Bare-knuckle Jersey politics bared

Profane, boastful and sure of his power, one of the state's most formidable political bosses can be heard proclaiming his influence over everything that moves in New Jersey politics, from U.S. senators to lowly local officials, in a series of secret recordings released yesterday.

In a rare unguarded dialogue on backroom politics Jersey-style, Democratic power broker George Norcross III tells a councilman in South Jersey that he can call the shots from behind the scenes.

"I'm not going to tell you this to insult you, but in the end, the McGreeveys, the Corzines, they're all going to be with me," Norcross said on the tape. "Not that they like me, but because they have no choice."

Norcross bragged about his political connections to former Gov. James E. McGreevey and U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine at a Jan. 3, 2001, meeting secretly taped by then-Palmyra Councilman John Gural. He told Gural that he'd had breakfast at Corzine's home the morning before and spoke with the newly elected senator once a week. In the conversation, Norcross sought to persuade Gural to help him sabotage the career of a political rival.

The tape offered a glimpse into the bare-knuckle politicking that has almost become a cliché in New Jersey. In a series of rambling conversations, Norcross brags of helping the Assembly Budget Committee chairman win a lucrative private job and tells of threatening another assemblyman not to "make nice" with a rival Democratic leader. He discusses the politics of awarding municipal contracts, saying: "There's nothing wrong with considering if you can help a friend ... as long as a friend's doing a good job."

The recordings were made secretly by Gural in cooperation with a state investigation into political corruption. Gural, now mayor of Palmyra, wore a wire every day for two months in 2000-2001 as investigators amassed more than 330 hours of recordings. Their probe ended in February, without any indictments of public officials.

A small sampling of the tapes -- 117 minutes of conversation, mainly between Gural and Norcross -- was released by the Attorney General's Office even as it won an appeals court order to delay releasing the rest. The state argued those should not be made public until they can be edited to protect "innocent third parties" and avoid revealing "investigative techniques," but decided to release the Norcross portions because he requested it.

Gural has long claimed that the tapes would show that Norcross was behind a series of threats and bribes to force him to vote against reappointing Ted Rosenberg, a local lawyer and political rival, as the Palmyra borough solicitor. But Norcross has said they would prove he did nothing illegal.

"The tapes show that Mr. Gural and Mr. Rosenberg invented, fabricated and lied in all their wild accusations," Bill Tambussi, a lawyer for Norcross, said last night. "Otherwise, the only other truth they document is that Mr. Norcross has fought to strengthen the Democratic Party and to advocate for South Jersey."

Gural, however, complained yesterday that the Attorney General's Office didn't release enough of the tapes to make sense of the conversations with Norcross.

The tapes are "a bunch of disconnected dialogue," Gural said last night. "There's no context."

Gural said the context lies in other recordings he made of his employers at JCA Associates, a politically connected engineering firm. Gural claimed that his bosses, under pressure from Norcross, threatened to fire him unless he voted against Rosenberg.

"They threatened my livelihood. They said if I didn't do what they told me to do I was fired," Gural said last night. "I believe the quid pro quo is obvious when all of the conversations fit into the dialogue."

Tapes and transcripts released yesterday covered five meetings or phone conversations between Gural and Norcross. The longest was a 90-minute meeting on Jan. 3 at Norcross' office in Cherry Hill, also attended by JCA president Mark Neisser.

At that meeting, Norcross told Gural he wanted Rosenberg out, complaining about Rosenberg's vocal opposition to a judicial appointment Norcross had helped engineer for former Burlington County Democratic Party head John Harrington.

"I want you to fire that (expletive) ... you need to get rid of this (expletive) Rosenberg for me and teach this (expletive) a lesson," Norcross said.

Norcross, an executive with Commerce Bank in charge of its insurance division, has never held elected office but has served as backroom adviser to a dozen of the state's top politicians, including McGreevey.

He played a key role in selecting both the Speaker and Majority Leader of the state Assembly; selecting county executives in New Jersey's two biggest counties; and, most recently, securing the Democratic gubernatorial nomination for Corzine. Dozens of elected officials in Trenton owe their political careers to the influence and money Norcross wields.

Former Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli said he never made a major decision in office without bouncing it off Norcross.

"George Norcross is a cornerstone of anything that is built in New Jersey of any substantial magnitude," Torricelli said. "George has money and influence and respect."

Norcross keeps a low profile, preferring to operate behind the scenes. However, in the tapes he is often profane, ruthless and happy to let Gural know just how much influence he has. His boasting goes all the way to the upper echelons of state politics, including his breakfast with Corzine.

Corzine declined to respond to Norcross' taped comments. "We haven't seen the transcripts. We will be happy to comment when we do," said Corzine's campaign spokeswoman Ivette Mendez.

At one point during a Jan. 3 meeting, Norcross suggested that he helped Assembly Budget Chairman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden) get a job with Remington & Vernick, an engineering firm with extensive government contracts.

Norcross said the firm had lost business in South Jersey and "realized they needed to create some good will, so they made Lou an offer he couldn't turn down."

Asked if Greenwald, a lawyer, was going to do marketing, Norcross laughed and said, "Oh, what else would it be. He'll probably tell you he's counsel. No, I'm sure he'll do some legal work for him, but it's gonna be a joke."

He added, "He doesn't like practicing law ... no, never did."

Greenwald could not be reached for comment last night.

At another point, Norcross said that the only reason Democratic Assemblymen Herb Conaway and Jack Conners got elected was "because nobody thought that anybody could win that year and they just threw these two boobs up."

Norcross said he kept Conaway on a tight leash. He said that one day he "sat him down" to warn him he'd better not "make nice" with then-Assembly Minority Leader Joseph Doria, who led an opposing Democratic faction.

"I'll tell you, if you ever do that and I catch you one more time doing it, you're gonna get your (expletive) cut off," Norcross said he told Conaway. "He got the message." Neither Conaway nor Conners could be reached for comment last night.

Later in the conversation Norcross boasted that Doria and acting Gov. Richard Codey, then a senator, were "furious" over an unspecified deal "that we cut with McGreevey because they viewed it as we got the world and they got (expletive). And the reality is they did. Tough luck."

When the conversation turned to Rosenberg, Norcross pressed Gural to vote for his ouster, saying it was crucial to driving out "extremists" from the Democratic Party. Later Gural asked for Norcross' help in getting appointed to the board of elections. Norcross said he would try to help. But a quid pro quo was never mentioned.

In another telephone conversation about two weeks later, Norcross apologized to Gural for not following up, and asked if he'd spoken to Burlington County Democratic Chairman Louis Gallagher. Gural said he had, but was told it was "too late in the game" because the board of elections position was filled.

"All right, so what else can he do to be helpful?" Norcross asked.

Gural said he planned to have lunch with Gallagher, and Norcross said that's good but added, "I wanna stay in the background." At a different point in the conversation, Norcross reiterated that "we need to get rid of Rosenberg" and said he wanted nothing more than a strong Burlington County party.

The only convictions to stem from the probe were guilty pleas by Neisser and two other JCA officers to minor tax offenses, for trying to disguise $100,000 of printing work for local Democrats as a business expense. All three paid fines and were given probation.