Peter Garibaldi, former senator and mayor, dies at 92

Peter P. Garibaldi, an affable onetime union bricklayer who became the first Middlesex County Republican to win a State Senate seat in 54 years when he ousted a Democratic incumbent in 1983, died on August 20 after a short fight with late-stage cancer.  He was 92.

Garibaldi spent twelve years as the mayor of Monroe Township and six years in the State Assembly and ran twice for the U.S. House of Representatives during a political career that won him a reputation as a fighter for lower taxes, increased government efficiencies, public safety, better schools, and political independence regardless of the price.

He began his political career in 1963 when he won a seat on the Monroe Township Committee.  Garibaldi edged out Democrat Anthony Alesi by about 40 votes.  Republicans had ended a 20-year losing streak in 1962, but by the time Garibaldi sought a second term in 1966, he was the lone Republican on the governing body and lost by about 300 votes to Democrat George Allen.

An opportunity for Garibaldi to run for the legislature presented itself in 1967 after the U.S. Supreme Court’s One-Man, One-Vote decision created three two-member Assembly districts.

The newly-drawn “South of the Raritan River” District 7A included Cranbury, East Brunswick, Helmetta, Jamesburg, Madison (now Old Bridge), Milltown, Monroe, New Brunswick, Plainsboro, South Brunswick, South River, and Spotswood.  He teamed up with Richard Olsen, a North Brunswick resident who worked for the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce.

The Democrats ran John Kozak, the South River Borough Attorney and a former assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor, and Frank Deiner, Jr. of North Brunswick, the owner of a metals manufacturing business and the son of a well-known Home News reporter.

When the Middlesex County Labor Council endorsed all Democrats that year, Garibaldi, the only union member running in 7A, complained bitterly.

In Gov. Richard Hughes’ second midterm election year, 1967 became a good year for Republicans in Middlesex and across the state.  Republicans won four of six Assembly seats in Middlesex; only Democrats John Fay, Jr., a future state senator, and Robert Wilentz, later the chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, won the Woodbridge/Perth Amboy district.

Garibaldi became the top vote-getter in a close race; he ran 325 votes ahead of Olsen, who beat Kozak by just 79 votes out of more than 46,000 cast.  Deiner ran 869 votes behind Kozak.  He became part of a freshman class of lawmakers that included 31-year-old Thomas H. Kean (R-Livingston).

(Later in the 1960s, Deiner became a Middlesex County Freeholder.)

Legislative redistricting in 1969 – new districts were being drawn every two years as New Jersey figured out how to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision – and the new map placed all four Republican assemblymen from Middlesex County into the same district.

Middlesex County GOP Chairman Jack Gallagher gave the organization line to Garibaldi and freshman Assemblyman Robert Haelig, Jr. (R-Middlesex Borough).  Olsen ran off the line in the GOP primary but lost by about 2,500 votes.

In the general election, Republicans faced two tough Democratic candidates: former Highland Park Mayor Herbert Tanzman, the brother of State Sen. Norman Tanzman (D-Woodbridge), and Daniel Horgan, a former South Brunswick mayor who would later join Jimmy Carter’s White House staff.

The new District 7A included Cranbury, Dunellen, Highland Park, Jamesburg, Middlesex, Milltown, Monroe, New Brunswick, North Brunswick, Piscataway, Plainsboro, South Brunswick and South Amboy.

Boosted by the coattails of Republican gubernatorial candidate Wiliam Cahill, Garibadli and Haelig won in a landslide; they beat Tanzman by about 5,600 votes and Horgan by over 7,000.

In 1970, Garibaldi took on four-term Rep. Edward Patten (D-Perth Amboy), a Middlesex County political legend who had served as New Jersey’s Secretary of State under two Democratic governors.

In the Middlesex-based 15th district, Patten beat Garibaldi by 34,322 votes, 61%-39%.

In 1971, Democrats appeared before the Middlesex Democratic screening committee to seek party support to challenge Garibaldi and Haelig: Milltown Councilman Joseph Valenti; Dunellen Municipal Court Judge William Gazi; William Jackson, an insurance company executive from Piscataway; and William Hamilton, a former assistant U.S. Attorney and law partner of New Brunswick’s Democratic Municipal Chairman, George Shamy.

Party support went to Hamilton and Valenti.

Middlesex Democrats won six of seven Assembly seats in Republican Governor William T. Cahill’s mid-term elections, with Garibaldi becoming the sole Republican survivor.

The race in District 7A was extraordinarily close.

Hamilton was the top vote-getter with 25,081 votes, with Garibaldi (24,972) finishing 109 votes behind him.  Valenti (24,857) trailed Garibaldi by just 115 votes.  Haelig (24,549) finished fourth in his unsuccessful bid for a third term, coming in 532 votes behind Hamilton.

That left Garibadli as the lone Republican in the Middlesex legislative delegation.

After congressional redistricting moved Monroe into the Mercer County-based 4th district, Garibaldi challenged nine-term Rep. Frank Thompson, Jr. (D-Trenton).  While Richard Nixon carried the 4th by a 58%-42% margin, Thompson won re-election by 27,176 votes, 58%-42%, against Garibaldi.  Garibaldi won the eight Middlesex towns, but Thompson won Mercer by a 2-1 margin.

New Jersey went to a 40-district map for the first time in 1973, each with one senator and two assembly seats.  Monroe was moved into the 12th legislative district, which included Old Bridge, Middletown, and six other Monmouth municipalities.

By then, Garibaldi had become a fierce critic of Cahill, split with Kean, the Assembly Speaker, and fought with Middlesex County Republican Chairman Harry Richardson.  He was told there was no place for him on the GOP ticket in the 12th.

Instead, Garibaldi unexpectedly filed as an independent candidate for State Senate in what was shaping up to be one of the state’s premier fights: incumbent Joseph Azzolina (R-Middletown) against Assemblyman Eugene Bedell (D-Keansburg).

Bedell was counting on accumulating margins in Middlesex and getting labor support – something Garibaldi had earned as a pro-union Republican legislator.

Ultimately, Garibaldi was a non-factor; Watergate led to an overwhelming Democratic wave that helped Bedell unseat Azzolina by 11,701 votes, 59%-35%.  Garibaldi received just 6% of the vote.

Garibaldi sought to reboot his political career in 1975 as a candidate for mayor of Monroe Township after Republican Joseph Indyk decided not to seek re-election.

He faced Democrat John Klink, the council president, and beat him by about 475 votes, 55%-45%.  Republicans also scored two council seats.

Garibaldi won a landslide 2-1 re-election in 1979 against Democrat Michael Dipierro, the council president.

The 18th district State Senate seat became open in 1981 after Bernard Dwyer (D-Edison) resigned after being elected to replace Patten in Congress; Garibaldi became the Republican candidate for Senate.

Middlesex County GOP Chairman Robert Main gave the organization line to Joseph Cooperstein, a realtor from Edison; Garibaldi ran off the line and clobbered him with 74% of the vote.

He lost a tight race to Assemblyman James Bornheimer (D-East Brunswick), 52%-48%, and a margin of 2,530 votes.  Bornheimer won Edison by roughly 3,600 votes and East Brunswick by about 1,130.  Garibaldi carried Monroe by around 2,200, and the two ran close races in Helmetta, Jamesburg, Metuchen, Milltown, North Brunswick, and Spotswood.

In 1983, Garibaldi sought a rematch with Bornheimer.

Three Republican senators lost re-election that year – Kean’s first midterm as governor – but Bornheimer became the only Democratic senator to be ousted.

Garibaldi beat Bornheimer by 583 votes, 48%-47%; Robert Maurer, a physician from Edison running as an independent, peeled off 2,769 votes, 5%.

This time, Garibaldi held Bornheimer to a 400-vote win in Edison and a 200-vote plurality in East Brunswick.  He won Monroe by 1,200 votes and carried Metuchen and several smaller towns.

Democrats still held both Assembly seats.

On the same day, Monroe voters re-elected Garibaldi to a third term as mayor by a nearly 2-1 margin against Democrat Richard Pucci.

As a senator from Middlesex, Garibaldi tried to use senatorial courtesy to block Kean’s renomination of Wilentz as chief justice.  Instead, Senate President John Russo (D-Toms River) stripped Garibaldi of his courtesy, something a Senate leader can do when it involves unwritten rules.

By 1987, Kean’s second midterm, Garibaldi became the number one target of Senate Democrats who were watching a hotly contested primary of their own.

The organization choice was Thomas Paterniti, an assemblyman and onetime Edison mayor; he faced former Metuchen Councilman Harry Pozycki, an anti-machine Democrat.  Paterniti won by 860 votes, 54%-46%, in a race decided by unusually high turnout in Edison.

Paterniti romped in the general election, unseating Garibaldi by 9,537 votes, 59%-41%.

On the same day, Garibaldi was ousted as mayor in a rematch with Pucci.  Pucci won by about 3,700 votes, a 73%-27% landslide.

Garibaldi made one last run for the legislature in 1991 after Monroe was moved to the 14th district.  This would be his second independent bid for a State Senate seat in a wave election year.

One of Central Jersey’s most popular politicians, State Sen. Francis McManimon (D-Hamilton), was unbeatable until Gov. Jim Florio implemented a $2.8 billion tax increase.  Republican Peter Inverso, a former Mercer County freeholder from Hamilton, defeated McManimon by 9,871 votes, 55%-37%.  Garibaldi received 4,791 votes, 8.6%.

The son of a stone mason and high school athletic standout, Garibaldi attended Rutgers University and Rider College and later traded in his bricklayer to become an accountant.  He piloted fighter jets as a U.S. Air Force captain and later flew his own seaplane over Barnegat Bay.  He was an accomplished accordion player.

In retirement, Garibaldi lived in Seaside.  Predeceased by two daughters and a great-grandchild, Garibaldi is survived by his wife of nearly 67 years, Lynne, five children, nine grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Flags in Monroe Township will be lowered through Monday in honor of Garibaldi, Mayor Steve Dalina said today.