"I've never seen him," said one of the hecklers, a city firefighter who declined to give his name. "Everything that happens here, he's involved somehow."
Mostly out of public view, Norcross has in the last two decades created a Democratic Party empire in South Jersey that has become the stuff of legend, a political machine that has made or destroyed many an elected official's career.
But his decision to emerge this year and openly back issues that have riled his party's allies - teachers and other public workers' unions - has incited strong reactions, with union officials and Republicans using his name as a rallying cry against all that they perceive is wrong in state politics.
This summer, Norcross surprised many people by coming out in support of the charter school movement, cutting government worker benefits, and regionalizing New Jersey's small-town police departments.
He has been careful to state that he is speaking as chairman of Cooper, concerned about the city that surrounds it, not as a Democratic leader.
But the unusual sight of his distinctive white crop of hair in the public sphere - including not long ago at a news conference in Cinnaminson - has prompted a feeding frenzy.
In June, the New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union, ran television ads suggesting that Norcross had talked an ally, State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), into rewriting pension and health-benefits rules for government workers to somehow benefit Norcross' Marlton insurance brokerage, Conner Strong & Buckelew.
Now the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police's president, Ed Brannigan, has joined the fray, calling the plan to take over Camden's police force a plot orchestrated by Norcross to destroy the unions.
