New Jersey Democratic Boss Norcross Indicted For Corruption
What’s going in on New Jersey, where everything is turning up roses?
First was the Sen. Bob Menendez indictment, ending his reelection bid as a Democrat.
Then it was hero Rep. Andy Kim immediately picking up the baton.
Then it was the end of New Jersey’s corrupt ballot line system, which essentially empowered Democratic Party county bosses to pick their candidates for office. (Thanks, Kim!)
Then it was the end of Tammy Murphy’s nepotistic bid for Senate (her husband is the governor).
And now? We may be witnessing the fall of New Jersey’s most corrupt Democratic Party power broker, George Norcross, as he faces a multi-count indictment for 12 years of wrongdoing.
It was five years ago that I wrote about Norcross, and this is as good a summary of that story as anything:
New Jersey politics have never been accused of being clean, and for good reason. Now that rampant and systemic sleaze is threatening freshman Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.
The gist of the feud is South Jersey political boss and all-around a-hole George Norcross, an insurance mogul who has seemingly purchased the entire South Jersey Democratic establishment, and much of its statewide crew as well. Many of the seedy details can be found in this article, and this one, oh, and this one. But it can be neatly summed up like this: While Camden is facing public school closings because of a $27 million budgetary shortfall, Norcross and his allies have sucked up $1.1 billion in public subsidies and tax breaks supposedly designed to help places such as Camden.
The article also blasted New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker for siding with Norcross despite his obvious sleaze. It was a blemish on Booker’s otherwise solid record. Norcross was so powerful, it seemingly was impossible for anyone in the state’s politics to cross him. That is, until Gov. Phil Murphy was elected. The two have been battling it out since 2019, and it apparently is now culminating in this indictment.
From at least approximately 2012 to the present, GEORGE E. NORCROSS, III led a criminal enterprise whose members and associates agreed the enterprise would extort others through threats and fear of economic and reputational harm and commit other criminal offenses to achieve the enterprise's goals (the "Norcross Enterprise"
For his part, Norcross is acting like the political mafioso boss that he is:
Nearly overnight, New Jersey has gone from one of the most corrupt Democratic machine states to one that is aggressively rooting out and exposing the worst people. And if the result is that we get Sen. Andy Kim and and Democratic politicians who are no longer beholden to that kind of corruption, the benefits will be felt far beyond New Jersey.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
