PRESS RELEASE: William J. Palatucci Joins McCarter & English

New Jersey’s Republican National Committeeman Bill Palatucci has himself a new gig with McCarter & English. The firm’s press release on the matter follows:

William J. Palatucci, one of New Jersey’s most prominent and widely respected attorneys, is joining McCarter & English LLP as a partner in the firm’s Business Litigation Practice, where he will also be supporting the firm’s rapidly expanding Government Affairs Practice. Since working for Gov. Tom Kean in 1985 and later as a law partner with Gov. Chris Christie, Palatucci has developed a well-earned reputation for his strategic advice and pragmatic approaches to complex legal, public policy and governmental initiatives.

McCarter’s Managing Partner Joe Boccassini said, “We are honored to welcome Bill to our team. His extensive experience with legal and public policy issues that affect both private and public sector clients is unparalleled. Our national base of clients will greatly benefit from his knowledge of how major public policy decisions may impact their businesses.”

Palatucci’s legal experience is wide and diverse. He served as General Counsel to the Trump Transition Committee from June 2016 through the election in November 2016; he served as General Counsel to Governor Chris Christie’s presidential campaign, and in the private sector served as General Counsel to Community Education Centers in Roseland, New Jersey. Prior to joining McCarter, Palatucci spent almost eight years at Gibbons, P.C. in the firm’s Corporate Practice, where he handled a variety of issues for clients in a wide range of industries, often focusing on the regulatory aspects of transactions, land use matters or state licensing requirements.

“We are fortunate to have Bill join our burgeoning Government Affairs team in Trenton and Washington and I look forward to developing a deeper friendship and partnership with Bill. Together, we look forward to building an even stronger bipartisan practice,” said Government Affairs Chair, Guillermo Artiles.

Palatucci serves as the Republican National Committeeman for New Jersey, a position he has held since 2010. In addition to his work for Governor Kean, for the past nearly 40 years, he has been closely involved in many significant federal and state elections, with leadership roles in the campaigns of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, and served as Chairman of Governor Chris Christie’s re-election campaign in 2013.

Palatucci added, “I have long admired the work and people at McCarter and now look forward to expanding my practice there with distinguished lawyers like Judge Jose Linares, who I have known for many years. I am truly excited to concentrate on federal and state legislative issues throughout McCarter’s footprint, from Washington to Trenton to Boston.”

In addition to his legal and political experience, Palatucci currently serves as a member of the Seton Hall University School of Law Board of Visitors, the National Advisory Board for the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, and is Chair of the University of Phoenix Board of Trustees for its Jersey City, NJ, campus. Palatucci is on the Board of Trustees of Turning Point, Inc., a nonprofit drug and alcohol addiction treatment center that assists more than 3,500 New Jersey residents each year.

Palatucci has been recognized by NJBIZ on its “Law Power 50” and “100 Most Powerful People in New Jersey Business” lists as well as by ROI-NJ on its “Influencers Power List.”  Palatucci earned his B.A. from Rutgers University-New Brunswick and his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law.

In 2014, Palatucci was presented with the Seton Hall University School of Law’s Distinguished Graduate Award. In 2014, he and Senator Cory Booker were honored with the annual “Good Guy Award” from the Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey.

About McCarter & English, LLP
McCarter & English is a firm of more than 375 lawyers who deliver solid results and innovative solutions to clients nationwide. In 2019, the firm was recognized by Law360 as a New Jersey Regional Powerhouse and received the prestigious ABA Pro Bono Publico award. More than 40 percent of Fortune 100 companies, as well as mid-market and emerging growth companies, rely on McCarter for cutting-edge transactional work and complex litigation matters. Clients benefit from McCarter’s relationship-driven approach, a deep understanding of their businesses and legal needs, a lean and efficient service model, and a determination to help them move their businesses forward. For more information, visit www.mccarter.com.

PRESS RELEASE: Donald Norcross Hasn’t Worked With The Tools Since 1993

Claire Gustafson, the Republican running against Donald Norcross in CD1, said today tat a union boss’s suggestion that Norcross would make a good Labor Secretary is ridiculous. She also called the Congressman our for his support of project labor agreements. Her press release follows:

Republican candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s First Congressional District, Claire Gustafson, took issue with a recent news report that suggested Congressman Donald Norcross would be a good candidate for US Labor Secretary in a Joe Biden administration.

“For a union boss to suggest Donald Norcross should be the Secretary of Labor because ‘we need somebody who has worked with their hands, especially a construction guy’ is ridiculous.” Claire Gustafson said, “The suggestion he works with his hands is laughable when you consider that according to an October 2014 labor publication Norcross hasn’t ‘worked with the tools’ since 1993. To put that in perspective Norcross hasn’t worked with the tools since before President Bill Clinton met Monica Lewinsky.”

Gustafson added, “But Norcross did say in that publication that he kept his ‘card, and kept coming to meetings.’ If going to meetings makes you a union laborer then the fact that I interact with union labor at industry trade shows for my business makes me union labor too.”

“For all his talk of supporting working men and women, one has to wonder what working men and women Norcross supports.” Gustafson continued, “Obviously not private contractors given the fact that in a 2015 interview Norcross bragged that he ‘negotiated well over 100 project labor agreements’ and then complained that, despite the fact President Obama issued an executive order allowing for project labor agreements with the federal government, there hadn’t been enough PLAs.”

“Obviously Norcross doesn’t care that project labor agreements hurt working men and women by creating an unlevel playing field with restrictions placed on the hiring and working practices of private contractors.” Gustafson said, “Rather than using National Women’s Equality Day as a campaign tool today Donald Norcross might show some equality to the numerous women owned private contracting firms by leveling the playing field and ending his support of project labor agreements.”

Cumberland Dems Defend Flushing Away $65 Million

Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joe Derella

When I first blogged about Cumberland County’s $65 million jail that will never be, I thought the Democrat-controlled Cumberland County Freeholder Board was trying to be as bad as Camden County’s all Democrat Freeholder Board. Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joe Derella has upped the ante!

The countywide races in Cumberland County have heated up with a rambling post on the Cumberland County Democrats Facebook page.

The post was authored by Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joe Derella. Derella uses the post to defend the decision of the Democrat-controlled Freeholder Board to stop construction of the new county jail. And, of course, Derella used the opportunity to take shots at Republican Sheriff candidate Mike Donato and Freeholder candidates Victoria Lods, Darwin Cooper and Tony Romero.

Never mind the smack Derella talked about the Cumberland GOP candidates in his screed, I’ll let the candidates handle that. I could not help noticing that not one time did Derella mention the county already floated a $65 million bond for this new jail that suddenly is not being built.

I’m not buying “the County will be constructing a holding facility and additional court related facilities and is looking at options to repurpose the new jail site” as a way to beneficially spend the $65 million already borrowed for the new jail. In fact, I don’t believe they will spend $65 million even if they do build additional court related facilities.

I’m not buying it because it appears to me a holding facility and additional court related facilities are ideas that Derella suddenly came up with when writing his screed. He obviously didn’t have those ideas a month ago when he told The Press of Atlantic City:

Officials are considering what to use the new space for, with Derella saying it’s “an opportunity to shift our focus toward community development, including the expansion of educational, recreational and cultural opportunities.”

“We envision this site being used for a community center promoting the freedom to learn, play and enrich our community,” Derella said. “If the events of the last few months have taught us anything, it has taught us that we must invest in our people, particularly our young people, to ensure that we have a just and fair society that incarcerates as few people as possible.”

They envision the site being used for a community center. Great idea! Put a community center next to a state prison. The inmates will love looking out their cell windows at the moms dropping their kids off. Brilliant! Kudos to Freeholder Director Derella.

Not once did Derella use the words “holding facility and additional court related facilities,” when being quoted by The Press of Atlantic City.

Why not? I suspect because he just made them up as he was writing his post for his party to put on Facebook.

Derella’s idea to turn the site of the new jail into a community center is stupid. I’m not the only one who thinks so, Jack Surrency, a Democrat, told The Press of Atlantic City:

“We have an obsolete jail that needs a solution; we have one under construction,” Surrency said. “We also have a lack of recreation in the county; we need a separate solution that focuses more on funding programs and less on bricks and mortar. I’ve spent the last three years saying this very same thing.”

He noted there would be significant transportation challenges for youth to get to the proposed facility, arguing public transportation is a significant issue in the county.

“You don’t inspire young people by locating a community center right next to a state prison,” Surrency said.

Surrency is right! Cumberland County does have a lack of recreation. It is still the only county in the state without a county park system despite the fact that in “2011 the county adopted the Open Space & Recreation Master Plan.” The plan was adopted after the county paid $80,000 to a Pennsylvania company to “conduct an Open Space Planning Process and preparing an Open Space and Recreation Master Plan for the Cumberland County Department of Planning and Development.”

Derella’s line, “The decision to defer the construction of a new jail in favor of housing detainees in other counties was made based on the fact that COVID-19 dramatically accelerated bi-partisan bail and sentencing reform initiatives resulting in far fewer people being detained in our County jail,” is garbage.

Does Derella not realize that New Jersey’s Bail Reform took effect on January 1, 2017? Jail populations were already going down when the decision to build the new jail was made. For him to argue that COVID-19 is the reason the jail has fewer inmates is ridiculous.

Given the fact that according to his bio, Derella is serving in his “fourth consecutive year as Freeholder Director” he was the director when the Freeholder Board decided to build the new jail. A decision that was made after Bail Reform took place.

Perhaps the reason Derella went off attacking Republicans in a screed posted to Facebook is he’s trying to hide from the fact that pushing to borrow $65 million for a jail that might not be needed was his stupid idea in the first place.

Stupid idea aside I still have the same question I had last week. What savings? I do not understand where there are any savings when the taxpayers, whether any buildings are built or not, are on the hook for the $65 million bond.

That’s the $65 million question. If the taxpayers have to pay back the money you borrowed to build a jail you decided to stop building where are the savings Mr. Derella?