Carmen Anthony Orechio (November 4, 1926 – February 26, 2018) was an American politician who served as

President of the New Jersey Senate The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232 ...

and as Commissioner and Mayor of Nutley, New Jersey.

Early life and education

Orechio was born in 1926 in

Nutley, New Jersey Nutley is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 30,143. What is now Nutley was originally incorporated as Franklin Township by an act of the New Jersey Legisla ...

. He graduated from

Nutley High School Nutley High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school in the Township of Nutley, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Nutley Public Schoo ...

and

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

with the European Occupational Forces.

Career

Orechio was elected to the Nutley Board of Commissioners in 1968. During his tenure as commissioner he served as Director of the Department of Public Safety and as Director of the Department of Public Affairs. He served as Mayor of Nutley three times: 1972–1976, 1980–1984, and 1992–1996. He was the first

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, w ...

Mayor of Nutley, New Jersey. He ran for the State Assembly in 1969, running in Essex County District 11C with fellow Democrat Joseph Iannuzzi. They were defeated by the Republican incumbents,

C. Richard Fiore C. Richard Fiore (July 18, 1931 – July 12, 2003) was an American Republican Party politician who served two terms in the New Jersey General Assembly. Fiore (along with Ralph R. Caputo) was elected as a Republican to the State Assembly in 1967, ...

, and Ralph R. Caputo. In 1973, Orechio was elected to the

New Jersey Senate The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. There are 40 legislative districts, representing districts with an average population of 232, ...

from Essex County. He defeated two-term incumbent Republican

Michael Giuliano Michael A. Giuliano (June 13, 1915 – April 21, 1976) was an American Republican Party politician who served two terms in the New Jersey Senate. Biography Born in Newark, New Jersey, Giuliano graduated from Barringer High School and Rutgers ...

by 3,483 votes in the Democratic landslide of 1973, 29,878 (53%) to 26,395 (47%). He was re-elected to a second term in 1977 against Republican Assemblyman John N. Dennis by 918 votes, 25,773 (51%)to 24,855 (49.%). He was re-elected in 1981 by 1,060 votes against Republican John Crecco, a Bloomfield Councilman, 30,990 (49%) to 29,930 (48%). In 1983, he won his fourth term against Ralph J. Salerno, a Republican attorney from Bloomfield. Orechio received 28,613 (54%) to 23,523 (44%) for Salerno and 1,061 (2%) for Martin Scaturo, a former Democratic Essex County Freeholder who was running as an Independent. He was re-elected to a fifth term in the Senate in 1987, defeating Thomas Zampino (later a New Jersey Superior Court Judge), 20,949 (50%) to 18,455 (44%).

John Kinder John Kinder (born September 28, 1974 in Santa Ana, California) is a Japanese American stock car racing, stock car racing driver. He is a former competitor in the NASCAR SuperTruck Series by Craftsman and the Winston West Series, and in the United ...

, who had served many years as the Republican Mayor of Bloomfield, received 2,371 (6%) of the vote as an Independent. He served as Senate Majority Leader in 1981 and as Senate President from 1982 to 1985. In 1991, due to redistricting following the 1990 census, the 30th Legislative District represented by Orechio was moved to the south to form a new district. Rather than run in the 36th District against fellow Democratic incumbent Gabriel M. Ambrosio of Lyndhurst, Orechio announced that he would not seek re-election to the Senate. In 2008, after 40 years of service on the Nutley Board of Commissioners, Orechio lost his 11th re-election bid by 29 votes.

Death

Orechio died on February 26, 2018, in

at the age of 91.

References

External links

Carmen A. Orechio
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations of ...

, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Orechio, Carmen A. 1926 births 2018 deaths People from Nutley, New Jersey Military personnel from New Jersey Rutgers University alumni Mayors of Nutley, New Jersey New Jersey city council members Democratic Party New Jersey state senators Presidents of the New Jersey Senate American people of Italian descent United States Army personnel of World War II