Norcross-linked PAC has spent almost $500,000 boosting Harrison

A super PAC with close ties to South Jersey powerbroker George Norcross has spent nearly half a million dollars to win political science professor Brigid Harrison the Democratic nod in the second congressional district.

According to 24-hour reports the PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission, the General Majority PAC has spent $430,000 on television ads boosting Harrison and $62,706 on negative mailers hitting rival candidate Amy Kennedy.

Those figures are current through July 2, and it’s not clear if the organization has poured additional funds into the race as it entered it final days.

Harrison was backed by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) and six of the second district’s eight Democratic county chairs shortly after announcing her bid for Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s (R-Dennis) seat.

The outside spending provides Harrison’s cash-strapped campaign with a sizeable advantage in the primary’s last week.

Harrison’s campaign had burned through the bulk of its cash reserves by June 17, when she had just $9,776.87 in her war chest to Kennedy’s $236,003.93.

The cash disparity was starker than those numbers suggested. Harrison raised $415,600.69 for her bid against Van Drew, who was elected as a Democrat but defected to the Republican Party in December after losing support from the district’s rank-and-file Democrats over his opposition to impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

Kennedy, meanwhile, had raised about $1.4 million, with much of the money coming from associates of the Kennedy family.