Philip Blanda, served as Hazlet mayor while Eisenhower was president, dies at 93

Philip J. Blanda, Jr., a Democrat who won local office in 1959 when Hazlet was still called Raritan Township, died on June 11.  He was 93.

Blanda was one of a shrinking number of New Jerseyans who held public office while Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy occupied the White House.

A U.S. Army veteran who served in Korea, Blanda was 30-years-old when he won a township committee seat in 1959.  The size of the governing body increased from three to five that year.  Democrats James Brady and Thomas Shinkos won three-year terms; Blanda won a two-year term, defeating Republican Fred Iverson, the president of the Republican Men’s Club, by roughly 700 votes, 60%-40%.

The campaign was marked by Democratic infighting; the party withdrew their support of Shinkos in September, and he won by 56 votes.  That created a 4-1 Democratic majority with Blanda and James Brady on one side and Shinkos and Ralph Mundy on the other.   The tiebreaker was Harry Seaman, a Republican who served as mayor before Democrats took control in 1959.

Blanda wanted to become mayor, but when the township committee reorganized on New Year’s Day 1960, Munday defeated him in a 3-2 vote with the backing of Seaman.

Mundy lost the 1960 Democratic primary to Marvin Olinsky, and Shinkos resigned at the end of the year.   Blanda became mayor in January 1961.

In 1961, Blanda was re-elected by about 200 votes as voters split their ticket; Republican Robert Lennon, a New Jersey Bell Telephone district manager, defeated Committeeman Donald Malloy, who was appointed to replace Shinkos, by roughly 100 votes.

In the race for governor that year, Democrat Richard Hughes carried Hazlet by about 160 votes, 52%-48%, against Republican James Mitchell.

Blanda did not seek re-election in 1964 and became the municipal attorney in 1965.  He later served as municipal attorney for Union Beach, Keyport, and Keansburg.

“He was the mover and shaker at that time,” said Hazlet GOP Municipal Chairman Gene Kiley, who remembers hearing about Blanda as a child.  “He was the guy who made everything happen in Hazlet.”

Predeceased by his wife, Joan, Blanda is survived by his three children and five grandchildren.