Who Funds George Norcross: An Exposé and A Short Training!

On Monday, May 12, 2025, there was an event at Ramblewood Country Club in Mt. Laurel that was identical to ones I’ve seen far too many times in the past. Party boss George Norcross called all his machine underlings to him, requiring $3500 per person in tribute money. Among those who came to kiss the ring and donate to George’s Super PAC, American Representative Democracy, was NJ Governor Phil Murphy. As a reminder, George recently beat RICO charges but there’s appeal of that ruling underway.

Members of South Jersey Progressive Democrats rallied outside the event in protest as we’ve done in the past. With signs and chants, we reminded our elected officials that we were watching and that they should be serving us, their constituents, not the party boss who rewards their fealty by keeping them in office.

George Norcross has two Super PACs– General Majority and American Representative Majority. What does George do with his Super PAC money? He puts out racist mailers. He pays his personal political bully, Steve Ayscue, to harass women online. He funds phantom candidates. In this current primary election, George’s PACs have put out attack mailers against two challenger candidates in LD4 and LD8. These aren’t the only Norcross organizations that put out dishonest attacks in this election. The Camden County Democratic Committee and the Camden City Democratic Committee are both in the business of churning out lies against anti-machine candidates. And it’s the same cast of characters donating to all of these entities– these committees and PACs. The common denominator is George. They exist to protect and advance George’s interests.

While we were standing outside the country club, passersby stopped to chat and expressed their disgust with George Norcross and his role in South Jersey politics. We thought perhaps we were going to be kicked off the property when a club country employee came running over but instead, she asked if she could take our photo because we wanted to send it to her grandmother who, she said, would be so happy were standing there in protest.

It was easy to tell which cars driving in were just regular people and which were machine underlings arriving with their tribute money. We watched with revulsion as a multitude of luxury cars pulled in and our elected officials stepped out. Here’s who we saw in attendance that night, there to pledge loyalty and pay George an enormous sum:

• All the Camden County Commissioners– Jeff Nash, Lou Cappelli, Ed McDonnell, Jonathan Young, Al Dyer, Virginia Betteridge, and the newly shuffled in Jen Fleisher
• Merchantville Councilman Ray Woods
• Moorestown Mayor Quinton Law
• Collingswood Democratic Municipal Chair Tim Farrow
• Newly shuffled in Camden County Clerk Pam Lampitt
• LD3 Assemblywoman Heather Simmons
• LD4 State Senator Paul Moriarty
• LD6 Assemblyman Lou Greenwald and newly shuffled in Assemblywoman Melinda Kane
• The entire LD5 delegation– Senator Nilsa Cruz Perez, Assemblyman Bill Moen, and Assemblyman Bill Spearman
• LD8 Assemblywoman Andrea Katz

At the Camden County Commissioners’ meeting a few days later, I told them that I saw them at the event and that I was disgusted by their show of fealty to George, a man who has undermined South Jersey democracy for so long, in so many ways. I asked what they thought their money was going towards. Didn’t it bother them that George’s PACs engage in ugly campaign tactics, that his PACs proliferate lies across the region, and that George’s mudslinging always seems to zero in on women, people of color, and especially women of color? Did they mean to be funding racism, sexism, and lies in our politics? The Camden County Commissioners mostly looked sheepishly away and murmured that they didn’t really know what their dollars were funding.

Their feigned ignorance was–and is! — galling, not just from the perspective of accountability and ethics though of course that’s the most glaring concern. George’s PACs exist to do harm to his opponents and undermine the integrity of our elections (in fact, he changed the name of one of his PACs from American Democratic Majority to American Representative Majority to engage in a phantom candidate ploy). Generally speaking, George’s enemies are people like me who oppose corruption, care about their communities, and want a better, more just South Jersey. That elected officials are tithing their dollars to lies and dirty tactics raises questions about their individual ethics. At best, it suggests they are willing to keep their heads down and look away just to have a role inside the machine.

But at that Camden County Commissioners meeting, Camden activist Frank Santos pointed out another glaring problem with these hefty donations to George’s PACs and that problem is their elitism. To paraphrase Frank, machine politicians apparently have enough money to just hand over $3500 to George, no questions asked, while regular people are struggling to afford to take their kids to skate zone.

His comment resonated with me. As a single mom of two who works for a nonprofit, I’d love to be able to write a check for $3500 to PBS or to Planned Parenthood or to organizations devoted to helping unhoused people. But unlike machine electeds, I don’t just have that kind of money lying around. I guess that the Camden County Commissioners and I are living very different lives and if their lives include the ability to cut a check of that size for George, well, I have to wonder if they can understand my life and the lives of those grappling with real economic need.

I believe it’s important to keep an eye on who donates to George, a man who has doled out public tax dollars to his friends, who is a close associate with Donald Trump, and has echoed his political beliefs. Super PAC money is not easy to find. You can find campaign donation records for NJ candidates on NJ ELEC and federal candidates on the FEC website. But to delve into George’s Super PAC donation records, you have to poke around on the IRS website. Someone taught me how to do this once so I’d like to pay it forward.

Want to know who donates to George’s PACs? Start here, at this IRS link to search political organization filings: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/political-organizations/political-organization-filing-and-disclosure From there, scroll halfway down the page and click on “ Search Political Organization Disclosures.” On the next page, check all the boxes for the listed forms. For the “name of organization,” you can use General Majority (George’s original PAC), American Democratic Majority, or American Representative Majority (the name he switched to after phantom antics). From there, you will see links to various reports. Poke around. Keep digging. Share your findings. And don’t forget to pay this knowledge forward. To get a real democracy in Camden County, we need to wake up a lot of people. Let’s do that work together in solidarity! Together, we can dismantle this racist, sexist, elitist political machine!