Domenick DiCicco, Jr., a Republican who served in the New Jersey State Assembly for two years before Democrats gerrymandered him out, died on January 19 after an extended illness. He was 60.
As a legislator, DiCicco focused on reforming the state’s educational system and opposing measures that would increase taxes.
DiCicco flipped an open Assembly seat in the 4th district in 2009 after Assemblywoman Sandra Love (D-Gloucester Township) opted not to seek re-election for health reasons.
Gloucester Republicans were fighting, and the county chair, Loran Oglesby, backed Andy Savicky, an Air National Guard colonel from Glassboro, for the Assembly. The anti-Oglesby faction recruited Eugene Lawrence, a former Democratic councilman in Gloucester Township, and DiCicco, an attorney from Franklin and previously an unaffiliated voter.
DeCicco turned out to be a strong campaigner and was the top vote-getter in the Republican primary; he ran 183 votes ahead of Lawrence and 455 votes in front of Savicky.
To run on a ticket with two-term Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Washington Township), Democrats picked William Collins, the Gloucester Township Board of Education president.
DiCicco beat Collins by 601 votes. Collins won the Camden County portion of the 4th district by 1,738 votes, but DiCicco carried Gloucester by 2,339 after carrying Washington Township by 2,088 votes.
As an assemblyman, DiCicco had seats on the Commerce and Economic Development Committee and the Consumer Affairs Committee. South Jersey Democrats had immediately put a target on his back.
But his legislative career was short-lived. In 2011, a Democratic map approved in legislative redistricting moved his hometown of Franklin from the 4th to the 3rd; that put him in the same district as two Democratic incumbents, John Burzichelli (D-Paulsboro) and Celeste Riley (D-Bridgeton). The only towns he had previously represented were Franklin, heaving Democratic Glassboro, and tiny Newfield.
With the new Senate President, Steve Sweeney, at the top of the ticket, Riley defeated DiCicco by 3,422 votes. He was the only incumbent to lose in 2011. The state’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, said DiCicco’s defeat was not a referendum on his governorship.
DiCicco had been general counsel of Alexander Gallo Holdings and chief legal officer of Zurich Insurance. He was a graduate of Rowan University, received his MBA from Pennsylvania State University, and a law degree from Widener Law School.