The last time a New Jersey congressman needed to be replaced on the general election ballot was in 1994 when Rep. Dean Gallo (R-Parsippany) ended his bid for a sixth term on August 23 after a recurrence of prostate cancer.
Gallo had been sick for a while, but his health issues were kept mostly quiet. He won a heated primary against now-State Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Montville), who did not know Gallo had cancer.
As Gallo’s prognosis worsened over the summer, he quietly designated his successor: Assembly Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding), who had lost GOP House primaries in 1982 and 1990 in another district.
Frelinghuysen entered the race the day Gallo announced he was dropping out, with endorsements from GOP county chairmen in Morris and Essex counties and Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate against Frank Lautenberg. John Renna, the Essex GOP leader, said there would be no Essex candidate and he was backing Frelinghuysen because Gallo asked him to.
Within days, Frelinghuysen had cleared the field. State Sen. Robert Martin (R-Morris Plains) decided not to run; so did Charles Poekel, Jr., an Essex Fells attorney who had challenged Rep. Joseph Minish (D-West Orange) in 1976.
When the Republican county committee met on September 12 (the deadlines were different then), Frelinghuysen won 662-27 against Jeffrey Grow, an attorney from Rockaway. Political newcomer Tim Costello of Parsippany received one vote. Gallo did not attend; he was in the hospital.
Gallo died on November 6, two days before the general election, at age 58. Frelinghuysen stayed for 24 year and was serving as House Appropriations Committee chairman when Democrats like Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) and Saily Avelenda frightened him out of the race in 2018.