Patricia M. LaRocca, a fixture in Essex County Republican politics for decades and a former Livingston Republican municipal chair, died on July 6. She was 89.
She was an early supporter of Ronald Reagan and backed his bid for the GOP presidential nomination against Gerald Ford in 1976.
LaRocca was a longtime ally of Joseph A. Intile, a renegade leader in the Essex County Republican organization in the 1960s and early 1970s when Essex was still politically competitive. She was part of Rep. Charles Sandman’s campaign for governor in 1973 when he defeated incumbent William Cahill in the Republican primary.
In 1977, LaRocca backed former State Sen. C. Robert Sarcone (R-Newark) in the GOP gubernatorial primary and ran on his line for Republican State Committeewoman from Essex County; she was defeated by incumbent Karla Squier. In the general election, she was a leader of a statewide organization of Republicans supporting the re-election of Gov. Brendan Byrne, a Democrat.
She was also a strong supporter of John P. Renna in his successful bid for Essex County Republican against Assemblyman Carl Orechio (R-Nutley) in 1977. She backed Sarcone for county chairman against Frederic Remington in 1973, and Joseph Galluzzi in his 1976 campaign to unseat Remington.
She had an uncanny ability to fill vacant county committee seats throughout Essex County, a skill that allowed her to amass some influence in county politics.
LaRocca and her husband, Louis J. LaRocca, Jr., first ran for seats on the Livingston Republican County Committee in 1971, losing to Sanford Sobel and Rhoda Lieberman by about twenty votes. Pat and Lou LaRocca ran again for county committee in 1973; she defeated Carmella Arnold by 31 votes, and her husband won, 61-35, against Kingston Fairclough. She had previously served as a county committeewoman in Newark.
She worked as a chief investigator in the office of the Essex County Adjuster, where she was part of a team assembled by Frank Palmieri, a GOP leader from Orange who had lost races for Congress against Rep. Hugh Addonizio (D-Newark) in 1960, and after Addonizio gave up his seat to run for mayor of Newark in 1962, against labor leader Joseph Minish (D-West Orange).
After retiring from Essex County, LaRocca worked for the PMK Group, the engineering firm run by former Philip M. Keegan (D-Newark), a former assemblyman, Essex County freeholder, and Democratic state chairman.
She later served as an aide to then-Assemblyman Kevin J. O’Toole (R-Cedar Grove).
LaRocca was predeceased by her husband of 63 years in February. She is survived by her four children and twelve grandchildren.
A viewing will be held on Monday, July 15 from 5-7 PM at the Brunswick Memorial Home in East Brunswick, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial on Tuesday, July 16 at St. Bartholomew’s Roman Catholic Church in East Brunswick.
(Editor’s note: Patty and Lou LaRocca were my first and best supporters in my campaign for a Livingston Township Council seat in 1984 and were responsible for a win, by two votes, in a contested county committee vote for organization support. I will always be grateful for their unyielding loyalty and friendship. – DW)