Peter Shapiro Archives - New Jersey Globe

Trailblazer: Congressman Donald Payne Sr.

January 20, 2020 12:53 amJanuary 20, 2020 8:54 am

Donald Payne, Sr. (1934-2012) was the first African American to represent New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives. He had run for Congress twice before winning the seat in 1988. In 1970, Payne became the first African American to...

Trailblazer: Mayor Kenneth Gibson

January 20, 2020 12:52 amJanuary 20, 2020 9:05 am

Kenneth Gibson (1932-2019) became the first African American to serve as mayor of a major northeastern city when he ousted two-term incumbent Hugh Addonizio in 1970. Gibson had served as an engineer for the New Jersey Highway Department and as...

Joseph Martin, former Essex County administrator, Union County manager, dies

January 2, 2020 9:05 am

Joseph A. Martin, Jr., who served as the Essex County Administrator and as the Union County manager, died on December 27. He was 73. Essex County Executive Peter Shapiro first appointed Martin as county administrator in 1985. He was replaced...

Bradley Beach Democrats back Schmid for Congress

November 12, 2019 9:01 am

Bradley Beach Democratic Municipal Chairman Stephen Lozowick has endorsed Stephanie Schmid for Congress in New Jersey’s 4th district – the first party leader to endorse Schmid’s bid to unseat Rep. Christopher Smith (R-Hamilton). Schmid has also won the backing of...

Fran Rein, Democratic consultant who ran Kennedy NJ campaign, dies at 75

October 14, 2019 11:29 amOctober 14, 2019 4:02 pm

Fran Rein, one of New Jersey’s top Democratic political operatives in the 1970s and 1980s, died this morning. She was 75. In 1980, Rein became Ted Kennedy’s New Jersey State Director during his bid to wrestle the Democratic presidential nomination...

How Peter Shapiro won

July 22, 2019 3:43 amJuly 22, 2019 3:41 am

Peter Shapiro was just 26 when he beat the powerful Essex County Democratic machine to win the primary in the first race for Essex County Executive. Shapiro defeated Sheriff John Cryan by just 2,497 votes in the 1978 Democratic primary,...

The 1978 race for Essex County Executive, Part 1

July 22, 2019 3:42 amJuly 24, 2019 8:30 pm

Essex County politics had an evolutionary transformation in the late 1970s, when voters approved a referendum that switched control of country government from the Board of Freeholders to a single County Executive. A process that took six years culminated in...