of Human Services in the 1980s as a project specialist in budgeting and strategic planning.
During her time in Trenton, she began her foray into local public service, serving on the Hamilton Township Planning Board.
In the early 2000s, Hankerson moved back home to the county. Shortly after her return, she became involved with local politics in Woodbine. She ran for and was elected to the Woodbine Board of Education in April 2002. Hankerson said she’s proud of her time as board president.
“I stood up for the children. We were able to make significant changes,” she said.
Due to a local controversy surrounding a tax increase to expand the school budget, Hankerson was part of a newly elected majority on the board. She gained immediate support as board president and took actions to improve the school. In the months that followed, the school’s superintendent had a series of clashes with Hankerson over hiring and budget decisions. Hankerson herself acknowledges firing six people whom she characterized as political appointees.
The superintendent took his ethics complaints to the state’s Board of Education Ethics Commission in September 2002. Over the next few months, the commission held a series of hearings, and in June 2003, they found Hankerson in violation of the code of ethics for school board members per the School Ethics Act. She was subsequently removed from her volunteer position on the school board.
Hankerson defends herself by suggesting that the report was her word against the superintendent’s.
“I didn’t pursue it… I wasn’t willing to use the children’s money to argue my case against the ethics board,” she said.
When asked if she has any regrets about the ordeal, Hankerson was emphatic. She said that she doesn’t have “one regret; I cheer myself for doing that. I’m a hero.”
Since her time on the school board, she’s remained involved in local politics. According to a New Jersey Globe report from last fall, Hankerson ran for Woodbine Borough Council in 2003 and 2013, as well as mayor in 2010.
Several months before the November 2021 election, she also replaced Democrat Christopher Wilson on the ballot for the General Assembly in the First District. Hankerson did not win a seat in the Legislature.
Although Hankerson has been active in politics over the years, she is a psychoanalyst by trade. She is a small business owner who operates the Woodbine Wellness Center LLC. She also serves as president of the Greater Woodbine Chamber of Commerce and president of the Woodbine AARP. She has taught as a professor at Atlantic Cape Community College and Simmons University, in Boston, Massachusetts.
The thrust of Hankerson’s campaign is clear: “Transparency is really important… for everything.”
She argued that the county ought to be clearer with how things work. She referenced $25 million that the county awarded to a business in Atlantic County.
“Was there a business in Cape May County that could have got that $25 million grant but didn’t even know the process or about the grant,” she asked.
Hankerson has ideas about why there isn’t enough transparency. She points to the all-white and entirely Republican commission as a potential source of the problem.
“We’re looking at a situation where there’s an opportunity to be exclusive, and certainly, as public servants… we want to include everyone,” she said.
She hopes that greater competition between the two parties in the county can strengthen the ideas that undergird decision-making.
ED. NOTE: Shay Roddy contributed to this report.
