Camden County Republicans haven’t had a truly great Election Night in over three decades.
But while no one is predicting county-level gains for the Camden GOP this year, the party is feeling more optimistic than it has in a generation (or two) owing to the fact that the legendary “Norcross Machine” appears to be on the ropes.
Republicans are expected to hold their recent wins in LD1, LD2, and LD8 without much fuss this year, and party leaders are bullish on LD3 and LD4 notwithstanding a withering broadcast television assault financed by a “dark money” group with ties to George Norcross III’s South Jersey Democrat universe.
Four New Jersey towns lie inside LD4 – Chesilhurst, Gloucester Township, Waterford, and Winslow Township – so victory there would mean not just that the Machine is surrounded but also senatorial courtesy in Camden County for Republicans and a major, historic check on Machine power and influence.
The Camco GOP organization is certainly acting like there’s suddenly a wind – or at least a detectable breeze – blowing at its back.
A tangible example: a new mailer which hit Camden County voters’ mailboxes on Saturday and today (Monday 10/16) – see stage right – which juxtaposes Senator Bob Menendez’s well-publicized corruption prosecution with a recently reported N.J. Attorney General and FBI probe into Norcross-related influence on the Camden City development scene.
While there’s no reported link between Menendez’s woes and this latest George Norcross storyline (and no alleged direct link to the brother in Congress, Donald, for that matter, other than his representation of Camden on Capitol Hill), the Camco GOP is apparently happy to initiate a discussion concerning the long-time Democrat Machine boss’s alleged role in the state’s notorious culture of systemic political corruption.
“Menendez is going down. Is Norcross Next?” the mailer asks. “Is this the end of the Norcross Machine?”
Whether the Machine is truly reaching its “end” is impossible to predict.
But the Camco GOP wasn’t just happy to drop this mailer. It feels liberated to do so which is the real story here, Save Jerseyans. No Camden County Republican wouldn’t dreamed of doing this before since the tentacles of the Democrat operation reach into many facets of South Jersey life, both political and non-political.
The Tom Crone-era county party isn’t worried about poking the bear because they think the bear’s electoral days are numbered, or at least that the bear isn’t nearly as ferocious as he used to be. If Crone’s party did, then this mailer wouldn’t never seen the light of day.
