State’s top watchdog makes his mark during first four years in office

Kevin Walsh’s awakening came in the heart of the Mississippi Delta on a spring day in 1993.

On a break from Catholic University, he was helping to build homes for low-income people in the historic town of Marks, Mississippi, where a generation earlier the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. organized and launched the historic Poor People’s Campaign. The Irish Catholic kid from southern New Jersey was shocked by what he saw while pounding nails.

“There were two sides of the tracks there, and the poor were forced to live on one side. Then I realized that the tracks there were the same as the highways where I grew up,” he says. “The earth moved under my feet when I figured that out.”

It was that epiphany that led Walsh to law school and a career in civil rights advocacy – one that has transformed New Jersey’s social landscape. Walsh was at the forefront of two of the state’s most contentious policy issues. He spearheaded the fight to abolish the death penalty in 2007.  Then for 20 years, he led the charge to force local governments to provide affordable housing.

Now, as the state’s Acting Comptroller, his job is to root out financial malfeasance in more than 1,900 federal, state, county, and local agencies that are part of a translucent fiscal web that has often propped up the state’s notorious political patronage system.

That nexus has led Walsh to an even more fraught challenge  – taking on the state’s legendary political corruption.

Confirmation elusive, but that could finally change

Over the past four years, Walsh has been excavating New Jersey’s entrenched systems of government waste, fraud, and abuse.  He has wandered into politically perilous turf – where there is no shortage of unseen enemies who are motivated by self-interest, and ready and able to scuttle even a hint of reform.

But he’s proved to be bulletproof, at least so far. ​​Though more than four years into the job he has yet to be confirmed by the Senate because two senators have blocked his confirmation through senatorial courtesy, an unwritten rule that gives virtual veto powers over gubernatorial nominees to senators from the nominee’s home county.

Walsh dodges any queries about the obstacles, political or otherwise, that he has encountered during the past four years as the chief government watchdog in Trenton. He doesn’t see himself as an overly righteous man, certainly not a crusader. He claims to be an advocate at heart, but relishes the role of enforcer, too.

“I like the fight,” he says, with a bit of a smile. 

A willingness to square up with the politically powerful was integral to the resurrection of the Comptroller’s Office by Gov. Jon Corzine and the New Jersey Legislature in 2007. 

Corzine nominated a young go-getter, Matt Boxer, as the first modern comptroller. Boxer, a former federal prosecutor, set the tone for the office and conducted more than 50 investigations, including one that found 7,200 state corrections inmates had fraudulently collected $10 million in unemployment payments. 

Boxer, who was widely viewed as a talented straight shooter,  sees the same traits in Walsh: “That fundamental sense of what is fair and what is not fair,” Boxer says.

Some observers — not just detractors — privately suggest that Walsh might be more politically palatable if he didn’t enjoy the fight quite so much. “He doesn’t really subscribe to the idea you catch more flies with honey,” one supporter says. 

Republicans, predictably, were wary of Walsh from the outset. 

Sen. Jon Bramnick, in a statement issued while he was Assembly Minority Leader, said Walsh’s tenure at Fair Share Housing resulted in hundreds of costly lawsuits, “making the system a mess” and leaving it to the courts to dictate what towns must do. 

Bramnick, a likely candidate for governor next year, didn’t respond to requests for a mid-term assessment of Walsh’s work, but there has been little public objection from the GOP to the reports Walsh has issued. 

Walsh clearly has the support of Gov. Phil Murphy, who cited Walsh’s “proven track record of fighting for civil rights and government accountability, regardless of politics or pressure” when he announced the nomination four years ago. Murphy has the power to withdraw his nomination at any time for any reason. But Murphy has left Walsh in place, and on Feb. 22 he renominated Walsh for confirmation to the new Senate.

“Kevin Walsh has led the Office of the Comptroller with the integrity and independence it requires,” Murphy said prior to renominating him, noting that he was looking forward to it.

The nomination is now in the hands of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The stumbling block – Democrats

The only animosity toward Walsh has come from within his own party, particularly Democrats from Camden County  — where Walsh grew up and still has a home.

It is the Democratic senators representing Camden County who have held up his confirmation thus far through senatorial courtesy, without explanation or reason. 

Confirmation is important for a politically vulnerable job like Walsh’s. It would protect him from the whim of any political power broker who might go after him for, say, an audit they wanted to stop.

Five of Murphy’s cabinet members are serving in an acting status. Walsh is the only nominee being blocked by senatorial courtesy. 

Lurking in that shadow is George Norcross, the ultra-powerful Camden Democratic political boss.

Camden County Democratic senators Nilsa Cruz-Perez and James Beach have invoked senatorial courtesy to block Walsh’s appointment. Neither of them has spoken publicly about blocking the nomination and neither responded to interview requests for this profile. Walsh will only say that he “communicated” with both senators right after he was nominated, but that “they ceased to communicate further.” 

Former Gov. Richard Codey, an Essex Democrat who has tangled often with Norcross, says opposing the Norcross machine, even in small ways, can be a career killer unless there is some sort of powerful benefactor, like a governor.

“He wouldn’t allow himself to be co-opted, (and) he’s got all the powers of the office behind him,” Codey says of Walsh. “If he worries about George Norcross, he might as well pack it in.”

Walsh presses forward

Walsh appears to be holding his ground. Star-Ledger political columnist Tom Moran has noted in print that Walsh “has punched Norcross in the nose over and over.”

For example: 

A 2022 audit called into question the legitimacy of state tax credits awarded to Camden developers — including groups where Norcross was involved — after finding they only partially complied with the terms of the credits, especially in documenting job creation.

The audit showed the state had failed to “recover substantial amounts of public funds that it acknowledges should be pursued.” Last month, one of the companies, Holtec, where Norcross serves on its board, agreed to pay a $5 million fine to avoid criminal prosecution by the state Attorney General.

Another Walsh audit in 2021 called out the Pennsauken schools in Camden County for wasting $1.6 million by buying overpriced insurance from Norcross’ firm, Conner, Strong, instead of going with the state-sponsored insurance plan most districts chose. It’s unclear if the school board made a change, but a follow-up audit by Walsh is due next year. 

Norcross did not respond to requests for comment on Walsh or the investigations he has done.  

Taking on Norcross can be risky business in New Jersey. His reach is far and wide, and he has earned a reputation for exacting revenge on critics or detractors. Most investigations of Norcross by federal and state authorities over the years have quietly dissolved before reaching a conclusion.

Walsh claims to be unbowed by the political pressure or the lack of Senate confirmation.

“I’m doing the job just the same as if I was cleared by the Senate,” Walsh says. “I’m not afraid to anger anybody who is powerful if it’s the right thing to do.”

Walsh, like Norcross, was born and raised in Pennsauken, the youngest of five children born to  Patrick and Margaret Walsh, Irish immigrants who ran their own landscaping business.  His dad was from County Galway and his mom was from County Mayo. They met and married shortly after they arrived in the United States. Walsh describes them as “uniquely hard-working parents,” who inspired in him a strong work ethic. 

Walsh still lives within a mile or so of his boyhood home, with his wife, Rosemary, and their four sons, in a modest Dutch Colonial with a basketball hoop and a minivan in the driveway. His family was devoutly Catholic, and Walsh remains so. He attended Camden Catholic High School and then Catholic University of America.  His faith is “foundational” to the person he became and his professional persona. “I processed, from a faith basis, a sense of social justice … a belief in something bigger than what we are,” he says.

“I’m not afraid to anger anybody who is powerful, if it’s the right thing to do.”

Kevin Walsh, acting state comptroller

Called to public service

In school, he studied political science but was more interested in policy. He took a year off from law school at Rutgers-Camden to work on affordable housing cases in Richmond, Va. as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. In law school, he says he was not an “A+ student or law journal type,” although he did win a plum assignment after graduation, clerking for state Supreme Court Justice Gary Stein.

Stein, who retired from the court in 2002 after 17 years and now serves as special counsel at Pashman Stein, remembers Walsh fondly. 

“He had a very strong work ethic and he had a very keen sense of equity and social justice,” Stein says. “He was extremely competent [and] responsible. [There was] never a job that was too hard for him.”

But Walsh struggled with his conscience during the clerkship, specifically in dealing with death penalty cases. “I had a strong personal reaction being near death penalty issues as a clerk,” Walsh says.

It wasn’t a surprise, Stein said, that Walsh followed his clerkship by taking a position with the Fair Share Housing Center when he could have parlayed his strong resume into a spot at a top law firm. “A lot of young lawyers are interested in public service. The larger percentage are interested in the kind of money to be earned at law firms,” Stein says. “That just wasn’t Kevin.”

By all accounts, Walsh cares deeply about right and wrong. It is the thread connecting his work on the death penalty, affordable housing, and government corruption. Where that will next lead him, he isn’t sure. The horizon is still two years out so he has time to figure out his next act. His only clear goal is, at some point, to travel to Ireland and share a pint with his sons when they are old enough.

He also knows that whatever is next will be driven by the same sense of advocacy he has had throughout his career.  

“All jobs I had, payment was a bonus; it was an honor to do the work,” Walsh says. “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and wonder, What good did I do?”

Kevin Walsh

Personal
Lives in Merchantsville, NJ. Married to Rosemary. Four children

Education
Rutgers School of Law, Camden, NJ
Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

Professional
Comptroller, NJ Office of State Comptroller, 2020-present
Executive Director,  Fair Share Housing Center, 2000-2020
Counsel, New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, 2000-07
Member, NJ Supreme Court Committee on Character, 2007
Member, NJ Supreme Court Committee on Practices
Clerk, NJ Supreme Court Associate Justice Gary Stein, 1999
Housing counselor,  Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Central Virginia Legal Aid Society as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.

Notable investigations as comptroller: 

Walsh has issued more than 70 audits and reports since he was nominated in 2020. He’s investigated nursing homes and threatened to stop Medicaid payments to more than a dozen of the worst nursing home operators. He has investigated misspent COVID grants and conducted performance audits on more than a dozen local government entities. 

In one of the most stunning reports, Walsh in 2021 found sixty municipalities were paying departing employees for accrued sick leave and vacation days above $15,000, a direct violation of state law. A follow-up report found that despite being ordered to stop, at least nine of those municipalities continued to flout the law. Walsh has asked the Department of Community Affairs to withhold funding until the municipalities comply, though the DCA has not yet taken action.

Last year, Walsh issued an eye-opening  report citing major issues with a private police training program, Street Cop, that drew about 1,000 cops, including 240 from New Jersey agencies, to Atlantic City for a six-day training that Walsh called “really disturbing.” An investigation found that the training normalized discriminatory practices and unconstitutional practices that glorified a “warrior” approach to policing rather than de-escalation or building trust. It documented more than 100 discriminatory or harassing remarks by speakers with repeated references to speakers’ genitalia, lewd gestures, and demeaning quips about women and minorities. 

The report called on the Attorney General and State Police to establish post-academy training standards. and noted that the practices taught at the unregulated “Street Cop” program would inevitably lead to citizen complaints and lawsuits covered by taxpayer funds. It has led to calls among legislators for reform of training requirements for all law enforcement in the state.

Recent Reports

The High Price of Unregulated Private Police Training to New Jersey (December 2023)

Top Union County Officials Paid Extra Compensation Without Following Public Process, Investigation Finds (December 2023)

New Jersey Medicaid Continues to Fund Poor Quality Care for Nursing Home Residents (March 2023)

Investigation of Waste at Mercer County Finance Department (January 2023) 

A Review of Sick and Vacation Leave Policies in New Jersey Municipalities (July 2022)