One of America’s most deeply rooted political machines is finally crumbling.
New Jersey politicians struggled to find words big enough Monday morning to describe what they were hearing: The state attorney general was about to indict South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross, one of the most formidable and fearsome in the history of the state, on accusations of corruption.
“Earthquake,” one of them told POLITICO. “Atomic bomb,” said another.
Norcross governed much of New Jersey for decades and, at his peak, wielded power rivaling that of governors — shaping elections, legislation and the political careers of Democrats across the state.
His indictment is just the latest in a series of political shockwaves that have hit New Jersey over the past year. Sen. Bob Menendez, another powerful political boss, admired by lower-level political players, is in the middle of a corruption trial. And it comes just months after a federal judge struck down the “county line” — a tool long used by New Jersey political machines to suppress intraparty opponents — for the 2024 Democratic primary.
New Jersey’s notoriously boss-driven political system has never been in danger like this before, at least in memory. And now, a crop of young New Jersey Democrats are ready to dance on his grave.
“2024 will go down as the most significant change New Jersey has ever seen in its electoral and political process,” said Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, 47, who has sometimes publicly feuded with Norcross and who is now running for governor in 2025. “You had this culture of a handful of people with disproportionate influence. The public didn’t necessarily realize how this was all monetized and now the situation has changed.”
Norcross was charged along with his brother Phil, former Camden Mayor Dana Redd and three other longtime associates. The indictment alleges a dozen years of extortion and other forms of corruption by the “Norcross corporation” at the expense of an oppressed city located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. (Another Norcross brother, Democratic congressman. Donald Norcrossdoes not face any charges).
“George Norcross has run a criminal enterprise in the state for at least 12 years. This alleged conduct by the Norcross company has caused great harm to individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations, the people of the state of New Jersey and especially – especially – the city of Camden and its residents,” said state Attorney General Matt Platkin , in a news broadcast. conference – with Norcross, uninvited, sitting just a few feet away from him. “This ends today.”
Platkin, who has never run for public office before, is part of a younger group of progressives like Rep. Fulop. Andy Kim and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, seen as potential reformers of the state’s political system. Although Platkin has not publicly expressed ambitions for elected office, a bill in the Legislature would prevent him from doing so for three years after leaving his position.
Norcross attacked Platkin afterward and demanded the trial begin in two weeks.
“I want Matt Platkin to come here and try this case personally,” he said outside the attorney general’s office in Trenton. “Because he is a coward, because he forced the people in this building to implement his will.”
Decades of influence without holding office
Norcross, a 68-year-old insurance broker, has never held elected office. But he has been one of the most influential figures in the state since the early 1990s, able to funnel millions of dollars to his chosen candidates and against his political enemies.
Norcross has forged alliances with governors of both parties — most notably Republican Chris Christie, who was arguably his closest gubernatorial partner and whose administration worked with Norcross and his allies to devise the tax credit system that Norcross is charged with exploiting.
And Norcross had enormous influence over virtually every member of the South Jersey state legislative delegation. Super PACs with close ties to Norcross have often been the biggest spenders in New Jersey elections for a decade. Meanwhile, his insurance brokerage, Conner Strong & Buckelew, profited from millions of dollars in public works across the state.
Norcross was also a childhood friend of former Senate President Steve Sweeney, and virtually all of South Jersey’s Democratic state legislators, past and present, owe their election, at least in part, to Norcross’ fundraising prowess. This gave Norcross immense negotiating power and a seat at the table for some of the state’s biggest political decisions. His power increased immensely shortly before Christie was elected, when he and Sweeney gathered enough votes to unseat former Senate President Dick Codey, an enemy of Norcross.
Many politicians feared crossing Norcross.
“He was a guy who never lived a day smiling,” Codey, who retired in January after 50 years in the Legislature, said of his former nemesis on Monday.
“It’s about time, and New Jersey is a better place without people like him who think running the government is what they’re supposed to do, even though they’re not elected,” Codey said.
Another critic of Norcross, for a time, was Governor Phil Murphy. Murphy, when Platkin was his chief counsel, hired an outside law firm to investigate Christie-era tax credit programs and Norcross’s influence on their formation and generation — many of which are laid out in the new indictment.
Norcross and Murphy they would later put aside their differences for an uncomfortable political detente. Murphy even raised money for Norcross’s super PAC earlier this year, and the Norcross political machine supported First Lady Tammy Murphy’s aborted bid for Menendez’s Senate seat. But Platkin, who broke with the Murphys when he refused to defend the county line in court against a lawsuit filed by Kim, now the Democratic Senate candidate to replace Menendez, never let the power broker out of his sight.
“Honestly, I’m kind of speechless,” said Sue Altman, former executive director of the New Jersey Alliance of Working Families.
In 2019, when the Legislature convened a friendly committee hearing that gave Norcross the opportunity to push back against the Murphy administration’s tax credit investigation, Altman was forcibly removed from the room by State Police as Norcross looked on.
Now Altman is the Democratic candidate for Congress in Central Jersey’s 7th District. Norcross’ shadow remains even in this race. New Jersey Globe reported last week that, in part because of her struggles with the South Jersey Democratic machine, the AFL-CIO — some of its Building Trades members are closely aligned with Norcross — chose not to support her.
“It’s a bit of a sad day for Camden. This kind of proves what we always knew: the people of Camden were way down the line of constituencies considered when these plans were being drafted,” Altman said. But, she added, “it is an opportunity and a time for change in New Jersey, for accountability in politics and for replacing old party structures and old power with people committed to the public good and public service.”
Ronsha Dickerson, an anti-Norcross Camden advocate, said the accusation felt like “bricks being lifted from our chests.” Dickerson said tax incentives have built shiny new office buildings, but noted that few Camden residents I actually got jobs from them.and which promised necessities to benefit local inhabitants, like supermarketsnever materialized.
“It kind of confirmed that we’re not crazy. For years, people thought we were doing some conspiracy theory,” Dickerson said. “It felt like someone finally understood that we were telling the truth here.”
Political heavyweights toppled in 2024
The potential falls of Norcross and Menendez coincide with the elimination of the county line, which bosses of both parties have wielded for decades to give their candidates advantages in primary elections. The line allowed the party to list all of its approved candidates in a single line or column. Those who challenged the party apparatus sometimes found themselves in obscure, hard-to-find parts of the vote known as the “Siberian vote.”
Democrats in Camden County, where Norcross’s power is most concentrated, were particularly notorious for their use of the county line. They were also the most vocal advocates against Kim’s challenge and made headlines when several Camden County Democratic officials blocked a Democratic Senate candidate. to enter the party headquarters as Tammy Murphy spoke inside the building.
Progressive Democrats have even uncovered evidence that Camden County Democrats recruited “ghost candidates” just to take up space on the ballot against rivals.
The Norcross political machine suffered a series of major political defeats in 2021, culminating in the shocking defeat of Sweeney by a virtually unknown trucker named Ed Durr. Norcross, whose official residence is now Florida, told POLITICO last year that he was moving away from state politics, although few took his word seriously. And in fact, with Norcross still helping finance the election through its super PAC, South Jersey Democrats have recovered many of the losses from two years earlier in 2023.
But there are signs that Norcross, Menéndez and other party bosses’ grip on power has been loosening.
Altman, who led the effort to eliminate the line even before Kim, is one of several Democrats who have challenged or fallen out with the political culture led by New Jersey bosses.
Kim, a former Obama administration diplomat who was elected to Congress on the anti-Trump wave, was one of the first elected Democrats to call for Menendez to resign after his indictment in September and turned the tide against the county line. Fulop also openly criticized Menéndez and was one of the first elected officials to call for an end to the line. Baraka, who is also running for governor in 2025, also supports ending the line.
Sweeney, who in 2023 declined to seek a return to his state Senate seat, is also running for governor in 2025. Norcross, along with his brothers, last week organized a $1,500 per capita fundraiser for Sweeney in South Jersey. Sweeney declined to comment through a spokesperson.
While there is no doubt that New Jersey’s Democratic political system is wounded, it is not dead. Even without the county line, the county’s Democratic parties managed to dominate the hotly contested primary elections earlier this month. And despite protests from the party’s progressive wing and many of the Democrats running for state office, the Democratic Legislature passed and Murphy signed a bill that imposes new restrictions on the state’s Open Public Records Act — a move seen by some as a vestige of the New Political culture led by the Jersey chiefs.
“They are fighting back. We just witnessed the OPRA changes as an example,” said Monmouth University researcher Patrick Murray. “They’re not going to act quietly here, but there’s certainly a sea change in the comfort level that these organizations have had over the last few decades.”
Daniel Han contributed to this report.
