Phaedra Trethan

@CP_Phaedra

VOORHEES - Donald Norcross met Tuesday with two challengers for his 1st Congressional District seat to spar over issues ranging from jobs to health care, from trade agreements to the opiate epidemic.

The incumbent shared a dais with Democratic primary opponent Alex Law and Republican nominee Bob Patterson at the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey forum at the Mansion at Main Street in Voorhees, talking to a room full of their respective supporters and South Jersey power brokers, including Camden Mayor Dana Redd, state Sen. James Beach, and Delaware River Port Authority CEO John Hanson.

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Patterson, who grew up in Cherry Hill’s Erlton section and now lives in Haddonfield, touted the need to shore up manufacturing jobs in South Jersey, particularly through defense contracts to bring shipbuilding back to Camden, more infrastructure spending to create jobs and less stringent regulations for small businesses.

Norcross, a former electrician and union official, came under attack mostly from his primary opponent, as Law in his opening statement called the choice between them “a struggle for the heart and soul of the Democratic party in South Jersey” and made reference to a “veil of moral corruption” within the existing structure.

“For too long in South Jersey we have felt we were the subjects of the government we are meant to be a part of,” said the former IBM consultant, attacking what he called “machine politics” and alleging Norcross is “misleading” voters about his progressive bona fides.

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Perhaps the greatest contrast among the three candidates came in their respective approaches to battling the epidemic of opiate addiction.

Patterson said Congress needed to study the topic further, “to research and address the symptoms and root causes” of the epidemic “before passing edicts from Washington that don’t fit the families of South Jersey.”

Norcross, who serves on a bipartisan congressional task force on the heroin epidemic, noted the 47,000 Americans who die each year of overdoses.

“This is a disease no different from diabetes,” he said. “But nobody is beating up the diabetic who eats a piece of cake.” He cited the need for federal legislation to track opioid prescriptions across state lines; the use of naloxone, an overdose antidote, in Camden County; and the need for more treatment facilities.

“You are either going to treat (addicts), or they are going to die,” he said.

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Law said the war on drugs “must end,” and called for the legalization of marijuana, with a shift in emphasis “from punishment to treatment” for addicts. Revenue raised through taxing legalized marijuana, he said, could be reinvested into communities most devastated by drugs, poverty, violence and mass incarceration.

Norcross took the opportunity in his closing argument to rebut that, saying “sending more illegal drugs into Camden is not the answer; that’s the problem.”

On questions including the push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, both Norcross and Law said they support paying low-wage workers more; Norcross touted his plan for incremental raises to mitigate the impact on smaller businesses, while Law said he would “make sure small businesses can adjust” to the changes. Patterson said while he believes workers need to earn more than the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, “it’s a mistake to think we can use raises to fix the problems of a broken economy.”

The answer, instead, Patterson said, is to create better-paying jobs for those without a college education, “good, stable jobs with generous benefits,” like the ones South Jersey once had in manufacturing and infrastructure.

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Law called the Affordable Care Act “an excellent step in the right direction,” but said his plan calls for a transition to a single-payer system similar to that of other countries. Norcross, acknowledging room for improving the ACA, said South Jersey’s economy had shifted from one emphasizing manufacturing to one centered around health care. Patterson said he supports its aim of coverage for all, but called it “flawed, partisan” and “heavy-handed” and a burden on businesses. He called for bipartisan efforts to reduce costs for medical care and the creation of a South Jersey “discovery zone,” where scientists and doctors are incentivized to find new drugs and vaccines, as well as a streamlining of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process.

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Norcross and Patterson were in agreement on the damage done to America’s middle class by trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership and inversions, whereby companies move their headquarters from the U.S. to countries with lower corporate tax rates.

Patterson said the U.S. needs to lower its corporate tax rate to compete with other nations economically, but also called out tech companies like Facebook and Apple, who outsource much of their labor overseas.

Law’s closing statement touted his campaign’s grassroots efforts against the Norcross establishment support, saying, “I talked to real voters in all 52 towns in the district.”

Norcross said his campaign was “not just about fancy statements; it’s about hard work,” while Patterson called for infrastructure expansions like a PATCO Hi-Speedline to Glassboro and adding lanes to major highways like Interstate 295 and Route 55.

“I want to make South Jersey great again,” he said.

Phaedra Trethan: (856) 486-2417; ptrethan@gannettnj.com