Nice Start

3 months ago, I noted that the end of the party line on the ballot in New Jersey, and thought that this would go a long way toward ending the corrupt party machines in the Garden State.

Here is another, potential more significant data point, South Jersey political boss George Norcross has been charged with corruption and racketeering.

It is inevitable that this would happen once their power receded below a certain level, that is what happens with political machines:

George E. Norcross III, the towering figure who has led South Jersey’s Democratic political machine for more than a quarter century, was charged Monday in a sweeping racketeering case alleging that he and key allies used their influence to corruptly acquire tax credits and real estate worth millions while muscling rivals out of the lucrative redevelopment of Camden’s waterfront.

Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin unveiled the 13-count indictment — which also named Norcross’ brother and Mount Laurel-based attorney Philip, their longtime lawyer William Tambussi, and former Camden Mayor Dana Redd as defendants — at a news conference in Trenton while, remarkably, Norcross, sat feet away in the front row,

Platkin accused the group — which he repeatedly referred to as the “Norcross Enterprise” — of hijacking a 2013 state tax credit program designed to encourage development in poorer communities and using it to line their own pockets instead. They maintained their control, he said, through coercion, extortion and threats.

………

That Norcross — a Camden County native, insurance executive, philanthropist, former co-owner of The Inquirer, and chair of Cooper University Health Care, a major hospital network — had found himself on the wrong end of a criminal indictment represented the latest sign of trouble for the machine-style politics that have governed New Jersey for years.

Recent months have also seen the indictment of Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and a court ruling, in March, that struck down the state’s unique ballot design that critics said had long cemented the power of candidates backed by party bosses.

………

Monday’s indictment came after a yearslong investigation and just days after Platkin’s office announced separate charges against two Norcross allies on the board of the South Jersey Transportation Authority accused of abusing their positions to exact revenge against one of his political rivals. Though Norcross was referenced in charging documents in that case as a “South Jersey Democratic Party Leader,” that indictment did not identify him by name, accuse him of any wrongdoing, or charge him with a crime.

The case unveiled Monday, however, means that Norcross will now face the threat of prison, if he is convicted, and a messy court battle that could tarnish both his legacy and the narrative he has built around himself as a white knight bringing back Camden from decades of poverty and financial disinvestment.

………

Prosecutors say that Norcross and his brother Philip helped shape the legislation that created the program and sought to tailor it to their benefit. In a meeting, Norcross told a group of allies the tax legislation was “for our friends,” according to the indictment.

 Here is hoping that he goes to trial, and then spends years, if not decades, in jail.