2011 Power List and Year in Review - PolitickerNJ.com

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year in review 2011
Winner of the Year
George Norcross
South Jersey Democratic Leader
South Jersey political boss and insurance
executive George Norcross had a good year. As
if he needed it.
The power player with the loyal Democratic
following maintained his control of the Senate
via Senate President and childhood friend Steve
Sweeney and barged his way into the assembly
leadership structure by shoehorning Assemblyman
Lou Greenwald into the mix, in the process
ousting rival and resident pea under the King’s
mattress Joe Cryan.
His most critical victories started early in
the year when several loyalists ended up on the
redistricting commission that likely awarded
control of the legislature to the Democratic
Party for the next ten years. The Democrats’ use
of Norcross counsel Bill Castner as the caucus’s
legal brain proved an excellent choice when it
came to driving arguments with tiebreaking Redistricting
Commissioner Prof. Alan Rosenthal,
who decided in the Democrats’ favor.
Not only did the new map enable Norcross to
dominate on Election Day, as his entire South
Jersey stable of politicians won their races, it
also allowed him to strengthen his hand with the
pick-up of a seat in the 4th Legislative District.
Most impressively, Norcross also played the
lead role in securing the votes necessary for
Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-34) to return to her
chair of power for another two years.
Wobbling in the face of a determined challenge
from Assembly Majority Leader Cryan
(D-20), Essex County and Oliver looked
to Norcross for help. Democrats in Passaic,
Middlesex and Bergen counties waited for a
sign that the battle leaned toward Cryan or
Oliver before deciding who to back.
Wanting to preserve his alliance with Essex
County Executive Joe DiVincenzo in large part
to maintain South Jersey’s control of the state
Senate, Norcross prepared to deliver 13 South
Jersey delegation members to Oliver.
But the speaker would need more than the
Norcross contingent to make up for a divided
delegation in her home county of Essex.
Norcross went to powerful state Sen. Nick
Sacco (D-32), who in exchange for a Hudson
seat in Assembly leadership, agreed to lower
his heel on a Cryan-led insurrection that would
have supported the majority leader over Oliver
for speaker.
Sacco’s five Hudson votes for Oliver showed
strength for her return to the speakership,
swung the rest of the delegation into the Oliver
camp and doomed Cryan’s chances at unseating
his rival.
A relieved Essex County DiVincenzo wing
of the party made the case in the aftermath that
Essex remains king as a generator of Democratic
Party votes. But the stealth-like role Norcross
played on Oliver’s behalf enabled him at the end
of the battle to rightly declare the most definitive
backroom victory.
Loser of the Year
Joe Cryan
As the former state Democratic Party
chairman, Cryan built a fierce fan club among
Democratic rank and file, particularly the
“working men and women” of organized labor.
It would not overstate matters to say that
the Assembly Majority Leader was beloved
among his base political backers.
In June, Cryan very publicly denounced
his own party leadership, accusing them
of selling out their labor base. But Cryan’s
voice, while loud, went unheard as Democrats
joined Republicans in enacting pension
and benefit legislation that vastly altered the
labor relations dynamic in New Jersey.
The June legislative policy loss set Cryan
up for his inevitable last stand. Knowing
Democrats led by the Norcross/DiVincenzo
wing of the party would strip him of his assembly
majority leadership powers in part
for being on the wrong side of the pen/ben
issue, Cryan counter-attacked by challenging
DiVincenzo’s speaker, Sheila Oliver.
From the outset, Cryan knew the intersection
of public work and elected office was too
compelling, and Norcross’s and DiVincenzo’s
control of that crossroads too great, to win.
But rather than yield, he fought anyway,
contributing heavily to competitive campaigns
and relentlessly working caucus
members for their support.
His main pitch was that caucus Democrats
had to define their arguments more dramatically
against Christie rather than satisfy
themselves with the pre-brokered deals
handed down by Essex, South Jersey and the
front office.
Employed as a public sector Union County
undersheriff who once served as Jon Corzine’s
main attack dog, Cryan had little ability
from the beginning to work with Christie,
who stewed over the Democrat’s campaign
trail invective. As such, he knew he might
not be the best messenger for the overthrow,
and entertained the idea that one of his core
caucus allies - John McKeon, Valerie Huttle
or Jason O’Donnell - might prove a better
alternative speaker candidate.
But in the end, when Norcross and his allies
routed his forces, destroyed the rebellion,
and looked to mete out punishment, Cryan,
onetime statewide power player, headed wearily
for the back bench.
The most willing fighter, the highest level
and most vocal champion, fell the farthest
and bore the worst wounds of his fight.
28 PolitickerNJ