John Rooney, longtime Bergen assemblyman, dies at 85

John E. Rooney, a dogged Republican who represented part of Bergen County in the New Jersey State Assembly for nearly 27 years and emerged as one of the legislature’s leading experts on solid waste management, died on March 17.   He was 85.

Rooney chaired the Assembly Solid and Hazardous Waste Committee from 1986 to 1990 and again from 1992 to 2002.

Rooney began his political career in 1975, losing a race for the Northvale Borough Council by about 100 votes at a time when Democrats controlled local government.  He ran again in 1976; he and Nicholas Mesz ousted incumbents William Bauer and Russel Kunz by about 100 votes.

In 1978, Rooney challenged Democratic Mayor William Lenskold and beat him by an extraordinarily close 11-vote margin after local Democrats had split and took out two incumbents in their primary.

Rooney ran for Bergen County Freeholder in 1980, winning a convention of seventeen Republicans seeking party support for three seats.   He was not expected to win after the party’s screening committee recommended Glen Rock Mayor Charles Lagos but staged a stunning upset.  Palisades Park Mayor Robert Pallotta and former Bergen County Superintendent of Schools Archie Hay won the first two slots; Rooney finished just two votes behind Hay and led former Fair Lawn Mayor Nicholas Felice by 23 votes.  Lagos finished fifth, 76 votes behind Rooney.

Hay and Pallotta won the general election, while Democratic incumbent Doris Mahalick, the top vote-getter, won re-election over Rooney.  The other two Democrats, incumbent Bennett Mazur and Paramus Mayor Joseph Cipolla, lost.    Rooney ran about 11,000 votes behind Mahalick, trailed Pallotta by about 5,000, and received around 4,000 votes less than Hay.  His fourth-place finish but him about 2,000 votes in front of Mazur.

When he sought a second term in 1982, Rooney defeated George D’Amico by about 300 votes; that translates to 58% in a small town.

In 1983, Gov. Thomas Kean nominated Assemblywoman Joan Wright (R-Woodcliff Lake) to serve as director of the State Division on Women and then backed popular Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney, a New Milford resident and former Democrat, to run in a special election for the open 39th district Assembly seat.

Rooney, who made his interest in the seat known when Wright was being offered the state job, quickly announced his candidacy.

But after Wright resigned, Delaney unexpectedly dropped out of the race.  He said Kean aides told him he’d only need to spend Mondays in Trenton and planned to work his Paramus job on a Tuesday through Saturday schedule.  He ended his campaign when he found out about the sometimes twice-a-week schedule.

Quickly announcing his candidacy, Rooney won the endorsement of the then-influential Northeast Republican Organization (NERO) for a special election by a vote of 98-48 against Washington Township Mayor Rudolph Wenzel; Hilldale Councilwoman Lois Schultz received 39 votes.  At a special convention, Rooney defeated Schultz by five votes, 68-63.

Rooney won an April 26, 1983 special election by 1,253 votes against former Park Ridge Councilwoman Lucy Heller, a 56.5% to 43.5.% margin.  The entire process was played out over eight weeks.

After that race, Rooney became a leading proponent of a constitutional amendment to end free-standing, low-turnout special elections and allow the party that previously won the seat to fill a legislative vacancy.

He and Heller faced off again in the November general election, with Rooney winning by over 7,100 votes.  He was re-elected twelve times, always by comfortable margins.

In 1986, Rooney kept a promise and did not seek re-election as mayor.  Democrat John S. Hogan, now the Bergen County Clerk, succeeded him.

But four years later, Rooney returned to challenge Hogan and defeated him by about 130 votes in a three-way race, 40.5% to 33.2%.   He won a rematch with Hogan by roughly 90 votes, 52.5% to 47.5% in 1994.

He won re-election as mayor with 60% against William Sillery in 1998 and was unopposed in 2002.

In 2006, Hogan against challenged Rooney and won by 65 votes, 52%-48%.

Rooney called it quits in 2009, saying he didn’t feel like raising money anymore.  He backed Washington Township Councilman Robert Schroeder for his seat.

A U.S. Air Force veteran, Rooney was a Russian linguist assigned to the Air Force Security Service in Germany.  He was a Rutgers graduate and worked as a Toshiba sales manager.