It wasn't about property taxes or immigration or gay marriage.
Voters wanted to know: What was his position on Wal-Mart?
"Wal-Mart acted as a catalyst to ignite people's passion," said Clyde, a Democrat who ousted a Republican incumbent.
He attributes his victory, in part, to his vocal stance against the company's plan to put a 217,062-square-foot supercenter in the Camden County borough.
"It had a major impact," Clyde said.
Vehement community opposition to Wal-Mart's proposed Berlin store at the intersection of Berlin Cross-Keys and Watsontown-New Freedom Roads comes as the mammoth retailer faces growing national criticism from an increasingly well-organized opposition.
WakeUpWalMart.com, one of two national union-backed groups founded last year, last week enlisted two Democratic heavyweights, Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D., N.C.), to help launch its "Hope for the Holidays" campaign - one of the group's many initiatives to target the nonunion company, which it accuses of exploiting workers, transferring health-care costs onto taxpayers and crushing small businesses.
Wal-Mart, which employs the Edelman public-relations firm to run a "war room" to defend its image, dismisses such a characterization as calculated misinformation.
"The opponents have had some success getting that accusation out there," Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said. "The fact is, the reality is different."
Simley said the retailer provided tens of thousands of coveted jobs every year, offered health-care plans that start at $11 per month and, in some cases, actually helped smaller businesses with additional customer traffic. He said Wal-Mart's low prices allowed customers to buy items they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford.
"We can provide the same and better products at a lower price and the customer has the freedom to make that purchasing decision," Simley said. "And their decision is to shop with Wal-Mart."
But in South Jersey, anti-Wal-Mart groups "seem to be sprouting up all over the place," said Stuart Platt, solicitor for the Berlin Borough Planning Board. "Wal-Mart seems to be a dirty word in the land-use business."
Berlin Cross-Keys Residents Against Wal-Mart, a community group of 150 members that was formed in August, is one of 11 citizens organizations that comprise the New Jersey Stop Wal-Mart Coalition.
Organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1360, the coalition aims to "stop Wal-Mart from using its corporate power to unilaterally change our business culture and society," according to its Web site.
"We're getting better at fighting these things, and people are noticing that," said Local 1360's Wal-Mart coordinator, Jim Chambers.
In Philadelphia and its suburbs, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 is focusing its anti-Wal-Mart efforts on political lobbying to thwart new stores before they are proposed, said the local's president, Wendell Young IV.
Young said the local had spent $7 million fighting Wal-Mart expansion between 1992 and 2002.
There are now at least 37 Wal-Mart stores in the Philadelphia region, according to the company.
A recent Wal-Mart poll of Philadelphia residents found that 59 percent would welcome the company in the city, said public-affairs manager Rhoda Washington.
Although Wal-Mart has no plans now for new stores in the city, "we're looking to accommodate that growth and that pattern of acceptance and invitation," Washington said.
The nation's largest private employer, with $312 billion in sales last year and 1.3 million U.S. employees, has experienced a raft of recent bad press. Last month, a Philadelphia jury awarded $78.5 million to current and former Wal-Mart employees in Pennsylvania for time they worked without pay and for missed breaks.
The company has long faced local resistance. But within the last few years, anti-Wal-Mart community groups - which are often supported by unions - have become more sophisticated, said Patrick Fox, president of the Saint Consulting Group in Hingham, Mass.
"They're ending up being the most cohesive and aggressive political organizations in their communities," he said.
According to a 2006 Saint Consulting land-use survey of 1,000 Americans, 68 percent said they would oppose a Wal-Mart in their community - up from 63 percent last year.
More than 200 residents turned out for a Berlin Borough Planning Board meeting last week to hear testimony on the proposed store. Heckling and shouts of "No Wal-Mart!" punctuated the proceeding, and residents and board members raised concerns about increased traffic and crime.
Two board members noted that there is already a Wal-Mart in nearby Berlin Township.
"I can't imagine Wal-Mart would keep two stores open within one mile of each other," board member Jim Bilella said as brisk applause erupted from the audience.
Earlier, Wal-Mart's Washington had said, "There are Wal-Marts that coexist beautifully side-by-side."
Borough resident Kenneth Heuftle walked over to a microphone and told Wal-Mart's Washington: "If you did your homework, you'd know we don't want you here."
Stephen Samost, an owner of the site upon which the Wal-Mart would be built, told the board that he was "attempting to carry out the wishes of the community."
He added that he was "surprised by the extent that there is opposition."
The hearing was continued until Nov. 29.
In an interview, Wal-Mart's Washington said she believed that the company's opponents represented a vocal minority.
Sales figures from the nearby existing operation indicate there is demand for an additional store in the area, she said.
"There's a very strong, solid majority of people that like us and welcome us," she said.
Samost disputed claims made by neighbors that the store would be too close to residential neighborhoods and could drive down property values.
"It's on a major county thoroughfare," he said in an interview. Residents "will only be directly impacted while they are on the highway going to where they're going."
But for some nearby businesses, anxiety about the retailer's ripples is acute.
"I'm fearful of the image of being located across the street from a Wal-Mart," said Richard Campbell, of Venice Plaza, a catering business that sits directly opposite where the shopping center would go.
Dan Benevento said he was not opposed to a store being built in the open grassy field adjacent to his Agway store on Berlin Cross-Keys Road.
"I just wish it was another store, other than Wal-Mart," he added. "They want to gobble up the little guy."
Not all Berlin businesses and residents fear the mega-store.
"It would help my business," said Wynne Naylor, who predicted increased traffic flow could deposit additional customers at her liquor store on Berlin Cross-Keys Road.
"I'm for it," resident George Johnson said. "It's reasonable, it's convenient. You can do a whole bunch of shopping there."
