Theodore Wells Jr. Photo: David Handschuh/NYLJ

The latest salvo in an escalating feud between Gov. Phil Murphy and South Jersey politico George Norcross over the awarding of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives in the state—and who has benefited from those incentives—was fired Thursday.

The drama—involving competing task forces, and now competing legal teams made up of well-known lawyers—has engulfed Trenton.

Murphy on Thursday announced that he hired Ted Wells of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York as his administration's counsel in a lawsuit filed earlier in the week by Norcross and several companies over the independent investigation underway by a task force assembled by Murphy to investigate the New Jersey Economic Development Authority's tax incentives programs.

The task force has raised questions about how the state's tax incentive programs were conceived, written and implemented, and where companies tied to Norcross allegedly misrepresented their plans to move out of state if they weren't awarded tax breaks worth collectively in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“I look forward to representing the Governor in this matter, to vindicating the right of the Governor to establish the Task Force, and to demonstrating that the Task Force has acted appropriately in conducting its highly important investigation,” Wells said in a statement.

Wells is among the best-known litigators in the nation, as Murphy's top legal adviser noted in the release.

“In light of the Comptroller's concerning findings regarding insufficient oversight of the Economic Development Authority's corporate tax incentive programs, the Governor properly and lawfully established the Task Force to provide the public with a full accounting of these awards,” said Murphy's Chief Counsel Matt Platkin.

“Given the importance of the Task Force and the fact that the lawsuit is a clear attempt to shut it down,” Platkin added, “we thought it important to hire one of the nation's best litigators to defend the Governor and the Task Force, and to ensure the investigation continues unhindered.”

On Tuesday, Norcross filed suit in Mercer County Superior Court with his team of attorneys, joined as plaintiffs by four associated companies and nonprofits, and law firm Parker McKay of Mount Laurel, where brother Philip Norcross is managing partner and CEO. The suit charges that the Murphy-appointed tax incentive task force runs afoul of the law.

The plaintiffs have have hired several high-powered attorneys of their own on the case, including former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; former federal judge and New Jersey U.S. Attorney Herbert Stern; and attorneys Michael Critchley, Kevin Marino and William Tambussi.

The suit contends Murphy didn't have the authority to create the special task force investigating the EDA, and that Murphy approved “the retention and payment of New York lawyers who proceeded to commence and conduct an investigation in violation of multiple provisions of New Jersey law.”

The plaintiffs claim in the complaint that they “have made an enormous investment in the revitalization of Camden, one of America's poorest cities, have been falsely and publicly accused of misconduct regarding the tax incentives that lawfully attend such investment and have been denied a fair opportunity to refute those defamatory accusations.”

Norcross, an insurance executive at Conner Strong & Buckelew and the chairman of the board of trustees of Cooper Health System, is considered one of the most powerful figures in the state with vast sway over the South Jersey delegation and close ties to Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, whose political career he has nurtured and supported.

When Murphy announced the formation of the task force after articles in the New York Times and WNYC painted unflattering portraits of Norcross' involvement with the EDA tax incentives programs, Sweeney's relationship with Murphy turned frosty.

According to the WNYC story, the Norcross family leveraged its access to top state officials to advance the interests of clients and friends allied with the political leader to win the coveted tax incentive packages from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

It has been speculated that deal-making in Trenton has come to a virtual standstill in the last few weeks because of the Murphy-Norcross feud, where key bills such as legislation to legalize recreational use marijuana for those over 21 – a key Murphy campaign promise -  have fallen by the wayside.

Sweeney held a hastily called press conference earlier this month to announce his upper chamber didn't have the 21 votes needed for passing recreational marijuana, and therefore the issue would most likely end up on the 2020 ballot as a referendum vote.

Sweeney placed some of the blame squarely on Murphy's announcing the expansion of medical marijuana as killing the recreational bill's chances of getting passed during this legislative calendar year.

When asked about criticism of his perceived lack of effort in lining up the necessary votes in his chamber as Senate president, Sweeney pounced on the question and said, “What votes did the governor deliver to me? Zero.”

On May 17, four days after Sweeney established his own task force to examine the same tax incentive programs, a lawyer for the Senate Democrats, Leon Sokol, sent a letter demanding emails, documents and text messages be retained by Murphy's own task force, according to Politico.

Sokol told Politico that the purpose of the request was so Sweeney's task force wouldn't duplicate efforts of the Murphy task force.

The day before, Tambussi mailed directly to the governor's home in Middletown and to the homes of members of his task force, including task force chairman Ronald Chen, letters demanding they preserve all records and documents connected to the EDA tax incentive programs, nj.com reported.