Law vs. Norcross: 'David and Goliath,' except David lost

Alex Law was still too young to serve in Congress when he started running for it in 2014 - a year and a half before he turned 25 in March. And then he got clobbered in Tuesday's Democratic primary.

Unlike his First Congressional District opponent, U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, the brash NYU grad from Voorhees possessed neither a political resumé nor a political machine.

But Law, with a face made for Facebook, quickly became a savvy and sassy presence on social media. He refused to shut up, publishing anti-Norcross screeds on platforms such as the Huffington Post. And he wouldn't go away.

"We certainly rattled the machine," Law said Wednesday after picking up "some nice stationery" for writing thank-you letters to supporters.

There indeed were a few bright spots on a voting map otherwise littered with defeats for the cheeky upstart. He upset Norcross in Collingswood, Haddon Township, Haddonfield, and Laurel Springs (while losing badly in Camden, Cherry Hill, Gloucester Township, and his hometown).

Against the get-out-the-vote armada deployed by the South Jersey Democratic organization that boss George Norcross (Donald's big brother) has polished to a ferocious gleam, Law says, he mustered a mostly youthful cadre of volunteers.

"It was a David and Goliath scenario," says Eileen Cannon, at 59 one of the older volunteers. She and her husband, Michael, hosted a gathering for Law at their home in Laurel Springs early in his campaign.

"Of course there's disappointment," she says. "But we put Norcross on notice. There were [more than] 20,000 votes against him. That's not insignificant."

Unlike Cannon, many members of Camp Alex were not old enough to cast a vote themselves. One key supporter had to go back to grad school, leaving "an inner circle of about six of us," campaign director Max Young said.

"We raised about $70,000," added Young, 27. "We didn't have money for polling."

On election night, as grim and grimmer vote totals lit up the laptops at Law's funky Haddon Township headquarters - hand-lettered signs on the walls, nerdy/cool kids poring over screens - it seemed unlikely such a modest operation could scare a mighty machine.

But I'm told the party establishment noticed that Law, initially regarded as a mere nuisance, was starting to pick up steam. Not enough to win, mind you, but if it were to continue, he might have reduced Norcross's victory margin enough to complicate a future campaign by the incumbent - say, for U.S. Senate.

The brothers Norcross can hardly be unaware that some of their constituents believe the worst about the machine - seeing its hand even in an eleventh-hour debate cancellation that may well have had more to do with Law's overzealousness than anything.

"They brought their full political might to [bear] against me," Law said. "But we have changed the nature of the dialogue about the machine. People are going to feel more comfortable speaking up and pushing back."

Then again, the generally gentlemanly Jim Beach, the Camden County party chairman, sounded downright Goodfella-ish at the festive Norcross victory shindig Tuesday.

"If you come after one of us," he told the cheering crowd, "you come after all of us."

OK, Beach and the gang were swept away by the excitement of the moment.

"Donald ran hard," a campaign spokesman says. "That's the only way he knows how do it."

Indeed, to his credit, the incumbent hit the streets and even knocked on doors (a time-tested move that got Law some early press).

His campaign cranked up the money machine, spending at least $1 million to retain a seat the party has held with near-effortless ease for decades.

The machine also deployed endorsements from President Obama, Sen. Cory Booker, and former Gov. Jim Florio. (Pope Francis and Oprah Winfrey didn't get the memo, apparently.)

Assiduously if not obsessively covering every imaginable base, the campaign distributed a "special message from Clinton and Sanders supporters" dually signed by the respected New Jersey political operatives Bill Caruso (Sanders) and Karin Elkis (Clinton), who co-branded Law as a potential "disaster" in Congress.

And the campaign unleashed a flood of puerile but quite possibly effective nastygrams and mailers that Photoshopped, colorized, and mischaracterized Law as dangerously soft on, if not sympathetic to, terrorists.

Really?

"We cracked open the machine and showed everyone the guts of it," Law declared. "And it's really unpleasant."

That's a hyperbolic characterization at which generations of Democrats loyal to the machine - these folks are our neighbors, after all - would bristle.

But the truth is that the smart, earnest, sometimes abrasive but consistently focused Law ran a feisty (if flawed) campaign that struck a chord.

Particularly with younger voters with no allegiance to or affection for old-school political machinations.

"Obviously, my heart's in politics," Law says. "I can't imagine leaving it for very long."

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