That's probably right. Note that Rutgers-Newark doesn't have an engineering program either, and the consequence no doubt is that they lose students to NJIT across the street.
Bloomfield College Having Financial Trouble
- Thread starter HeavenUniv.
- Start date
Anyone hearing anything about what the Medical Tower by the golf course will be used for once the Medical School moves to New Brunswick ?
There was already an op ed yesterday on NJ.Com complaining that Holloway isn't giving enough attention to RU-Camden. Seems like they're preemptively trying to act on a loss of influence with political power shifting away from Norcross et al.
Interesting that this comes following Holloway's visit.
news.camden.rutgers.edu
News & Events | Rutgers University-Camden
It's the same op-ed, essentially, by the same author. The comments I made above apply.
Not to go current events but the Norcross machine must be crushed that they lost Steve Sweeney. That's gotta hurt. No South Jersey rep in the Trenton Top 3.
Just a reminder that the Norcross machine hates Rutgers for its refusal to make the medical school at Cooper Hospital (run by Norcross) part of Rutgers. That was the motivation for the unsuccessful attempt to take the Camden campus away from Rutgers and give it to Rowan. It is also why Sweeney attacked the governance structure of the university. Sweeney's defeat is good news not only for the campus but for Rutgers as a whole.
They wanted it to be part of RU? I thought they were happy it was Rowan?
I know they were (and are) always looking for a slice of anything going on at RU. So it's definitely good news for RU. Scutari has a master's in education from RU (I can't tell what campus, but I assume NB) and backed a bill to create RU license plates. I don't perceive Coughlin really to be a RU ally but he's Middlesex-based (Woodbridge) and Murphy is a supporter, so hopefully we will see some good things for RU in the next 4 years.
No, they definitely wanted to be part of Rutgers. But the Rutgers administration said "no."I'm don't know why. My guess is that the administration felt that having a medical school in South Jersey would make it harder to get a medical school at New Brunswick. In addition, there are virtually no biomedical departments in Camden, so coordination between medical school related biomedical researchers and the medical school would be difficult. After the effort to take the Camden campus away failed, the Cooper medical school was fable to make an agreement with Rutgers under which a corridor of buildings would be built between the medical school and the Camden campus. A nursing building has been built, and a business/science building is supposed to start construction soon.
I'm sure not a single vote against Sweeney was a protest of his involvement in trying to make Rutgers Camden an affiliate organization of the Norcross empire. But he deserved as much for attempting to monkey with the RU compact.
Sweeney was once at a public meeting at Rutgers-Camden during the controversy about taking over the Camden campus. He sneered, "None of you are going to vote for me!" (His district doesn't come close to Camden.) OTOH, the assemblyman from the Camden area was Donald Norcross, brother of George and now a Representative in Congress. He did his best to at least sound even-handed, and he tried to take credit for the final legislative decision not to have Rowan take over the Camden campus.
The biggest piece was and is that RWJ became part of RU-NB, so not much would be worth stopping that.
Norcross' district is a deep blue district that includes Camden and most of the wealthy Philly suburbs in NJ. OTOH, Gloucester is much more of a swing county, it has swung 16-17-18-20-21 at least. I think Gloucester (and other parts of South Jersey, especially AC) have been feeling the pinch, even before COVID, whereas as places like Haddonfield, Cherry Hill, Voorhees and that area is probably more in line economically with say Somerset County, where Dems actually flipped a Senate seat. You have a large percentage working from home now in white collar jobs where the "great Resignation" is helping boost salaries. I think there's a feeling in some of these places in South Jersey that Murphy wasn't too worried about them, even though through when things were shut down, NJ had less strict rules than PA and NY.
How all of this effects RU remains to be seen, but it does seem like there's at least a majority in both the state and legislature, even if not a big one, that's behind making RU a "normal" strong academically, strong athletically, state U that has its just place in the B1G.
I have noticed through COVID RU for example has a lower percentage of admitted versus that school in Central PA and higher SAT scores as well. The idea that COVID rules would hurt the school have not come to bear.
Here is a list from Wilkipedia of the municipalities in Donald Norcross's district (the 1st Congressional District):
For the 113th and successive Congresses (based on redistricting following the 2010 United States Census), the district contains all or portions of three counties and 52 municipalities:[3]
Burlington County (2 municipalities) Maple Shade Township, Palmyra Camden County (36 municipalities) Audubon, Audubon Park, Barrington, Bellmawr, Berlin, Berlin Township, Brooklawn, Camden, Cherry Hill Township, Chesilhurst, Clementon, Collingswood, Gibbsboro, Gloucester City, Gloucester Township, Haddon Heights, Haddon Township, Haddonfield, Hi-Nella, Laurel Springs, Lawnside, Lindenwold, Magnolia, Merchantville, Mount Ephraim, Oaklyn, Pennsauken Township, Pine Hill, Pine Valley, Runnemede, Somerdale, Stratford, Tavistock, Voorhees Township, Winslow Township, Woodlynne Gloucester County (14 municipalities) Deptford Township, East Greenwich Township (part, remainder in 2nd district), Glassboro, Greenwich Township, Logan Township, Monroe Township, National Park, Paulsboro, Washington Township, Wenonah, West Deptford Township, Westville, Woodbury Heights, Woodbury
Some of those towns are rich; some are not.
The district is, as you say, safely Democratic. In 2020, Biden carried it 62% to 36%. Clinton carried it by almost the same margin in 2016. Obama actually did better; in 2012 he carried the district, 65-34%. He was probably more successful in turning out Black voters. (Sixteen percent of the district is Black.)
I'm not sure why you think there is a majority in the state and in the legislature in favor of strengthening Rutgers. I don't see, for instance, any indication that state aid is going to be increased significantly. Rutgers just does not seem to be a priority item.
That's interesting- seems like even in the more well off areas of Gloucester like Deptford and Greewich are in the district. If NJ didn't have a commission Dems could probably draw all but one Dem district with a deep red district in Ocean and surrounding towns in Monmouth and Burlington.
With Sweeney out of the way it seems like progressive priorities can sail through. One thing they could do that would be pretty huge is develop a NY-style law with free in state tuition for families making under 125 or 150k.
For many years, there was a deep blue district in the western part of the area, and a pretty deep red district to the east that elected moderate Republicans like Edwin Forsythe and Jim Saxton To keep the red district that way, Cherry Hill, which votes Democratic , was moved into the western district a couple of decades ago. However, the eastern district has become more inclined to Democrats over time partly because of population changes and partly because the Republicans became less moderate. Jon Adler first broke through there in 2008 as a Democrat He was defeated in 2010 by former Eagle Jon Runyan, a Republican. Runyan became disillusioned with politics and wanted to spend more time with his family. He was dsucceeded by a more conservative Republican, Tom McArthur. Andy Kim, a Democrat, was able to eke out a win in 2018 and was re-elected in 2020. BTW, the Commission in NJ can only pick between a Democratic map and a Republican map. At best, this encourages the two parties to be relatively moderate in designing their maps, but it is not an ideal system. Another btw: Runyan said the crowning blow for him politically was when a bill to aid victims of Sandy had to be changed to include aid to fisheries in Alaska (among other things) to get through Congress.
Last edited:
Yes- Kim's district is a major swing district. I know the thought in NJ was that all the incumbents would be shored up. Even with that philosophy however, Van Drew's district would have to take on some new area and I don't see how that could happen without hurting him or Smith. So should be interesting.
Smith's district gained gained population in greater proportion to the rest of the state, thanks in part to population growth in Lakewood. Van Drew's lost population. The two districts don't touch each other so it should be possible to hurt Van Drew without hurting Smith. I am surprised that Cape May county lost population even with the popularity of the Shore. Note also the population growth in districts near New York City. You'll have to scroll down some in the link to see the map of Congressional districts. https://www.njpp.org/publications/r...nce-2010-and-what-it-means-for-redistricting/
Thanks, this was a very interesting article.
The shore has been declining in population since Sandy. NYT did a piece on this. Basically with the new flood insurance requirements, it's mostly investors buying there and doing summer rentals, so the year round population is decreasing. Cape May makes the most sense in terms of losing population- they don't have the commutability of Monmouth, Lakewood like Ocean or AC having some economic engine in Atlantic. Even Asbury Park in this article is showing declining population despite condos sprouting up everywhere. People aren't living there all year round.
I am not surprised at all to see which districts are growing, as I live in one of them. And Hudson County given the transience of essentially being NYC's 6th Borough is probably underestimated in the census. I'm excited about the possibility of a Hudson County centered district, particularly if Jersey City as kept as one district. Right now we're cracked and my area is in with North Hudson, which is historically full of machine politics and ranting about policy on Cuba which has nothing to do with the issues facing most of the population.
When my wife and I go to Cape May in the summer, we are taken aback by how many houses are for sale. It seemed to us that the largest houses -- those frequently used as B & Bs -- that were on the market the most. I'm not sure why, but it may be that investors figure that running B & Bs is just too difficult.
