Five N.J. governors will stand with Norcross at hospital groundbreaking

Gov. Phil Murphy and four former New Jersey governors will join powerbroker George E. Norcross III at a Cooper University Hospital groundbreaking later this month, a show of public support from some of the state’s elder statesmen as he fights a racketeering indictment filed by Murphy’s attorney general.

Five of the state’s six living former elected governors – Thomas Kean, James E. McGreevey, Jon Corzine, Chris Christie, and Murphy — all but Christine Todd Whitman will be in attendance – will stand with Norcross as the hospital begins constructing its new Health Sciences campus in Camden.

It’s unusual for an incumbent governor – and former governors – to agree to a photo op with a political leader facing criminal allegations.

Norcross and others were charged last June for allegedly establishing a criminal enterprise that used “threats and fear of economic and reputational harm” to obtain lucrative property rights along the Camden waterfront and influencing tailor-made legislation that came with bankable tax breaks for Norcross’ businesses and the non-profit Cooper University Health Care that he runs.

A Superior Court judge will hear a motion to dismiss the 13-count indictment by Norcross and his co-defendants next week.  Norcross’s legal team maintains that no crime has been committed and that the allegedly illegal actions were just routine politics and business.

The state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability claims that Norcross and others agreed to “participate in an enterprise that would achieve its goals through a pattern of racketeering activity—a charge that does not require proving that each one of them personally completed racketeering acts.”