Freshman activist and senior Democrat George Norcross III talked education reform Wednesday at New Jersey's Rider University, and the atmosphere was … collegial.
"George gave a long spiel, and he got applause," one of the 100-plus people in attendance told me. "There were no outbursts, no 'gotcha' questions."
With its focus on society's most precious assets – kids, money and power, not necessarily in that order -- education reform is a highly charged topic. And Norcross is a lightning rod no matter what he says or does.
But even the New Jersey Education Association, whose recent TV spots attacked "New Jersey's most powerful political boss" Norcross for alleged cozy-ism with Chris Christie, was conciliatory inside the university's Mercer Hall.
"It matters what he (Norcross) says because he's an influential guy," Vince Giordano, executive director of the statewide teachers' union, told NJ Spotlight. "Hopefully, he'll do what's best for kids."
Surely among the Garden State's most powerful, albeit, unelected, politicos, the long-private Norcross has recently emerged as a very public advocate for a larger private role in education statewide. He supports corporate sponsorship for charter schools and backed recent legislation facilitating the conversion of certain parochial schools into charters.
Support for the latter by Catholic school leaders is underwhelming at best, perhaps the reason Norcross emphasized tenure reform and other broad themes during his Rider appearance.
"It was kind of like a love-fest," said the attendee with whom I spoke. "Too much sugar."
No such sweetness was evident in a fake "press release" previewing Norcross' remarks.
A venomous -- and thoroughly entertaining – screed emailed from "njeducationtruth," the phony release listed Democratic consultant "Steve Asycue" as the contact person.
"They didn't even spell my name right," said the real Ayscue, who called the bogus email a sign of "silly season."