Brawl among N.J. Democrats emphasizes North-South rift

The harshest and most surprising attack yet in what is unfolding as an ugly North-South war within the New Jersey Democratic Party was launched last week when the mayor of Jersey City leveled an extraordinary public broadside against his party's top kingmaker, George E. Norcross III.

Steve Fulop, who has gubernatorial ambitions, charged that Norcross, a "nonelected official" and "non-registered lobbyist," inappropriately wields power over elected lawmakers.

That sentiment is shared among some lawmakers, but typically discussed only in hushed tones in the halls of the Statehouse.

"The problem with people like George: They think they can just jump in people's faces and get the folks who get elected to rubber-stamp their stuff," said State Sen. Ron Rice (D., Essex).

With Democrats dominating New Jersey's political landscape, a rift within their ranks can send shock waves far beyond the party.

The dustup punctuated a head-spinning week in Trenton, where Assembly lawmakers showed up for, but then did not vote on, Speaker Vincent Prieto's Atlantic City aid bill.

If Fulop was trying to rally lawmakers behind Prieto (D., Hudson), he failed. In a rare development, Prieto was forced to cancel a vote on his own bill because it did not have enough support.

That left one of Fulop's chief rivals in the shadow primary for governor, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), a key Norcross ally, feeling vindicated. Sweeney is championing a rival Atlantic City rescue bill, backed by Gov. Christie, that would enable an immediate state takeover of Atlantic City, something Prieto is resisting.

"This is about a power play, and this is about who controls both the state and the Democratic Party in the years to come," said Patrick Murray, a political analyst at Monmouth University.

"Fulop realizes this is going to be a North-South battle for governor," Murray said.

The mayor is trying to make the case that his candidacy could be a correction to Norcross' influence in Trenton and reassert North Jersey's primacy in the party, after enduring years of Christie's alliance with South Jersey Democrats.

Fulop also foreshadowed his strategy to portray Sweeney, who rose to power under Norcross' tutelage, as the head of the wing of the party aligned with the now-widely unpopular Republican governor.

But some Democrats argued that Fulop was something of an anti-Norcross impostor, because he has earned a reputation for engaging in the same kind of bullying tactics he said Norcross and Christie deploy far too often.

On Tuesday, Fulop, without offering evidence, alleged that "Christie and Norcross" would use, "as they have done in the past, government entities and law enforcement in Trenton to intimidate me" for criticizing Norcross.

His statement repeated three times that Norcross was an "insurance broker," and argued that Norcross was involved in the debate over Atlantic City's financial future not to help the city or the state, but to advance the interests of "certain individuals."

Norcross is executive chairman of the insurance brokerage Conner Strong & Buckelew and chairman of the board of trustees of Cooper Health System.

Fulop's gambit could backfire.

"It sounds like it came from the Weedman rather than from Fulop," said State Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak (D., Union), referring to Ed Forchion, the outspoken marijuana advocate who goes by the moniker "NJ Weedman."

"Just absolute ranting of someone who was out of control. It was shocking, quite frankly. Very juvenile," said Lesniak, who is also considering running for governor.

While Lesniak said Fulop had raised "legitimate complaints" about Norcross' influence that were "shared by a lot of people," the senator took issue with Fulop's "reciting rumor and innuendo about moneymaking and abuse of prosecution." (Lesniak said he does not personally harbor concerns about Norcross' influence.)

Fulop already has given North Jersey political players and labor leaders pause for backpedaling on his support for a constitutional amendment that would authorize the construction of new casinos beyond Atlantic City. The question will appear on November's ballot.

And in response to Fulop's remarks, Norcross responded that perhaps the mayor was simply upset that Norcross had rejected his entreaties for an endorsement in 2017. It's difficult to be the anti-Norcross if you seek Norcross' endorsement.

Fulop said that wasn't true, but perception often is reality in politics, and Norcross' riposte could give power-brokers opposed to Norcross second thoughts about Fulop. One potential alternative candidate could be Phil Murphy, the former Goldman Sachs executive and U.S. ambassador to Germany.

When a reporter suggested that the "undercurrent" of Fulop's statement was that Norcross was seeking to take control of Atlantic City for profit, Sweeney rejected the notion that Norcross held such motivation and spoke instead of "all the patronage" in Fulop's administration.

Fulop moved from City Council to the mayor's office in 2013 by ousting Jerramiah Healy, an entrenched machine politician.

While he has embraced a progressive agenda - mandating earned sick leave, for example - Fulop has also awarded contracts to politically connected firms and, according to the Newark Star-Ledger, hired people such as the stepdaughter of a former state party chairman to work as a research assistant.

Perhaps the greatest irony is that one of the mayor's top advisers is former Gov. Jim McGreevey, who was felled by patronage and a sex scandal, and who regretted in a book that as governor he had allowed himself to be co-opted by political bosses, whom he called "warlords."

And Fulop faced backlash from black leaders, including Rice, when the mayor last year criticized a black Hudson County freeholder as "disloyal" when the freeholder's wife took a job with Sweeney. Fulop had helped elect the freeholder.

Despite the missteps, Fulop enjoys support in the Legislature.

"He's a newcomer. He's a newbie. I think he is a very young and bright and ambitious mayor. I don't think there's anything wrong with that," said Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D., Essex), a former Assembly speaker who was ousted from that job, in part by Norcross. "If we look across the state, there's a generational shift in leadership. I view it as, it's time for the millennials. But the millennials have a lot of good skill sets but they lack wisdom and life experience."

Asked about Fulop's criticism of Norcross, she said lawmakers could not "negate the contribution" that "private-sector leaders" make to the state. "And I guess, from their point of view, they have a right to be engaged in public policy discussions."

But, she added, "many times these external influences do not need to become injected into our deliberations down here."

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