On the other side, a state Senate candidate’s inflammatory social media posts about abortion and Muslims have party leaders believing he would have a hard time winning a general election after the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade helped turn the suburban political landscape to Democrats’ advantage.

Former Washington Township council member Chris Del Borrello, the chief compliance officer of a family business that runs check cashing stores and owns real estate, is running with the support of Republican organizations from Camden and Atlantic Counties.

Gloucester County Commissioner Nick DeSilvio, a close ally of Sen. Ed Durr (R-Glocuester), leads a slate endorsed by the Gloucester County Republicans.

The winner of the primary will be up against a Democratic slate led by Senate candidate Paul Moriarty, a longtime Assemblymember from the district, and Assembly candidates Cody Miller and Dan Hutchison.

“The Del Borrello team is led by a shady business owner with a history of renting out strippers and backed by Trenton political insiders,” said a joint statement by DeSilvio and Assembly running mates Denise Gonzalez and Michael Clark.

In a follow-up interview, DeSilvio went as far to say that he believes Tasteful Temptations was an escort service, though he provided no evidence that was the case.

“I’m not saying that I have physical proof of it, but part of what his business, how do I say this, his business dealings were renting escorts,” DeSilvio said.

Del Borrello said Tasteful Temptations was not an escort service. “Not only is that not true, but Nick DeSilvio knows that’s not true. His attempts to smear me with George Norcross’ decade old personal attacks show how desperate he is,” he said, referring to the South Jersey power broker who has huge influence over Democratic politics in the region.

Del Borrello, who now lives in Camden County and is running with Matthew Walker and Amanda Esposito for Assembly, says he had no connection to Tasteful Temptations.

Tasteful Temptations was owned by Del Borrello’s brother, current Washington Township Council member Peter Del Borrello III. Peter Del Borrello is the CEO of The Del Borrello Group, while Chris Del Borrello is its chief compliance officer. And Tasteful Temptations was registered to the same Philadelphia address as the Del Borrello Group.

“I never had any role or stake in that company,” Chris Del Borrello said of Tasteful Temptations. “As far as I know, that company ceased operating almost a decade ago. I do not know when it dissolved.”

Other potential liabilities for Republicans

It’s not the first time Del Borrello faced political attacks over Tasteful Temptations. In 2010, Democrats running against him in Washington Township cut a video ad over the same issue.

But Tasteful Temptations isn’t the only potential political liability Del Borrello faces over his family business ties. In 2021, his half brother, Thomas Del Borrello, was sentenced to a year in prison for using the family check cashing business to launder money for Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market CEO Caesar DiCrecchio, who admitted ripping the market off for almost $8 million.

Chris Del Borrello said he was attending a physician assistant program at Drexel University when his brother ran the day-to-day operations of the family business.

“During that time Tom took some rogue actions as [chief compliance officer] that nearly bankrupted the company and ultimately landed him in jail. In 2016, I made the difficult decision to leave medical school and abandon a future in medicine, and come back and help my family through this difficult time,” Del Borrello said. “As the CCO since then, I have revamped our compliance department, and have returned our company to solvency, even turning our operations into an award-winning organization.”

The early shots are a glimpse at things to come ahead of the June 6 primary, and how Republican infighting threatens to jeopardize what is arguably the party’s most winnable district in the state. Democrats currently hold a 25-15 majority in the Senate and a 46-34 majority in the Assembly, though Republicans in redistricting cut a deal with Democrats for a map that gives them an outside shot at control of one or both houses.

The fight in District 4 is more than a clash of personalities. Republican leaders have also dug in on opposite sides, with some — like Atlantic County GOP Chair Don Purdy, whose county makes up a tiny slice of the district — arguing that DeSilvio’s history of social media posts, including staunch anti-abortion positions, make him too difficult to elect in a general election in such an important swing district.

“I consider abortion murder and anybody that supports it, is considered ‘evil’ to me!!” DeSilvio wrote on Facebook four years ago.

Del Borrello, who said he’s “personally pro-life” but supports abortion rights in cases of rape, incest and medical necessity, said DeSilvio is too extreme.

“I don’t think that if a woman, a young girl in particular, were to have an abortion, that calling her evil and a murderer is the way to go,” Del Borrello said.

Del Borrello said he’d prefer to focus his campaign on his own work in government rather than his family ties. A little over 10 years ago, he served as a legislative aide to former Assemblymember Domenick DiCicco — the last Republican to hold office in the 4th District.

In that role, he said he helped a constituent who was working a minimum wage job and putting herself through nursing school, only to find out that the “fly by night” school was uncredited. He said he worked with the state Division of Consumer Affairs, which allowed her to sit for a nursing exam and obtain her license if he passed on the first try. She did, he said.

“For me, this is about changing family trees, so people are not stuck in the station they’re born in,” he said.

DeSilvio said he will fight to change the state’s school funding formula to help local districts that have suffered cuts from it, and called the district’s Democratic candidates the “gun-grabbing three.”

“I hope to change that reputation,” he said.