08/21/2024
I had known of Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. from afar and attended law school with his son Bill Pascrell, III (politician kids tend to know each other even if it is peripherally, my dad was a long serving state senator who was a friend of colleague of Pascrell). But I got to know him well during the 2008 Presidential Primary season.
As the first elected official in NJ to endorse then Senator Barack Obama for President, the Essex County Democratic Committee honored that endorsement and named me the County leader of the coordinated statewide effort. All county leaders convened a weekly Saturday meeting at the party's suburban county HQ in West Orange, NJ. All county committee persons, local, state, county and federal Democratic elected officials attend. It is/was equal parts rally, campaign update, canvassing, phone banking, socializing, sign posting, breakfast event.
One Saturday, Rep. Pascrell was the invited "speaker." And I will always remember how he introduced himself: "Ron, Jr., I love you father, one of my favorite colleagues in the senate. I'm Congressman Pascrell, the silver fox." We both laughed. He gave one helluva fire us up speech and he stayed an hour after we were done speaking with folks in a county he only marginally represented (Passaic County was his mainstay).
RIP to a true public servant. My prayers go out to my Seton Hall Law School classmate Bill, III and the entire Pascrell family. Now, he and my dad can continue their argument about which branch of the military was the toughest in heaven.
William J. Pascrell, Jr., a beloved, old-school New Jersey politician who spent 28 years in the U.S. House of Representatives as a scrappy, impassioned
