Carl Orechio

May 13, 2008 - 10:00pm

Orechio's defeat ends a 40-year political career

The defeat of Carmen Orechio for re-election to the Nutley Township Commission seat he has held since 1968 is indeed the end of an era in a town where the Orechio family has dominated local politics for nearly fifty years.  A former State Senate President, the 81-year-old Orechio was defeated tonight by Joseph Scarpelli, a former Essex County Freeholder and the son of Peter Scarpelli, who is stepping down as a Commissioner in July.

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January 7, 2008 - 12:40pm

The one that starts in the 1960's and ends with Codey

When Eldridge Hawkins, a 31-year-old African American lawyer from East Orange, won the District 11E State Assembly seat in a politically competitive district in 1971, he was widely viewed as a rising star in Essex County Democratic politics.  Hawkins is no seeking a political comeback of sorts: his son, Eldridge Hawkins, Jr., 28, announced this week that he was a candidate for Mayor of Orange.

Legislative redistricting was in constant turmoil in those days, as New Jersey sought to follow the U.S. Supreme Court's one man, one vote decision.  Districts were redrawn in 1965, 1967, 1969, 1971 and 1973.

The story of District 11E starts in 1967, when Kenneth Wilson, a 31-year-old Social Studies teacher from West Orange and John Dennis, 34, a businessman from Verona whose family owned the Annin Flag Company, were among a group of seven young Republicans elected to the State Assembly.  (That group included future Governor Thomas Kean, 32, and Ralph Caputo, 27, who returns to the State Assembly tomorrow after a 35 year absence.)

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