George Geist

There is little doubt that over the last thirty years, George Norcross has become enormously successful, powerful and wealthy -- as a businessman and as the South Jersey Democratic boss.  Yesterday, Commerce Bank announced that they had been sold to a Toronto for $8.5 billion -- and that they are selling their politically powerful insurance business to Norcross in a private transaction.  Some Norcross trivia: he started out as a staffer, working in the district legislative office of Ernest Schuck, a Democratic Assemblyman from Camden in the late 1970's.  Norcross worked on Schuck's 1977 re-election campaign when he beat 25-year-old law student George Geist, and then played a major role in a $5 million campaign to oust Geist from the State Senate 26 years later.

Democrat Fred Madden unseated an incumbent Republican State Senator four years ago by just 64 votes after the Camden County Democrats spend nearly $5 million on his campaign.

Now, Madden is unopposed in his bid for re-election to a second term. His Republican opponent, former Gloucester Township GOP Chairman John Jankowski, dropped out of the race on June 24, and so far, no new challenger her emerged.

District 1: Incumbent Nicholas Asselta (R) vs. Assemblyman Jefferson Van Drew (D)

District 2: Incumbent William Gormley (R) vs. Assemblyman James Whelan (D)

District 3: Incumbent Stephen Sweeney (D) vs. former Senator Raymond Zane (R)

District 4: Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D) vs. former Senator George Geist (R)

District 7: Incumbent Diane Allen (R) vs. Assembly Deputy Executive Director Troy Singleton (D)

District 11: Assemblyman Steve Corodemus (R) vs. Corzine Deputy Chief of Staff Maggie Moran (D)

District 12: Incumbent Ellen Karcher (D) vs. Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck (R)

District 13: Incumbent Joseph Kyrillos (R) vs. 9/11 Victims activist Kristin Breitweiser (D)

District 14: Incumbent Peter Inverso (R) vs. Hamilton Mayor Glen Gilmore (D)

District 36: Incumbent Paul Sarlo (D) vs. former Assembly Majority Leader Paul DiGaetano (R)

There is considerable speculation among Democrats that State Senator Frederick Madden will not seek re-election to a second term in 2007 and that Assemblyman Paul Moriarty will run for the fourth district Senate seat.

Madden, a former Acting State Police Superintendent, entered politics in 2003 when he defeated GOP incumbent George Geist by just 63 votes out of more than 41,000 cast in one of the most expensive legislative campaigns in state history.

Some insiders believe that Geist, now a state Administrative Law Judge, is actively mulling a possible bid for his old seat. Sources say that Geist, who served in the Legislature from 1992 to 2004, could be the beneficiary of a coalition of labor unions and North Jersey Democrats who are offering to raise money for a Geist campaign.

Moriarty, a former consumer affairs reporter for a Philadelphia network television station, entered politics in 2004 when he upset incumbent Washington Township Mayor Randee Davidson in the Democratic primary. He won an Assembly seat in 2005 when incumbent Robert Smith declined to seek re-election.