Dr. Michael J. Arnone, an affable dentist from Red Bank who served more than fourteen years as a Republican assemblyman from Monmouth County, died on July 1. He was 91.
Arnone chaired the Assembly Local Government and Housing Committee. He played a role in rolling back Gov. Jim Florio’s $2.8 billion tax increase after the GOP took control of the legislature in 1991, advocated for consolidated municipal services for small towns, and pushed for a constitutional amendment to permit a two-tiered property tax rate in urban areas. He was a staunch supporter of Monmouth County’s horse racing industry. He was a sponsor of Megan’s Law.
He was elected to the Assembly on his fourth try in 1989 and served until 2004.
After a four-year stint as chairman of the zoning board, Arnone was appointed to a seat on the Red Bank Borough Council in February 1070 after Republican Councilman Peter R. Hoffman resigned after a new job required his relocation to Miami.
Arnone served as a councilman when Democrat Daniel O’Hern, later an associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, was serving as mayor. O’Hern had Arnone’s cousin, Mayor John P. Arnone, in the 1968 general election.
O’Hern had tried to get a Democrat appointed to replace Hoffman and then sought to push through his own Republican, Dr. Lawrence Burdge, but the 30-day period for the council to name a successor expired and the local GOP, headed by John Arnone, voted unanimously to set Mike Arnone. (Gov. William Cahill later nominated John Arnone to a family court judgeship later that year.)
Arnone ran for council in 1970 on a slate with Councilman Williams S. Anderson, the owner of a local funeral home, who challenged O’Hern for mayor, and newcomer Gerald Sherman for Anderson’s council seat.
O’Hern beat Anderson with 54% of the vote, and Democrat Frank McKenna won the open council seat, giving Democrats control.
Arnone, the top vote-getter, was the sole Republican survivor in Red Bank. He ran more than 250 votes in front of McKenna, who had been the Rumson Democratic municipal chairman for over a decade before moving to Red Bank with an eye on running for office. McKenna edged out Sherman by about 25 votes, a dozen more than the other Democrat, John Ilmensee.
In 1973, Arnone gave up his council seat to seek a State Assembly seat in the old 12th district, which included Red Bank, Aberdeen (then Matawan Township), Keansburg, Keyport, Matawan, Middletown, and Union Beach in Monmouth, and Old Bridge (then Madison), Jamesburg and Monroe in Middlesex.
He had the misfortune of running as a Republican in a massive Democratic landslide in an election that occurred seventeen days after the Saturday Night Massacre, where President Richard Nixon ordered the firing of the Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox. Impeachment proceedings began on October 30, one week before the election.
Democrats ran Old Bridge Councilman Wiliam Flynn and Richard Van Wagner, a public school teacher from Middletown. They crushed Arnone, who lost by more than 10,000 votes, and his GOP running mate, Richard Cooper, a teacher from Old Bridge. State Sen. Joseph Azzolina (R-Middletown) lost his seat to Democrat Eugene Bedell (D-Keansburg) by nearly 24 percentage points.
Arnone and Cooper sought a rematch in 1977 against Flynn and Van Wagner. He ran 10,139 votes behind Van Wagner and trailed Flynn by 7,802 votes; Cooper ran 1,125 votes behind Arnone.
Arnone later became Red Bank GOP municipal chairman.
O’Hern resigned as mayor in May 1978 after Gov. Brendan Byrne appointed him to serve as Commissioner of Environmental Protection.
Republicans picked Arnone to run for mayor that year against McKenna, who had been appointed to replace O’Hern.
Arnone defeated McKenna by a 53%-39% margin in a three-candidate race. Republicans swept four council seats – one of the defeated Democrats, Edward McKenna (no relation to Frank McKenna), would later serve four terms as mayor – and captured a 5-2 majority on the borough council.
He was re-elected with a massive 61% in 1982, defeating Democrat Malachi Kenney despite Red Bank voting for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Frank Lautenberg and Democratic Rep. James Howard (D-Spring Lake Heights).
Democrats didn’t bother to run anyone against Arnone in 1986, a move that helped them win two council seats; Edward McKenna was one of the winners.
After Assemblywoman Marie Muhler (R-Marlboro) resigned to become the new public guardian in the Public Advocate’s office, Arnone and ten others sought party support for her seat. Arnone dropped out before the vote and after five ballots, Republicans instead went with Freeholder Mayor Clare Farrgher.
The resignation of Jerome Premo as executive director of New Jersey Transit over using a government credit card for personal expenses opened the door to Arnone getting a second shot at the legislature in 1989.
State Sen. Thomas Gagliano (R-Oceanport), who had completed a rotation as Senate Minority Leader, decided he wanted Premo’s job. That opened the door for Assemblyman John O. Bennett III (R-Little Silver) to move up to the Senate, and Arnone sought Bennett’s open Assembly seat.
Since Gagliano didn’t step down until May, Bennett and Farragher, won the Democratic primary unopposed. Bennett won a special election convention for Senate, necessitating a similar contest two days before the primary to fill his Assembly seat and his spot on the November ballot.
In addition to Arnone, Freeholder Ted Narozanick, former Colts Neck Mayor Gayle Brass, former Tinton Falls Councilwoman Ellen Branin, Eatontown Councilman John Collins, Little Silver Councilman John Moody, and Thomas McClintock, who served as mayor of both Long Branch and Tinton Falls, has also considered Assembly bids.
Arnone won the seat on the third ballot against Moody, who had Bennett’s endorsement. But Arnone won the final vote, 81-6.
In the general election, Arnone defeated Freeholder Councilwoman Lynn Reich and Marlboro Township Committeeman Frank Abate by 1,991 and 2,664 votes, respectively.
He was easily re-elected in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001.
Arnone’s political career came to an abrupt close in 2003 after becoming a casualty of a series of scandals involving Bennett, then the Co-President of the New Jersey State Senate. (The 2001 election produced a Senate that was evenly divided, 20-20, between Democrats and Republicans. Bennett, who had become Senate Majority Leader in 1994, shared the top post with Democrat Richard Codey.)
Bennett faced allegations of extraordinary overbilling practices at his law firm, where he represented a large stable of public entities. Throughout the 2003 campaign, Bennett faced a seemingly daily barrage of media attention – mostly from the then-impactful local newspaper, the Asbury Park Press. The U.S. Attorney’s office looked closely at Bennett, but never charged him.
The Monmouth County GOP Chairman, William Dowd, urged Arnone to challenge Bennett in the primary, but he declined. Bennett was held to 58% of the vote in the Republican primary against perennial candidate Richard Pezzullo; Arnone probably would have won the primary and general elections.
Sensing Bennett’s vulnerability, Democrats ran Marlboro Council President Ellen Karcher, the daughter of former Assembly Speaker Alan Karcher, for the 12th district Senate seat. Against Arnone and Farragher, Democrats ran Dr. Bob Morgan, a former president of the Red Bank Regional High School Board of Education, and Michael Panter, a corporate attorney and investment banker.
The campaign against Bennett had unintended consequences for Arnone, who had to deal with allegations that a campaign volunteer had plagiarized a press release – something that was not his fault – and discrepancies over his degree at Seton Hall University, consistent with other veterans of his era, Arnone went directly to dental school without finishing his undergraduate studies.
Karcher ousted Bennett by 4,574 votes, 52.4% to 42.5%, with Green Party candidate Earl Gray taking 5%.
Arnone lost his seat by 2,142 votes to Panter, 23,240 to 21,098; Morgan ran 373 votes ahead of Panter and 3,473 ahead of Farragher.
He later served on the New Jersey State Racing Commission.
Arnone was a lifelong resident of Red Bank. He served in the U.S. Army from 1959 to 1961.
He was predecessed by his wife of 67 years, Barbara, his high school sweetheart, last year. He is survived by his five children, eleven grandchildren, and a great-grandson.
Visitation will be held on July 9 from 2-4 PM and 7-9 PM at Thompson Memorial Home in Red Bank, followed by a Mass on July 10 at 11:30 AM at St. James Church in Red Bank.