Can Norcross pull off South Jersey upsets? He did it 32 years ago

George E. Norcross III has figured out ways to buck the trend before by spending late money – a lot of it – to mount a surprise offensive and win a Senate seat even in a climate that shouldn’t have given him any chance at all.

The story begins in 1988, after Gov. Thomas Kean nominated Norcross’ father, labor leader George Norcross, to a seat on the New Jersey State Racing Commission.

But local politics being what they were, a four-term Republican senator from Camden County, Lee Laskin (R-Cherry Hill), used senatorial courtesy to block his confirmation by the Senate.  With no deal to be made – Laskin, a former Camden prosecutor, was known as a loner in the Senate — Norcross wound up withdrawing.

Three years later, after his son had become the Camden County Democratic Chairman, the family was positioned to seek revenge against Laskin.

Voter anger towards Gov. Jim Florio’s $2.8 billion tax increase made 1991 the most lopsided Republican landslide since 1920 when Warren Harding’s coattails led Assembly Republicans to capture 39 of 40 seats in the lower house.

Republicans picked up ten Senate and 21 seats in the State Assembly, winning in some unlikely places.  The GOP flipped solidly Democratic seats, including the Trenton-based Mercer district, six Middlesex seats, a Paterson Assembly seat, and twelve seats in Bergen.  There was a Republican majority on the Middlesex County Board of Freeholders.

Camden became the outlier.

In the worst possible political environment for Democrats, they regained control of the freeholder board after being in the minority for one year – Jim Beach and Jeff Nash won relatively easily.  Still, they lost three seats in the 4th district.

But the results became remarkedly different in the suburban 6th district seat anchored by Cherry Hill, where Laskin was seeking re-election to a fifth term.

Democrats spent nearly $2 million on the race – a record-setting amount for a State Senate race in those days.   George Norcross III, then 36, personally guaranteed a $250,000 loan for the effort.

Laskin was savaged by a Philadelphia network TV blitz that attacked his mercilessly attacked his ethics.  The ads ran during an Eagles game on Monday Night Football and, during Game 7 of the World Series, and by a stealth campaign that deliberately began late and caught him off guard.

Norcross had said then:  “I don’t like being associated with things that, one, don’t win, and two, are poorly run.”

Democrat John Adler, a 32-year-old lawyer who had served as an interim Cherry Hill councilman, beat Laskin by 6,098 votes, 55%-45%.

“George isn’t going anywhere,” Camden County Clerk Michael Keating told a reporter after the election.  “We win with him.”