Kenneth A. Gewertz

Kenneth A. Gewertz (December 1, 1934 – December 12, 2006) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as Mayor of Deptford Township, New Jersey and in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1972 to 1980. His advocacy efforts on behalf of his hometown earned him a reputation as "Mr. Deptford".[2]

Kenneth A. Gewertz
Member of the New Jersey General Assembly
In office January 11, 1972 – January 8, 1980 Serving with Francis J. Gorman
Preceded by	Thomas J. Shusted James M. Turner
Succeeded by	Daniel Dalton Dennis L. Riley
Constituency	District 3B (1972–74) 4th district (1974–80)
Personal details
Born	December 1, 1934 Chicago, Illinois
Died	December 12, 2006 (aged 72) Orlando, Florida
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Mary Diane Vasbinder ​ ​ (m. 1957; div. 1986)​ [1]
Children	two daughters, one son[2]
Residence	Deptford Township, New Jersey
Alma mater	Temple University
Occupation	Building supplies

Personal life

Gewertz was born on December 1, 1934, in Chicago as one of four children and moved as a one-year-old to Philadelphia, where he attended West Philadelphia High School, dropping out of school after two years, after which he served in the military and worked at a number of odd jobs. He is a graduate of Temple University.[3][1]

He was president of a building supply company.[3]

Fond of bringing attention to himself, Gewertz was known for driving an orange Corvette and wearing yellow plaid suits while on the floor of the Assembly.[2] In a 1980 incident, he filed charges against a group of four prostitutes in Atlantic City who had stolen $8,000 worth of jewelry from him.[1]

Gewertz died of a heart attack on December 12, 2006, at the age of 72 at a home he owned in Orlando, Florida.[2]

Public service

A resident of Deptford Township, New Jersey, Gewertz joined the Deptford Township Police Department in 1962, earning attention by bringing a .357 magnum for use on the job. He was appointed as the township's chief of police in January 1963. He and his entire 12-member police force resigned in May of that year, staging the first police strike in state history, to protest the hiring of an officer who didn't live in the municipality. After the strike ended, the Township Committee refused to bring him back as chief.[1]

He was a member of the Deptford Township Council from 1966 to 1968, and served as the township's mayor from 1969 to 1972.[3] In 1970, while serving as mayor, the township changed its form of government to the Council-Manager form, removing executive powers from Gewertz as mayor to an appointed Township Manager.[1]

As part of an ultimately successful effort to shame legislators into providing $328,000 of state funds for the roadways needed to create the Deptford Mall, Gewertz paid Oscar Mayer to create a piece of lunch meat 10-foot (3.0 m) long that he brought to the state capital in Trenton, New Jersey together with two busloads of supporters to hand the luncheon meet to Transportation Secretary John C. Kohl in order to make his point that officials were "full of baloney".[2][1]

After the Republican Assembly candidates refused to participate in a debate, he hired a helicopter to hover over the Republican Party's annual picnic, creating havoc on the ground. Gewertz reveled in the attention that he got from the incident, which kept his name in the headlines for weeks.[1]

In the 1971 general election, Gewertz and Francis J. Gorman were elected to represent District 3B of the General Assembly, one of four pairs of representatives from the 3rd Legislative District, which was further divided into four Assembly districts (Districts 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D); District 3B included portions of Camden and Gloucester counties.[4][5]

In January 1972, David Friedland was one of four Democrats who voted to give the minority Republicans control of the General Assembly, electing Thomas Kean as Assembly Speaker; Friedland and his allies argued that the Democratic leadership had been ignoring the needs of Hudson County. Gewertz shouted on the Assembly floor that "Jesus Christ had his Judas, the Democrats now have their David Friedland".[6]

Upon the creation of a 40-district legislative map in 1973 in response to the one-man-one-vote system mandated by the 1964 Supreme Court decision in Reynolds v. Sims, the new 4th Legislative District consisted of portions of Burlington County, Camden County, Gloucester County.[7] In the 1973 general election, both Gewertz and Gorman were elected to the General Assembly, representing the 4th District; they were re-elected in 1975 and 1977.[8][9][10]

James M. Turner was removed from the Senate on June 28, 1973, after being convicted for his role in a conspiracy in which bags filled with 6,500 amphetamine tablets were placed in Gewertz's home, as part of an effort to destroy Gewertz's political career. With his conviction, Turner was barred from running for office or serving in any state office.[11]

Governor Brendan Byrne and Democratic party leaders initiated efforts in early 1974 to marginalize Gewertz in his role as Majority Whip, based on Gewertz's opposition to Byrne's legislative initiatives, including public financing of elections and the imposition of a state income tax to be used towards providing additional aid to needy school districts.[12]

In May 1978, Gewertz agreed to end his ownership of a company that had sold 250 slot machines to Resorts Casino Hotel, which had been in the process of opening the first casino in Atlantic City and had wanted to have access to multiple vendors for the gambling devices; the Legislature's Ethics Committee had issued a confidential decision that Gewertz hadn't violated any ethical constraint, but was willing to disclose the decision and eliminate his involvement to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.[13]

In 1979, James Florio, then a Congressman, convinced Daniel Dalton and Dennis L. Riley to run in the June primary under the label of the "Florio Democratic Team" against three-term incumbents Gewertz and Gorman, who had the support of Angelo Errichetti and the Camden County Democratic Organization.[14] Dalton (with 31.3% of the vote) and Riley (with 28.3%) won the two ballot spots in the primary balloting.[15]

With Burlington County removed from the 4th District and portions of Atlantic County added in redistricting following the 1980 United States Census, Gewertz ran for election to a two-year term in the New Jersey Senate for the seat that had been held by Democrat Joseph A. Maressa, who chose not to run for office in the wake of the Abscam scandal, losing to Daniel Dalton in the June 1981 Democratic Party primary by a 65%–35% margin.[16]

In 1989, Gewertz was elected to a three-year term on the Deptford Township Council.[1]

References

1. Hand, Christopher. "Vivid Figure Returns To Political Landscape", The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 17, 1989. September 23, 2016. "In 1957, he married Mary Diane Vasbinder, a nursing student. Two years later, the couple, who divorced in 1986, bought a home in the Woodbury Gardens section of Deptford."
2. Wood, Sam. "Kenneth Gewertz, 72, 'Mr. Deptford'", The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 14, 2006. Accessed September 16, 2016. "Kenneth Gewertz, 72, a bigger-than-life Gloucester County politician known as 'Mr. Deptford,' died in his sleep Tuesday night at his winter home in Orlando, Fla., from a heart attack.... Many credit him with helping turn Gloucester County from a backwater chock-a-block with pig farms into one of the fastest-growing suburban counties in America."
3. Staff. Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey; 1975 Edition, p. 221. Accessed September 18, 2016. "Assemblyman Gewertz, was born in Chicago, Illinois, Dec. 1, 1934. He received his education at West Philadelphia High School and Temple University, where he attended evening classes."
4. New Jersey Senate and Assembly Districts, 1972–1973, New Jersey State Library. Accessed September 18, 2016. "Assembly District 3B – The following municipalities in Gloucester County: Clayton Township, Deptford Township, Elk Township, Glassboro Borough, Mantua Township, Wenonah Borough and Woodbury Heights Borough; and that part of Camden County not included in Assembly District 3C and Assembly District 3D."
5. Results of the General Election Held on November 2, 1971 Archived July 6, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Secretary of State of New Jersey. Accessed September 18, 2016.
6. Sullivan, Ronald. "4 Democrats Give G.O.P. Jersey Assembly Control", The New York Times, January 12, 1972. Accessed September 16, 2016. "The vote followed an angry debate that provoked charges of racism and in which Democrats accused the Republicans of making deal with Mr. Friedland in order to gain the Speaker's office. "Jesus Christ had his Judas, the Democrats now have their David Friedland,' shouted Kenneth A. Gewertz, a Gloucester County Democratic Assemblyman."
7. New Jersey Legislative Districts 1974–, New Jersey State Library. Accessed September 18, 2016.
8. Results of the General Election Held November 6, 1973 Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Secretary of State of New Jersey. Accessed September 18, 2016.
9. Results of the General Election Held November 4, 1975 Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Secretary of State of New Jersey. Accessed September 18, 2016.
10. Results of the General Election Held November 8, 1977 Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Secretary of State of New Jersey. Accessed September 18, 2016.
11. Waggoner, Walter H. "Turner Convicted In Drug Conspiracy", The New York Times, June 29, 1973. Accessed September 18, 2016. "State Senator James M. Turner, a Gloucester County Republican, was found guilty today all three counts of conspiracy, bribery and giving false information to law enforcement officials in a plot to frame Assemblyman Kenneth A. Gewertz, a Democrat, on narcotics charges.... The indictment named as the co‐conspirators, but not defendants, Richard E. McDowell, a 47‐year‐old dealer in building supplies who was accused during the trial of dealing in 'hard cargoes as far away as Boston'; his 26‐year‐old son, Richard J., who has a record of two larceny arrests and is now out on parole, and Carl Yellin, 19, who was accused of actually hiding two bags of about 6,500 amphetamine‐type pills at the Gewertz home."
12. Staff. "Legislative Notes", The New York Times, April 28, 1974. Accessed September 19, 2016. "According to party officials, the break between Mr. Gewertz and the Democratic power structure here was predictable, since the maverick legislator has refused to support most of the Governor's — and the party's — key recommendations. His most recent opposition involved his speaking out against Mr. Byrne's proposal for the public financing of gubernatorial elections.Mr. Gewertz also has emphasized that he will oppose any effort by the Governor to include a state income levy in any tax‐reform program embodying school financing."
13. Waldron, Martin. "Assemblyman Gewertz Agrees to Sever His Ties With Company Selling Slot Machines to Casinos", The New York Times, May 4, 1978. Accessed September 19, 2016. "Assemblyman Kenneth A. Gewertz said today that he was part owner of a company that had contracted to sell 250 slot machines to Resorts International, but that in deference to the Ethics Committee of the Legislature he was severing ties with the company."
14. Staff. "County Voters Shun Primary – Heavily", Asbury Park Press, June 6, 1979. Accessed September 15, 2016. "Elsewhere in the state, candidates running on a ticket fielded by Florio won the Democratic nominations in two Camden County Assembly districts over an opposing ticket backed by Errichetti.... Four-term Assemblymen Kenneth Gewertz and Francis Gorman were upset by Florio's team of Daniel Dalton and Dennis Riley in the fourth district, which takes in parts of Gloucester and Burlington counties as well as part of Camden."
15. Results of the Primary Election Held on June 5, 1979 Archived July 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Secretary of State of New Jersey. Accessed September 16, 2016.
16. Candidates for the Offices of State Senate and General Assembly – 1981 Primary, Secretary of State of New Jersey. Accessed September 18, 2016.