Frank McDermott

Joseph Menza, who has a six vote lead in his bid to become Mayor of Hillside, has a political pedigree: his distant cousin, Alexander Menza, was one of the state's most respected legislators during the six years he spent in Trenton.  Alex Menza began his career when he won a Hillside Township Committee seat in 1966, at age 34.  He was Mayor in 1969, and he won a seat in the State Assembly in 1971.  In 1973, he challenged Republican incumbent Frank McDermott (R-Westfield), 49, who had served as Senate President and run unsuccessfully for the 1969 GOP nomination for Governor.  Menza won 70% of the vote in Hillside (which was politically competitive in those days) and beat McDermott 57%-43% in a Republican-leaning district.

After the 1973 election left Assembly Republicans with just fourteen seats, the GOP actually came close to winning control of the lower house in 1975, Brendan Byrne's mid-term election year.  That would likely have meant the return of Thomas Kean as Assembly Speaker; in turn, that could have altered the political landscape for the 1977 gubernatorial election.

Republicans picked up seventeen seats in '75, ousting eleven incumbents and picking up six open seats.  That reduced the Assembly Democratic majority from 66-14 to 49-31.

Seven other Democratic incumbents won close races: Walter Kozloski (D-Freehold) by 428 votes,  Robert Burns (D-Hasbrouck Heights) by 638 votes, Steven Perksie (D-Margate) by 725 votes, Harold Martin (D-Cresskill) by 995 votes, Mary Keating Croce (D-Pennsauken) by 1,068 votes, Vincent Ozzie Pellecchia (D-Paterson) by 1,275 votes, and Paul Contillo (D-Paramus) by 1,821 votes. 

Jerome M. Epstein (R-Scotch Plains) served in the State Senate from 1972 to 1974.

New Jersey's history of corrupt politicians even included a State Senator who went to jail for being a pirate. 

During the energy shortage in the 1970's, former State Sen. Jerome Epstein (R-Scotch Plains) was sentenced to nine years in prison after a jury convicted him of pirating about $4 million worth of oil from Exxon tanks on the Arthur Kill in Linden.   

Epstein, whose family owned fuel oil companies and gas stations, rented a 115-foot barge, the Luzitania, recruited a crew, and stole about 12 million gallons of oil during a systematic series of thefts that began in 1968.  He rigged gauges on the barge so that he could take 4,000 gallons of oil and have it look like he only took 2,000. After a nine week trial, the former Senator, his father and uncle, were sentenced to prison terms.

Matthew John Rinaldo (1931-2008)
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.

"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."

Republicans have held the 7th district House seat since 1956, when Florence Dwyer, an Assemblywoman from Elizabeth, unseated two-term Democrat Harrison Williams.  Matthew Rinaldo, who passed away on Monday at age 77, occupied the seat for twenty years.  Now, with the retirement of Michael Ferguson, Democrats are slightly favored to win the seat in a contest between Assemblywoman Linda Stender and her GOP rival, State Sen. Leonard Lance.

Rinaldo began his political career in 1962 when he won a seat on the Union County Board of Freeholders.  When he ran for re-election to a second term in 1965, he lost narrowly (the initial tally, before the recount, said just one vote) to Arthur Fried, a Democratic Councilman from Westfield.  He came back two years later, defeating State Sen. Mildred Barry Hughes, the first woman to serve in the New Jersey State Senate, by 10,657 votes -- a 57%-43% margin.  When he ran for re-election in 1971, Rinaldo ran more than 16,000 votes ahead of his running mate, Frank McDermott, and more than 25,000 votes ahead of his nearest Democratic rival.

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, Assemblyman Eric Munoz, Sen. Thomas Kean, and U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson soak in one of the speeches.

WESTFIELD - The word going into that first round of voting at the Union County Republican Convention on Saturday was that former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield and Scotch Plains Mayor Martin Marks would require a second showdown.

"This is going to a runoff between the top two candidates," said John DeSimone, commissioner for the county Board of Elections as he waded into the crowd of delegates. And that’s exactly how it went down at Westfield High School, where Hatfield eventually prevailed over Marks with 60% of the vote in the Union County GOP’s pre-primary battle for the line in the 7th District Congressional race.

Former Senate Presidents Bateman and McDermott Support Lance 

            Showing continued strength outside his home county of Hunterdon, Leonard Lance announced two significant endorsements for his campaign for the 7th Congressional district seat being vacated by Mike Ferguson, who is not running for re-election.

When L. Harvey Smith returns to Trenton in January, he will join a rather obscure and exclusive club: former State Senators who become Assemblymen. Smith served in the Senate for three months in 2003 and 2004, between Joseph Charles' resignation to become a Superior Court Judge and Glenn Cunningham taking office in January 2004.