The Jersey Dem machine has survived as long as it has because of a lack of press coverage and attention - that is poised to change as Murphy is currently having a very public feud with Norcross. I would imagine Norcross' stock will go down as his connections to Donald Trump continue to be aired out, and as Murphy continues to position himself as a representative of progressives.
Genuinely, one solution that would be a major step towards fixing the state's political problems would be to give the state its own media markets (Newark-Jersey City, Princeton-Trenton, Camden-Atlantic City). The fact that such a densely populated state is situated within two massive, expensive, and high-profile media markets is a major hindrance to the state's politics.
That's not as easy as it seems. Designated market areas are set up by Nielsen and are based on viewership habits; they're not dictated by the FCC.
You'd have to create New Jersey affiliates of all the major networks (aside from PBS, which already has NJTV,) then convince Jerseyites to watch those stations instead of their New York and Philadelphia counterparts. That's extremely difficult considering the proximity of the New York and Philadelphia areas and New Jersey's small size, not to mention the difficulties of setting up a new station from scratch.
Also, the networks own their NYC and Philadelphia stations, so they won't award affiliations to upstart stations within their coverage areas. The last Big 4-affiliated station in New Jersey, WMGM in Atlantic City, lost its NBC affiliation in 2014, in part because Comcast (owners of NBC) wanted to protect their Philadelphia station, WCAU. A similar fate would befall any ABC/Fox/CBS/NBC affiliate in Newark, Trenton, or Atlantic City.
