Dennis Riley, former assemblyman, dies at 77

Dennis L. Riley, a tenacious South Jersey lawmaker whose election to the New Jersey State Assembly in 1979, Jim Florio take control of the Camden County Democratic machine, died on May 24.  He was 77.

As an assemblyman, Riley sponsored laws that required Atlantic City casinos to offer $2 bets and limited the liability of volunteer Little League and Midget Football League coaches from being sued.   Once ejected from a casino for counting cards, he was a casino industry critic and pushed for a state law that would allow any New Jersey municipality to allow Jai alai.   Along with John Rocco (R-Cherry Hill), he formed the bi-partisan South Jersey Assembly Delegation.

Florio, then three-term congressman, led a full-fledged war that year to wrestle control of the Camden County organization from Angelo Errichetti, the mayor of Camden and a state senator.   He ran full slates of off-the-line candidates for freeholder, sheriff, and State Assembly in three Camden area districts in the Democratic primary.

A 35-year-old attorney and tenants rights advocate from Gloucester Township, Riley was picked to run on the “Florio Democratic Team” slate in the 4th district against four-term incumbents Kenneth Gewertz (D-Deptford) and Francis Gorman (D-Gloucester City).  The controversial Gewertz’s strength in Gloucester County made Riley and his running mate, Daniel Dalton, longshots to win.

Riley had become active in politics a decade earlier as a volunteer on Florio’s first campaign for the State Assembly in 1969.

Dalton finished first with 12,178 votes, followed by Riley with 11,012.  Riley ran 3,332 votes ahead of Gewertz and 3,408 votes in front of Gorman.

Florio’s team prevailed elsewhere too — Cherry Hill Mayor Maria Barnaby Greenwald,  the mother of Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald, knocked off an incumbent freeholder — and Florio dealt Errichetti a stunning loss.  The following year, Errichetti was indicted (and later convicted) in the Abscam scandal, and Florio nearly won the 1981 governor’s race.

In the general election, Riley defeated Republican Frederick Busch, Jr., the mayor of Clementon, by 7,944 votes.  (Busch ran against Florio in 1984 and 1986).

After Dalton moved up to the Senate in 1981 – he beat Gewertz in the primary with 65% and later served as Senate Majority Leader and Secretary of State for the last two years of Florio’s administration – Riley ran with Anthony Marsella.   He was re-elected five times.

Riley faced a tough re-election campaign in 1985 when Republican Gov. Thomas Kean won re-election with 70% of the vote; he defeated Frank Senatore, a retired captain in the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, by 3,082 votes, and Monroe Council President William Thompson by 3,396 votes.

In 1987, he defeated Republicans Wayne Wooster and John Matheussen by over 4,000 votes.  Matheussen unseated Marsella for a Senate seat in the 1991 anti-Florio Republican wave election.

After ten years in the legislature, Riley fell out of favor with Camden County Democrats and was denied the organization line in 1989.  Instead, the new Camden County Democratic Chairman, George E. Norcross III, backed Gloucester Township Mayor Ann Mullen and Riley did not seek re-election.

Still, Riley blasted Norcross as “a political neophyte.”

After his departure from Trenton, Riley continued to practice law and remained involved in local politics.  He had served as a planning and zoning board solicitor for several South Jersey municipalities.

Riley is survived by his wife, Yvonne, his children and grandchildren.