Copyright 2023 My City Paper :: New York City News, Food, Sports and Events. Of Norcross, Rutgers University-Camden history professor Howard Gillette, in his 2005 work Camden After the Fall, wrote: The son of a powerful labor leader, Norcross had worked his way up the system, first by assisting several state legislators including Angelo Errichetti. The Camden County Democratic party has ratcheted down its fund-raising in recent yearsincumbents dont need as much moneybut still ranks fourth among all the counties in the state, and when he wants a race badly enough, he flattens opponents under the heft of cash. That evening we had a dinner meeting with a potential business partner, says Hilferty, and we hear on the radio that Jim has won the primary. Behind all this striving, Norcross has also maintained a network of admirers. No way. Though Norcross was never accused of wrongdoing, the tapes are chilling. 42 (Extensions of Remarks - March 16, 2016)", "George Norcross Jr., Labor And Civic Leader", "Carol C. Norcross, 84, advocate for seniors, matriarch of a powerful South Jersey family", "Norcross to be sworn in to House seat on Wednesday", "Philadelphia Restauranteur Plans to Open Two Restaurants Along Camden Waterfront", "MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper Celebrates Five Years", "Cooper honored for its Veterans VIP program", Partnership of Rowan University and Rutgers-Camden, "George Norcross: The good works of the Dark Lord (Moran)", "U.S. Attorney ends speculation about Norcross", "Attorney Kevin Sheehan is Mentioned in Reference to "Unregistered Lobbying" Found by NJEDA Task Force", "Judge Rules Against George Norcross Efforts to Stop NJEDA Task Force", "Governor's Task Force on EDA Tax Incentives", "George E. Norcross III, Executive Chairman", "South Jersey Democrat is Among the State's Wealthiest; George Norcross III made njbiz.com's list at No. Bill Hankowsky, chairman of the development firm Liberty Property Trust, is slated to receive tax credits well over $500 million commented, George Norcross deserves credit for clearing the way for whats to come with the Waterfront and that their friendship that has spanned decades.. Susan Ann Norcross. The article details that much of the money designated for disbursement is targeted to reward companies that donated to Christies campaigns, the Republican Governors Association while Christie was Chairman or companies with ties to George Norcross III., Norcross, in addition to being the Chairman of Connor, Strong & Buckelew, one of the largest insurance firms in the country, is also the long-serving Chairman of Cooper Hospital that recently received $40 million from the state in 2015 NJEDA funds. Published as Norcrossing the Delaware in the May 2016 issue of Philadelphia magazine. It took one night for the. Did this one signal that Norcross, after spending 30 years methodically taking over the state of New Jersey, was setting his sights on Philadelphia? He called his closest supporters the Can Do Club and lived by high-achiever mantras like Second Place Is First Loser. In a pivotal 1991 election, he worked with TV adman Neil Oxman and paid for $400,000 in commercial spots to dethrone Laskin, an unheard-of move in a state election. Biography. My friend still votes for Democrats, and lately has been lamenting the GOP administration of Gov. $17.99 + $4.99 shipping. But as his career neared its end, in the late 80s, the entire South Jersey region still operated as a kind of beggar in relation to the north. George Norcross, a wealthy insurance executive, has for decades run New Jersey's most vaunted Democratic political machine, a seemingly unstoppable behemoth that carries huge influence over who. According to Vail Daily, Neil's grandfather, John, was a partner in a Denver law firm. We share a bridge. Well, Norcross maintains that he is less involved in politics than he used to be. Its only natural to wonder when my number will come up.. [6], Norcross is a member of the Democratic National Committee. Neil's mom and dad, David Gorsuch and Anne . Norcross has faced criticism for her leadership of the website and background, varying from being hired right after graduating college and possessing zero journalism experience to criticism over news judgment and for directing the website to highlight trashy gossip stories and clickbait over real, local news. The money, however, wasnt used on an election. It is widely suspected that Christie, prior to his run for New Jersey Governor, struck deals with critical Democratic power brokers in the state, Joe DiVincenzo, County Executive of Essex County, and Norcross of South Jersey, to forward his own gubernatorial ambitions. It will be a political firefight. City Paper has not, to be clear, received any complaints about the work ethic of any of the three. And reframing the Camden city police as a county-led force is, he says, designed to save money and free up budgetary room to put more officers on the street. In addition to her parents, Bea is preceded in death by her husband, George Norcross; daughter, Pamela Fleeman and 3 grandchildren. The carpenters likely had their own motives for donating so much cash to the elect-Kenney effort: There are plenty of suburban New Jersey carpenters who work on city construction sites. Paymon Rouhanifard was only thirty-two when he was appointed to Norcross launched the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, which New Jersey Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts praised for its "unflagging commitment to the city,"[20] and helped to facilitate the opening of the MD Anderson Cooper Cancer Center in October 2013. Errichetti had appointed Norcross director of a reconstituted Camden Parking Authority in 1978 when Norcross was only twenty-two. Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Claudia Vargas, in Plan for KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy in Camden approved by state, reported on the political dealings associated in the establishing of KCNA. Soon after Rouhanifard took the helm at Camden, a school district His 17-year-old daughter, Lexie, walks in for dinner with an old family friend, a Camden attorney. The committee was funded by a trio of multimillionaire hedge fund investors who supported controversial education policies: charter expansion and school vouchers. KCNA is situated along the still-developing eds and meds corridor, down the street from the forthcoming Joint Health Services Complex for Rutgers Science and Rowan Medical students, down the street from the Rowan Medical School, and across from Cooper Hospital. For his part, Rouhanifard did facilitate and preside over the establishing of the first renaissance schools and their expansion, as well as initiated the universal enrollment system he referred to in his initial Camden Commitment speech which would be called Camden Enrollment the following year. Further, Norcross began speaking of a then-hypothetical network of charter schools in Camden on account that saving Camden, would require saving its public schools, or at least having educational options open to its families. Norcross also remarked in Fall 2011 regarding Camden education, I think a material change could happen 24-30 months from now. Famously, during the trial of state senator Wayne Bryant, we learned that the State of New Jersey had been doling out what government officials dubbed Norcross Grants. These were discretionary funds to be given to worthy causes. The super PAC paid for TV, radio and mail ads to boost Democratic Assemblymen John . True to form, Norcross has accomplished all this in the dark, granting not a single on-the-record interview about these moves. This is George Norcross were talking about the widely feared, fantastically wealthy all-powerful boss of the South Jersey Democratic Party and when George Norcross wants a meeting, he gets a meeting. When his father died in May 1998, George III found the note in his father's wallet, something the senior Mr. Norcross had presumably been carrying since his son gave it to him about. Norcross not only made calls about the daughters treatment; he showed up at 5 a.m. the morning after the operation to visit the Paolantonios in the intensive care unit. good education was to him and his family, that he went on to graduate from He is a smart, competent man. [25] Norcross was also the subject of a federal investigation in 2016 where his phones were wiretapped. AmeriHealth New Jersey has close ties to George Norcross. George E. Norcross, III (born March 16, 1956) is an American businessman and a Democratic Party organiser and power broker in New Jersey. 1966 WirePhoto Actress Kim . The KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy, a five-school, 2,800-student behemoth to be built on land near Cooper, might stabilize the children and families of an entire neighborhood, Norcross says. Norcross rejects such talk as wild conspiracy theories. But heres the rub: Camden residents have no power with which to reject him. On Oct. 25, AmeriHealth Inc. donated $1 million to the super PAC, which three days later paid back the $950,000 loan. For our first meeting, at Cooper University Hospital, where he is chairman of the board, he dressed in a deep blue suit and French cuffs, his head topped by an avalanche of thick white hair. In as early as 2011, Norcross began giving a series of speeches focusing on education, and on the future of public education in Camden specifically. When Philly.com got word of the three-minute private meeting a few days later and posted a story, it set political insiders buzzing. It didnt matter that when Norcross arrived, Kenney was minutes away from delivering his first speech as the presumptive next mayor of the fifth-biggest city in America. in Tennessee during the 1980s. I think if you know George and you spend time around him, says one longtime friend, attorney Arthur Makadon, its obvious that hes just a man who is looking over his shoulder., George Norcross Jr., whom admirers called Big George and Chief, was a longtime AFL-CIO president. educator, community, and student concerns. His promotion of a biomedical research facility and a closer allegiance between Rutgers and Rowan should yield greater academic status and potentially foster future economic spin-offs. The concert was co-sponsored by a number of entities, including AmeriHealth, which made a contribution to General Majority PAC Convention 2016.. The issue is that he simply holds too much power for any one man, a state of affairs that South Jersey Dems experience intimately, always aware of whos sipping from the trough. Norcross III became Chairman of the Camden County Democratic Association at the age of 32, and through financially backing South Jersey Democratic candidates using a platform of fiscal conservatism combined with social pragmatism, was able to gain influence in democratic circles in the surrounding suburbs as well as in Camden. It was the most expensive senate race in the history of New Jersey, which raises a question: Is this democracyor an auction? I believe in him, but he also needs to believe in us. Five months later, in May 2014 in the same school where he pitched the Camden Commitment to educators and residents, Rouhanifard announced 241 layoffs for Camden schools. Afterward, the registrant suddenly changed to a mysterious company called WWB Holdings, LLC. [15] In September 2015, Norcross was announced as one of the local investors in The Camden Waterfront, a $1 billion development on Camden's waterfront initially developed by Liberty Property Trust and designed by Robert A.M.