The time a congressman was killed on the Chamber Trip

Just one bit of advice for the nearly one thousand New Jerseyans who will travel by train to Washington today: watch out for those French door balconies.

For more than 80 years, the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce Walk to Washington and Congressional Reception has been a tradition in New Jersey politics, and after a global pandemic and a hotel closure forced a five-year hiatus, the train ride is back – with nine gubernatorial candidates aboard.

In January 1938, Rep. Edward Aloysius Kenney (D-Cliffside Park), 53, was the keynote speaker at the chamber’s dinner at the Carlton Hotel in Washington.

After what may have been an enjoyable evening, Kenney was unable to travel back to his apartment.  The Chamber arranged for Kenney to get a hotel room.  He woke up during the night, presumably disoriented and in search of the facilities. He mistook a French window that was eighteen inches from the floor for a door and fell six stories to his death.  His body was found on a concrete walkway in the morning.

As a congressman, Kenney advocated for a national lottery modeled after the Irish Sweepstakes.

Boosted by Franklin Roosevelt’s coattails in 1932, Kenney defeated 34-year-old Cliffside Park Mayor and World War I veteran Joseph Marini by 890 votes, 47.6%-46.8%.   He had previously lost three races for mayor of Cliffside Park: as an independent in 1921, as a Republican in 1923, and as a Democrat in 1927.

Republicans flipped his ninth district seat in a special election later in the year.