George Norcross, a businessman and fixture in New Jersey politics known for decades as one of the state’s most powerful unelected Democrats, was indicted on Monday on charges of racketeering and other crimes related to his real estate ventures.
Norcross is one of the most powerful financiers in South Jersey politics, with ties to nearly every elected Democrat in the southern half of the state and some Republicans. A former head of the Camden County Democratic Party and member of the Democratic National Committee, he has long weighed political influence in the party, which controls every major city in America’s most densely populated state. Local political experts noted on Wednesday that many of the state’s most high-profile Democrats appeared not to immediately comment on the charges Norcross faces despite their significance to the state and to the party, an indication of the power broker’s level of influence.
Adding drama to an already extraordinary political day, Norcross chose to attend the press conference in which Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced the charges against him. Norcross sat in the front seat of the room, ensuring that he would be visible during the entirety of the press conference broadcast by the attorney general’s office.
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Reporters in the room documented what appeared to be multiple attempts by employees at the attorney general’s office to move Norcross, but the political kingpin refused. According to New York Sun reporter Matt Rice, Norcross told one worker, “is there someone more significant than the lead defendant in the case to have a seat in the front row while he’s being excoriated by the attorney general of the state?”
Norcross and his associates “took the Camden waterfront all for themselves,” Platkin denounced during a press conference on Monday. Camden is the largest city in South Jersey, sitting across the Delaware River from Philadelphia and long plagued by crime, poverty, and visible urban blight. It has consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in America for years.
The state’s indictment claims that Norcross and his associates, including a former Camden mayor and his brother Philip Norcross, elbowed other real estate developers out of the city’s waterfront, its most desirable area, through threats and intimidation to secure millions of dollars’ worth of state tax credits. The accused are facing charges including “first-degree racketeering, retaliation, concealing, intimidation and threatening,” according to the local radio network NJ 101.5.
“When the developer would not relinquish his rights on terms preferred by [Norcross], he threatened the developer that he would, in substance and in part, ‘f**k you up like you’ve never been f**ked up before,’” the indictment read in part, “and told the developer he would make sure the developer never did business in Camden again.”
“The indictment unsealed today alleges that George Norcross has been running a criminal enterprise in this state for at least the last twelve years,” Platkin told reporters. “On full display in this indictment is how a group of unelected, private businessmen used their power and influence to get government to aid their criminal enterprise and further its interests.”
“The abandoned industrial sites along the Camden waterfront had the potential to serve as the city’s salvation,” Platkin continued. “But as the state alleges, the Norcross enterprise manipulated government programs and processes designed to attract development and investment to instead suit their own financial desires instead of contributing to the successes of the city of Camden.”
Subsequent reports after the press conference indicated that Norcross and his attorneys attempted to stage an unauthorized press conference in the room afterwards, but were forced outside.
Norcross accused Platkin of seeking personal retribution against him and not having significant evidence to convict. He also appeared to threaten to reveal embarrassing information about Platkin personally during the course of the trial.
“I want to go to trial in two weeks. We are prepared. They will delay, they will have all kinds of excuses why they won’t do this because this is all about a smear campaign,” Norcross told reporters. “There are going to be scores of people that are going to identify and testify as to the motives of this fellow.”
Norcross also claimed to conclude, following the press conference, that Platkin offered no evidence, asking, “where’s the beef?”
He explained that he attended the press conference because, “I want to witness an extraordinary embarrassment and outrageous conduct from a public official who stands up there and tries to act like he’s holier than thou.”
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Norcross attorney Michael Critchley similarly accused Platkin of having a “personal vendetta” in remarks to the New Jersey Globe.
“[The indictment] regurgitates materials that have been investigated by multiple law enforcement agencies over the past six years, all of which resulted in non-prosecution,” he reportedly said.
Norcross is the latest member of New Jersey’s powerful political machine system to face legal troubles in a longstanding conflict between homegrown Democrat machine leaders and a new class of progressive, mostly out-of-state elites, many of them with ties to the investment bank Goldman Sachs. With their own money, out-of-state millionaires do not have to depend on power brokers like Norcross for campaign funds, making them a formidable threat to the century-old political machine system.
Between the two, former governor Jon Corzine, a longtime Goldman Sachs banker, and Murphy, who spent two decades at the banking firm, have governed the state for a decade. Corzine actively implemented measures to limit the power of local Democrats, most prominently a ban on multiple office holding, a practice in which mayors or other local officials were also allowed to represent their constituencies in the New Jersey Legislature. Forcing officials directly accountable to those they live around out of the legislature created a larger gap between Trenton’s elites and the rest of the state, and thereby weakened local bosses.
Murphy, notably, organized the task force responsible for investigating tax incentive schemes that ultimately led to the Norcross indictment. He has also led the state’s Democrats through the other major political controversy to hit New Jersey Democrats this year, the indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) on corruption charges. Menendez’s legal woes prompted Democrats to seek a replacement, setting off another political battle between the ultimate winner, Democrat nominee Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), and Murphy’s wife, Tammy, whose brazen attempt to seize the nomination disgusted many local Democrats.
Sen. Menendez is reportedly running for reelection as an independent, threatening the Democrats after an especially bitter primary.
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