Rinaldo remembered for bi-partisan relationship with colleagues

Friends and rivals remember Matthew J. Rinaldo, a former Republican Congressman who died yesterday after a long bout with Parkinson's disease at age 77, for his bipartisan style and top notch constituent services.

For Rinaldo, a Republican, that bipartisanship was partly out of necessity. For the entirety of his 20 years in the House, he was a member of the minority party.

"There is no Republican now serving in the House of Representatives who has ever chaired a committee, gaveled a hearing to order, or scheduled a bill for debate on the House floor," he said in a statement announcing his retirement. "Unfortunately, I do not foresee any prospect of that changing in the near term."

Rinaldo served on the House Energy and Commerce Committee as well as the House Select Committee on Aging, and those who knew him say he was frustrated that he never got a chairmanship.

Two years later, the Republicans swept into power. But many of the newcomers of the "Republican Revolution," led by the new House Speaker Newt Gingrich, were not Rinaldo's ilk. They were rock-ribbed conservatives, while he was a moderate with strong labor ties and strong alliances with key Democrats.

He developed a political alliance with Elizabeth Mayor Thomas Dunn - a Democrat who endorsed Ronald Reagan in 1980 - and carried that heavily Democratic city during most, if not all, of his campaigns.

In 1972, when Jerry Fitzgerald English --who had sat next to him during her two-and-a-half months in the State Senate -- ran against him, Dunn's endorsement turned out to be too much to overcome.

"That kind of did some bad stuff to my numbers," said English, who now chairs the ELEC commission.  "I’m not sure he skunked me, but he won handily, let’s put it that way.”

Nevertheless, the two enjoyed a good personal relationship.  English described him as "gentlemanly" durin the campaign. 

"They both worked across the aisle. That's why both of them were so successful. The key in new jersey has been, and still is, people who can appeal to both parties," said former Gov. Tom Kean. "I did the same thing."

There was at least one year, however, when Dunn endorsed someone else for Congress: June Fischer, a Democratic National Committeewoman, who ran against him in 1986. She still didn't carry Elizabeth, however, and ultimately got just 21% of the vote against Dunn.

"Matty went crazy," Fischer recalled. "When somebody said to Tom Dunn ‘Why did you endorse June Fisher", he said ‘Because she asked me.'"

The tense moment of that race was when Rinaldo called Fisher to ask her to cancel a debate. She refused and alerted the media. Two years later, they saw each other on the Chamber of Commerce Train Trip to Washington, DC, where Rinaldo brought it up.

"He said ‘You don't know why I didn't want to go.... there was an event in New York in my honor.' I said ‘You should have taken me as a date," Fischer told PolitickerNJ.com.

Rinaldo's friendship with Democrats, those who knew him said, was a holdover from a bygone political era - when partisans would argue on the floor of the state Senate or House of Representatives, but maintain close personal friendships outside the chamber.

Former State Sen. Bill Schluter, who served briefly with Rinaldo in Trenton, can testify to that. He served in the Assembly and State Senate between 1968 and 1974, when he taken out by the anti-Republican wave brought about by Watergate. Back then, the legislators of both parties would get together at bars after sessions. He came back in to the state legislature in 1987.

"Now when I was in the last time, there was this absolute hostility. There is no collegiality," Schluter said. But Rinaldo, he noted, was always "gregarious and friendly. He liked politics and liked to campaign."

Even during the days of collegiality, however, Rinaldo was exceptional.

"Matty probably had more friends on the Democratic side of the equation than any other Republican," said former Senate President Raymond Bateman, who served with Rinaldo from 1968 to 1973. "He and Tommy (Dunn) were masters at getting along with both sides."

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Roe said that Rinaldo's background as a Freeholder and state legislator prepared him well for the job of Congressman. Roe, a Democrat who chaired to full House committees, did recall Rinaldo being frustrated about never having a leadership position.

"He was a leadership guy, and to have to be in a position where you don't head a committee after so many years it gets to be frustrating. It's ironic, I think, that had he stayed one more term he would have been in the leadership," said Roe, served with Rinaldo for 20 of his 23 years in Congress. "But that's the fortunes of war. You never know."

According to U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton), another pro-labor Republican who served 12 years with Rinaldo, he advocated increasing the minimum wage, giving workers notice of factory closings and pushing for trade legislation that was favorable to labor.

"Matt was always a leader in the fight to protect the American worker," said Smith in a statement. "He had extraordinary political skills, often played his cards close to his vest and had a wonderful sense of humor. Matt was a true believer in bipartisanship, and he knew and understood the value of principled compromise."

Rinaldo also sponsored legislation denying sex or age discrimination in providing credit and barring the Import-Export bank from loaning to terrorist-sponsoring countries.

He announced his decision to retire abruptly in 1992, citing opportunities in the private sector. He was also motivated by changes in House rules that would make him forfeit his campaign war chest of nearly $1 million if he stayed on. Newspaper articles at the time said that Rinaldo planned to reimburse all donations made after 1990 and distribute the rest of the money to House candidates and charity. But Frank X. McDermott, a former State Senator from Union ountywho ran with Rinaldo and ran against him for GOP congressional nod when the seat became open in 1972, and went on to manage some of his congressional runs, said that he kept some of the money.

McDermott remembers Rinaldo as having the best constituent services of any Congressman - a record unmatched by any of today's incumbents.

"I think Matty Rinaldo had influence on the political culture, just through his constituent services. He really went to the extreme," he said. "We have not had that kind of constituent service, I'm sorry to say. I'm not naming names. But we haven't had the same level of attention that Matty had to that."

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Franks, who took over Rinaldo's seat after he retired, agreed that nobody to date has matched Rinaldo's constituent service operation.

Rinaldo was a political mentor to Franks, who worked on his local campaigns as a high school student. At a lunch shortly before Franks was sworn in, Rinaldo offered him some advice: become an expert on just one or two issues, thereby making yourself indispensible to members of both parties, who will help you in the future."

"I took that to heart, and it was great advice," said Franks.

"Matt Rinaldo from a different era who worked across party lines to make sure that the interests of his constituents were protected.  He was tireless  as their advocate and worked hard to ensure that their needs were addressed and that their government worked for them.  Matt came from a different generation of politicians and of a different era, who thought that the interest of business and labor could be reconciled and that all people should be allowed to avail themselves of the opporunties that exists in our society," said Peter Lefkin, who served as his Legislative Counsel. "In his 20 years in Congress Matt touched many lives including the scores of people who had the pleasure to work for him.  He was a good mentor who imparted the importance of public service and who had great insights into the everyday concerns of the people who elected him into office."

Outgoing U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-New Providence), who holds Rinaldo's old seat, described him as thoroughly committed to public service.

"Congressman Rinaldo believed public service was not about seeking personal gain or partisan advantage. Public service means representing the people who elect you and working hard to ensure that government is responsive to the people - a government that is helping not hindering and protecting not punishing," he said in a statement. "These were the principles that Congressman Rinaldo brought to his public service, and New Jersey and the United States are better today because of that service.'

Those who wish to pay respects to Rinaldo may do so at the Higgins & Bonner Echo Lake Funeral Home in Westfield, tonight between 7-9 p.m.., and tomorrow between 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. A funeral mass will be held Sunday at St. Michael Roman Catholic Church in Union.