New Jersey’s Uni-Government – Republican Governor Christie’s alliance with Democratic Party power brokers – has run the table in Trenton for the past two years.
It is the source of Christie’s “bipartisan” success. It has also maintained a rare period of detente between the Democratic factions in the northern and southern parts of the state.
That axis of pragmatic power ground out another long-sought byproduct Wednesday, a sweeping plan to restructure New Jersey’s university system, which includes a valuable prize for South Jersey Democratic kingpin George Norcross, whom many consider one of the most powerful, unelected charter members of the Uni-Government.
The plan calls for a dramatic upgrade turning Rowan University, once a sleepy teacher’s college in Glassboro, into a thriving South Jersey public research university.
Under the plan, Rowan would take over Rutgers University-Camden, which means Rowan gets its law school, business school and its Camden campus. Those new assets would join the Rowan roster just as it prepares to launch a medical school affiliated with the Camden-based Cooper University Health System. Norcross is chairman of Cooper’s board of trustees.
But South Jersey’s gain is also North and Central Jersey’s loss, which could threaten the delicate Uni-Government balance that exerts itself in the Legislature. Under the plan, the Newark-based University of Medicine and Dentistry would be dismantled, with some its properties spun off to operate autonomously, and others consolidated under the name New Jersey Health Sciences University. The state would retain control of University Hospital, but through a yet-to-be-named partnership with a private firm.
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