Camden Mayor Frank Moran

“This is a warning to anyone that wishes to diss my city,” and “We will not tolerate anyone speaking down to my city.” You may recall those were the words of Camden Mayor Frank Moran after a perceived “diss” of the City of Camden by Holtec’s CEO Kris Singh. As has been pointed out in this blog, more than once, Moran has failed to recognize that Congressman Donald Norcross made remarks that backed up Singh’s comments.

Not only has Moran given Norcross a free pass on “dissing” his city, the mayor and congressman stood united at the Camden Working summit on Wednesday. The Courier-Post, noted in an article, “Holtec was conspicuous by its absence from the gathering.”

Of course, Holtec was absent from the Camden Working event, the mayor of the city attacked the company’s CEO because he said something that was so true that the area’s congressman backed up what the CEO said.

Now, I don’t live under a rock, nor am I an idiot, so I get it. Mayor Moran is a Democrat, so is Congressman Norcross and when one chooses to take part in partisan politics one should show party unity at every opportunity. That could be why Mayor Moran displayed a complete lack of a spine and never called out Norcross for his “diss” of Camden’s workforce.

I also understand there are times when rules need to be broken. I was part of Chris Christie ’09. I burned a lot of bridges that may never be repaired doing what needed to be done for then candidate Christie – even “bullying” a party chair into awarding him the line in the primary (that particular chair wanted to go with Steve Lonegan). But when Christie “dissed” South Jersey Republicans I called him out publicly. Some Republicans hated me for it, but it was the right thing to do because if you aren’t willing to stand up to people in your own party you lack credibility when fighting against the other.

Mayor Moran refused to recognize that you need to stand up to members of your own party. Instead he gave Congressman Norcross a free pass and then rubbed salt in the wound by standing with Norcross at the Camden Working summit.

The Courier-Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and South Jersey Times (to a lesser extent) all cover Camden politics and not one of them has called out Moran for not going after Norcross in the same way he attacked Singh. The South Jersey Times went the extra mile and propped up Norcross in an editorial. To me, the local press in South Jersey is part of the problem. If they are willing to join Camden’s mayor in giving the congressman a free pass, why should anyone stand up to fight the machine?

As far as the press is concerned the story is dead. We promised to stay on it and we are doing our best. Unfortunately, the protests are over, the Camden Working summit has passed and everyone in Camden has forgotten their mayor lacked the courage to stand up to one of his fellow Democrats and come election voters of that city will simply vote for Democrats even though that party has failed the city for decades.

The only question left is will Mayor Moran accept my invitation to come on The Bob & Steve Show and explain his double standard?

Frank Moran