Cardell Cooper

March 17, 2008 - 5:55pm

Remembering Tom Blakely

By Matt Friedman, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

Tom Blakely (1961-2008)Political consultant Tom Blakely’s sudden death on Saturday left his New Jersey friends and colleagues shocked at the passing of a man who had realized success and who, at only 46-years-old, had the potential to achieve so much more.

“The best was ahead of him,” said state Sen. Kevin O’Toole, a friend of Blakely and a cousin by marriage.

Blakely’s rise to prominence in the behind-the-scenes political world began with the 1990 12th district Congressional campaign of Dick Zimmer, after strategist Larry Weitzner, who was the then Zimmer’s campaign manager, advised Zimmer to take him on as a field worker. Zimmer was so happy with his performance that he hired him as his district director after he was elected, and he eventually managed his unsuccessful Senate campaign against Robert Toricelli in 1996.

“He was utterly reliable, very pragmatic, and it set my mind at ease asking him to do something because I knew he would do it,” said Zimmer.

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