With Norcross in cross-hairs, old political guard is dying

By: Charles Stile
Political Stile
USA Today

..... George E. Norcross III seethed in the afternoon heat as he waited for his lawyers to begin a fierce push-back against an indictment that depicted the insurance executive - impeccably dressed as ever in a navy blue suit, red tie but without socks - as the foulmouthed boss of an alleged criminal enterprise.
..... "I want (Attorney General) Matt Platkin to come down and try this case himself because he's a coward," the pugnacious Democratic party leader form Camden County barked outside the front of the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex, referring to his new nemesis, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin.
..... Tough talk but hardly surprising, given the Norcross' flame throwing style heard in interviews and taped recordings in a past corruption investigation. Minutes earlier, Platkin dropped a political bombshell on Norcross and five others, including his brother Philip, a lawyer, Dana Redd, the former Camden mayor , and three others in a 13-count indictment.
..... The entire spectacle in Trenton on Monday [06/17/2024] - Norcross sitting in the front row, growing at Platkin at a Trenton press conference in a brazen show of intimidation only to lash out on the front steps of the building - sounded at times like aweigh-in for a heavy-weight bout.
..... It was the smart, stubborn tenacity of the Stanford Law School-trained Platkin versus the street-brawling bravado of the son of a South Jersey labor leader.
..... "I want to go trial in two weeks," Norcross asserted afterward.

New Jersey's political establishment is collapsing

..... It was nothing short of riveting political theater.
..... New Jersey's most powerful unelected Democrat - with ties to the upper echelons of the national Democratic Party and a membership at former President Donald Trump;s Mar-a-Lago,a millionaire known to helicopter into fundraisers -was reduced in the unsealed indictment as a political Tony Soprano in a well-tailored suit. Norcross wielded power and enormous personal profit through threats, extortion and political influence, Platkin alleged.
..... But Monday's [06/17/2024] drama couldn't eclipse the other narrative that has been steadily unfolding over the past year: The political old guard in New Jersey is in full retreat. Charge is coming swiftly.
.... Light is streaming through cracks in the clubhouse windows.
..... Norcross may have hoped to scare off Platkin by glaring in the front row - and maybe send a signal to potential witnesses - but the fact is, the era of unchecked Norcross powder has been broken. The man who once bragged that eventually all governors had to come groveling to him because, in the end, they had no choice, was simply standing along and frustrated, flanked by lawyers. Among them was another co-defendant William Tambussi, the Camden County Democratic Party attorney.
..... The Norcross Era has now given way to the Age of Upheaval. Consider:

The line: In just recent months, we have seen a federal court suspend the sue of a ballot design that often gave Garden State party bosses a significant advantage in securing public office for those under their control. while a separate federal court case has yet to fully resolve the fate of the county line, many expect that it is on tis way out for good incoming n+New Jersey election cycles.

Senator Bob Menendez: Then we have the legally troubled mandarins of New Jersey politics who set the agenda and operated politically as usual - with impunity. Menendez is facing his second federal corruption trial in a decade, this time inside a Manhattan courtroom, facing a sweeping set of bribery charges. Menendez asserts that he is innocent on all of the charges, says he will be vindicated and has field enough petitions top appear on the November [2024] ballot as an independent candidate.

The Andy Kim Insurgency: Meanwhile the, new Jersey Democratic party has moved on from Menendez. In a grassroots revolt this spring, [2024] the party regulars selected a reformer newcomer from Burlington County Representative Andy Kim, to carry the standard in the fall [2024 race for the U.S. Senate. Menendez has little chance of winning and faces a narrow window to wreak revenge as a spoiler on all the party leader who cut him loose the moment his indictment was unseals last September. [2023] His days as the hard-knuckled power broker from Hudson County appear to be at an end.

Tammy Murphy: Democrats also rejected the candidacy of first lady Tammy Murphy for the U.S. Senate as a nepotist power play. Tammy Murphy had hoped to slide into the Senate with the help of her husband, Governor Phil Murphy.

South Jersey's waning influence: Norcross' own formidable machine, while still potent, has neither the statewide reach nor the veto power over Trenton that it did for decades. The mascot of the machine, former saw Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, was routed in 2021 by a little known right-wing trucker driver, Ed Durr. Sweeney is hoping for a comeback next year [2025] in a long-shot bid for governor -a goal now complicated by Monday's [06/17/2024] indictment. Norcross's ability to raise money for Sweeney, a childhood friend, will likely be diminished.

Chris Christie ties: In his remarks Monday, [06/17/2024] Platkin also emphasized that the period of the alleged criminal conduct considered in the case against Norcross stretches back 12 years to 2012. That year, Norcross and Sweeney's frequent collaborations with then-Repubican Governor Chris Christie reached their apex. That alliance produced a lucrative tax incentive program that sent billions to Camden and , authorities said, Norcross-linked entities. It's a sign that the entire period may be revisited, possibly in a courtroom.

We should expect Norcross' fury

..... This is not to say that Norcross is going to quietly retreat into the political graveyard or onto a golf course in Florida where he officially moved a couple of years ago. that move was a sign that he was possibly retiring, which few actually believed. He is expected to fight with a relentless fury, defending not only his innocence but what he describes as the innocence but what he describes as the resurrection of his hometown of Camden for rubble.
..... It's the big picture, he asserted, that Platkin failed to see through the narrow focus of his obsession to take down Norcross and his machine. Outside the justice Complex in Trenton, Norcross sought to muddy the day's narrative with this now personal indictment, of sorts, of Platkin - his role in controversies during his tenure as Murphy's campaign counsel and chief counsel before moving into the Attorney General's post. Norcross cited Platkin's role in the case of Katie Breinnan, a2017 campaign aide who detailed in the Wall Street journal. and Norcross complained about planning session in which he claimed government, political and law enforcement officials strategist on how to :get us."
..... It's shocking, shocking to hear that a prosecutor is ambitious and aggressive. History is filled with prosecutors who set their sites on public office. Christie for one, Thomas E. Deway was the corruption busting prosecutor from New York that almost became president. So what?
..... Yet, this 13-page indictment was not about Platkin's ambitions or his tactics or his won political missteps and controversies. This was about an "enterprise," an alleged, self-aggrandizing cabal that ran the table from Trenton to Camden.
..... The self-declared victim was also the menacing figure who, the indictment says, strong-armed a developer to relinquish property rights align the Camden waterfront so that the "Norcross enterprise" could build the tallest building along the strip. The developer's resistance prompted a conference call with his Norcross and his brother and co-defendant, Philip Norcross, in the summer of 2016, according to the indictment. Norcross stated, in substance, "If you **** this up, I'll *** you up like you've never been ****ed up before. I'll make sure you never do business in this town again.
.... The developer took "this threat seriously" according to the indictment.
..... It is this kind of conduct - the old-school Jersey intimidation and the below-the-radar racketeering under the aegis of acceptable hard-ball Jersey style politics - that has left voters dispirited and disgusted. It is this disgust that has been on a slow burn in the Democratic Party rank-and-file for years as Norcross and his allies wielded unchecked power. It's a disgust that has fueled the drive for change.
..... "It's often said that's in New Jersey, politics is a blood sport, and what's meant by that is that if you don't go along with the demands of those in political power, you'll get hurt, you might lose your job, might lose your business, maybe you lose your reputation, or maybe government, the very government that you vote for, that you support with your tax dollars, that exists to serve you will instead be weaponized against you," Platkin said.
..... "all of these consequences are on full display in this indictment, but there is nothing inherent in our state's culture that requires us to accept politics and government that functions in this way, and as we show clearly in this indictment, there's nothing legal about it either," attorney general added.

.... Email: stile@northjersey.com.

HOME