Fred Mutz, newspaper reporter and aide to N.J. congressman, dies a 90

Frederick J. Mutz, a former Newark Evening News reporter and Democratic State Committee staffer who served as a top aide to Rep. James J. Howard (D-Spring Lake Heights ) from 1965 to 1973, died on July 22.  He was 90.

Before retiring to Florida, Mutz served in President Bill Clinton’s administration at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Mutz launched a career in journalism as an award-winning reporter for the Hudson Dispatch, covering Hudson County politics.  He joined the Newark News in 1957 as a regional editor who ran the newspaper’s Bergen, Hudson and Passaic bureaus.

The Weehawken native joined the state party in 1963 and managed Gov. Richard Hughes’ political schedule; in 1964, he was the scheduler for U.S. Senator Harrison Williams’ re-election campaign.  He joined Lyndon Johnson’s advance staff when the president campaigned in New Jersey in 1964.

From 1953 to 1955, Mutz served in the U.S. Army.  He was stationed in Korea as the public information officer for the 8th Army.

After Johnson’s landslide victory helped Howard, a Democrat, win flip an open Jersey shore congressional seat in 1964, Mutz moved to Washington to become his legislative assistant, research aide, and press secretary at an annual salary of $12,192.

* Read the story of how Jim Howard got to Congress.

As a Capitol Hill staffer, he served as vice president of the Burro Club, a group of male Democratic congressional staffers.

Mutz left Howard’s staff in 1973 to begin a sixteen-year stint as a lobbyist for the American Bankers Association.  In 1989, he opened his own lobbying shop, and joined the Clinton administration in the 1990s.

He helped organize the Democratic Leadership Council and was the president of the National Democratic Club for three years.