[Pages H7223-H7224]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

PAYING TRIBUTE TO FORMER CONGRESSMAN FRANK GUARINI

(Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, at this holiday season, please let me pay
tribute to a remarkable American, a patriot who has dedicated his life
to building our Nation and world into a more just and livable planet.
I extend grateful holiday wishes to the now current oldest-living
former U.S. Congressman, Frank Guarini of Jersey City, New Jersey. He
and his family and friends are celebrating his 100 years of life as an
American patriot, faithful to his family, his friends, Jersey City, and
Hudson County.
His milestone life includes service in this House from 1979 to 1993.
Hailing from Jersey City, New Jersey, Frank distinguished himself as an
extraordinary patriot, a champion swimmer, and a World War II Navy
decorated combat veteran of the Pacific campaign.
He rose to the rank of lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, and he continues
to pursue his business and philanthropic interests as a proud son of
Jersey City. Here, he served as a distinguished member of the Ways and
Means Committee, specializing in international trade and fair taxation.
Frank endowed his alma mater, Dartmouth College's School of
International Relations, as well as John Cabot University in Italy, the
Italian American Foundation, and countless and endless works of good
will toward others.
We wish him, his family, and friends, like former New York Members
Charles Rangel and posthumously Ben Gilman and his family joy in these
holidays. Celebrating Frank's life makes 2024 a memorable holiday
season. I send heartfelt congratulations to Congressman Frank Guarini
at age 100.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to place an important newspaper
article in the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Miller of Ohio). Is there objection to
the request of the gentlewoman from Ohio?
There was no objection.

[From New Jersey Globe, Aug. 20, 2024]

Happy 100th Birthday,Congressman Frank Guarini

(By David Wildstein)

America's oldest living former congressman; Jersey City
Democrat served in N.J. State Senate from 1966 to 1972, ran
for U.S. Senate in 1970, and was a congressman from 1979 to
1993.
Frank J. Guarini, Jr., who served as a congressman from a
Hudson County district for fourteen years, celebrates his
100th birthday today.
The Jersey City Democrat is the oldest living former
congressman from New Jersey, the oldest living former
statewide candidate, the oldest living former state senator,
and the oldest living member of the U.S. House of
Representatives.
Guarini had spent most of his life around politics. His
father had represented Hudson County in the State Assembly in
1931 and 1932. A Dartmouth graduate, Guarini was a decorated
World War II combat veteran.
A 40-year-old attorney and the chairman of the America Red
Cross' Jersey City Chapter, Guarini decided to run for office
in 1965 when reapportionment following the U.S. Supreme
Court's One Man, One Vote ruling increased Hudson County's
presence in the New Jersey State Senate from one seat to
three.
Hudson County Democratic Chairman John V. Kenny and other
party leaders picked Guarini and William V. Musto, an eleven-
term assemblyman and the mayor of Union City, to run for
State Senate on a slate with two-term incumbent William F.
Kelly (D-Jersey City). Musto had been an automatic pick, but
Guarini edged out Bayonne city attorney James Dugan.
The Democrats won the general election by over 100,000
votes.
During his first term, Democrats controlled the Senate and
Guarini became chairman of the newly created Senate Air and
Water Pollution and Public Health Committee.
Another round of reapportionment gave Hudson a fourth
Senate seat in 1967, Kenny and the Hudson Democrats put
Assemblyman Frederick Hauser (D-Hoboken), who had spent
eighteen years in the lower house, on the ticket.
The four Democrats easily outdistanced their Republican
rivals: Norman Roth, who had come within just 56 votes of
winning a seat in Congress in 1956 against Rep. Alfred
Sieminski (D-Jersey City); Cresenzi W. Castaldo, who had won
21 percent in a congressional bid in 1964; Eugene P. Kenny,
who won 21 percent in his 1962 House campaign; and 31-year-
old attorney Geoffrey Gaulkin, who later served as the Hudson
County Prosecutor and Superior Court Judge.
In his second term, Guarini championed the construction of
a new stadium in the Meadowlands and was among the first to
meet with New York Giants owner Wellington Mara to pitch New
Jersey as a future NFL home.

U.S. Senate Bid

In 1970, Guarini decided to challenge two-term U.S. Senator
Harrison A. Williams, Jr. in the Democratic primary. A decade
before the Abscam scandal that ended his career, Williams had
been censured by the New Jersey NAACP for showing up drunk at
a meeting where he was the main speaker.
In late 1969, Williams had released endorsements from
eighteen Democratic county chairmen, in a bid to prevent a
primary fight from Guarini, some party leaders offered him
the post of Senate Minority Leader--the incumbent, J. Edward
Crabiel (D-Milltown) was willing to give up--but Guarini (and
Kenny) refused.
Guarini, who had won two Democratic primaries for State
Senate with the support of the Hudson County Democratic
organization, made a bid for an open primary. He essentially
sought to end New Jersey's system of preferential ballot
positions for organization-backed candidates more than fifty
years ago, but without success.
He did that with the support of Kenny, the Hudson boss who
had split from most of the state's Democratic establishment
when he refused to back former Gov. Robert Meyner's bid for a
third term against Rep. William Cahill (R-Collingswood).
Cahill carried Hudson by fifteen percentage points.
Former New Jersey Attorney General Arthur Sills, supporting
Guarini, attacked Williams for his alcoholism, a move
backfired after the Democratic Senator had acknowledged his
drinking problem.
With just the Hudson organization line, Guarini lost to
Williams by 90,647 votes, a 66 percent-34 percent race.
Guarini carried only Hudson County--he scored a 16,194-vote
plurality (62 percent-38 percent)--and Williams won
everywhere else.
After the primary, Guarini refocused on local issues. He
proposed the construction of a freeway that would have
connected Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen to Route 80,
sponsored legislation to change the legal voting age in New
Jersey from 21 to 18, attempted to legalize Jai Alai, and
tried to persuade the San Francisco Giants to move to New
Jersey and play in a new baseball stadium he wanted built in
the Meadowlands.
The lifelong bachelor was the only senator to vote against
a bill to make it easier for New Jerseyans to get a divorce.
But in 1971, Guarini decided to eschew a bid for re-
election to the State Senate. That happened when
reapportionment reduced Hudson's Senate delegation from four
to three and Guarini became a redistricting casualty.
Hudson County lost a congressional seat in 1972, when a new
district was created in Morris Warren, Sussex and Hunterdon
counties. Rep. Cornelius Gallagher (D-Bayonne), had been
expected to keep the Hudson seat--party leaders were going to
tell Rep. Dominick Daniels (D-Jersey City), who was 20
years older than Gallagher, to retire. Gallagher was
indicted on tax evasion charges and the accusations
against him came at a considerable cost.
The Hudson County Democratic Organization, in deep trouble.
Kenny had gone to prison and reformer Paul Jordan was elected
Mayor of Jersey City in 1971. Guarini was a fierce critic of
Jordan.
For a short time, there was talk of dropping Daniels and
Gallagher with Guarini becoming the compromise machine
candidate against Jordan's candidate, West New York Mayor
Anthony DeFino. But they decided to stick with Daniels, who
won the primary by a 51 percent-32 percent margin against
DeFino. Gallagher came in third with just 15 percent of the
vote, with 2 percent going to former Congressman Vincent
Dellay, who had won the other Hudson House seat in 1956 as a
Republican and later switched parties.
Guarini also explored taking on three-term Republican U.S.
Senator Clifford Case in 1972, but party leaders settled on
former Rep. Paul Krebs (D-Livingston) for a nomination not
worth fighting for.
In late 1972, a list of potential gubernatorial candidates
drawn up by Democratic State Chairman Salvatore Bontempo to
take on Cahill the following year included Guarini, but he
never made any moves to run.

[[Page H7224]]

Guarini supported State Sen. Ralph DeRose (D-South Orange)
for governor in 1973. He signed on to help DeRose after the
Hudson County Democratic Chairman, Francis Fitzpatrick,
agreed to give the organization line to Superior Court Judge
Brendan Byrne.
When Daniels retired in 1976, Hudson leaders agreed to give
the seat to Assembly Speaker Joseph LeFante (D-Bayonne).
Guarini sharply criticized the move to leave Jersey City
without a congressman.

Return to public office

Guarini backed Thomas F.X. Smith, the city clerk, in the
1977 Jersey City mayoral election against Jordan's handpicked
successor, Bill Macchi.
Smith won by a 54 percent-26 percent margin. The seismic
shift in Jersey City politics in May caused Jordan to
withdraw as a candidate for governor and led to the defeat of
several incumbents in the June primary for State Senate and
Assembly.
With support from Smith and Musto--and later from Bayonne
Mayor Dennis Collins --Guarini was elected Hudson County
Democratic Chairman, succeeding a Jordan ally, Bernard
Harnett.
In late 1977, Guarini began seeking party support to
challenge Case in the 1978 U.S. Senate race. He joined a
field that included former New York Nicks star Bill Bradley,
State Treasurer Richard Leone, Rep. Andrew Maguire (D-
Ridgewood), and former State Sen. Alexander Menza (D-
Hillside).
Smith had indicated that he would support Guarini if he
ran, but he was also feeling pressure from Byrne, who wanted
the Hudson line to go to Leone. Guarini announced he would
not run and suddenly became a leading candidate to serve as
chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority,
then a hugely powerful post.
But instead, Guarini decided that the Hudson congressional
seat should return to Jersey City and that LeFante would be a
one-term congressman.
After LeFante left Congress, Byrne put him in his cabinet
as Commissioner of Community Affairs.
Guarini won 82 percent of the vote in the Democratic House
primary against two minor candidates, and 64 percent in the
general election against Republican Henry Hill, a Kearney
councilman.
As a freshman congressman, Guarini was assigned to the
powerful House Ways and Means Committee. He also served on
the House Budget Committee.
During his fourteen years in Congress, Guarini became one
of the House's experts on international trade issues. He was
part of the first U.S. trade mission to China, served as a
delegate to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and
sponsored the Caribbean Basin Initiative that created
increased trade with Caribbean and Latin American nations.
Guarini played a major role in revising the Internal
Revenue Code in 1986 and led efforts to modernize trade and
tariff laws.
He also led the fight against the proposed Westway project
in Manhattan, which sought to construct an above-water
roadway adjacent to the West Side Highway. Guarini's success
helped protect New Jersey's view of the New York skyline,
something that helped pave the way for redevelopment in
places like Jersey City and Hoboken.
In 1986, he defeated Albio Sires, then a West New York
gadfly running as a Republican, with 71 percent of the vote.
Sires is retiring this year after fourteen years in Congress
as a Democrat.
Congressional redistricting in 1992 redrew Guarini's
district to include a substantial number of Hispanic voters
in North Hudson that had previously been in a Bergen County-
based district--and the addition of parts of Newark, Linden,
Elizabeth, Woodbridge and Perth Amboy--Guarini declined to
run for re-election rather than face a primary against State
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Union City). Menendez had been eyeing a
run for Congress.
After leaving Congress, Guarini continued to practice law
and became a highly successful real estate developer.
President Bill Clinton appointed him as U.S. Representative
to the General Assembly of the United Nations, a post that
carried the rank of Ambassador.
Guarini spearheaded a lawsuit against New York that led to
the U.S. Supreme Court returning 90 percent of Ellis Island
to New Jersey.
Jersey City's main post office is the Congressman Frank
Guarini Post Office, and other buildings bear his name: a
library; a New Jersey City University; the business school,
Institute for Government and Leadership, and the college
president's residence at St. Peter's University; John Cabot
University's Rome campus; and the Hudson County justice
complex.

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