Angelini steps down from Gloucester County Democratic Committee

A dozen years ago, Michael Angelini was a scrappy lawyer who, despite never having held an elected office, coveted control of the Gloucester County Democratic Committee.

His bid to oust longtime politician Anthony Marsella initially was met with boos and hisses at the party's June 1998 reorganization meeting. Democrats already dominated the Board of Freeholders, but they should rule more towns, Angelini argued before capturing the needed votes.

Angelini ran the party with a strong hand, rewarding allies, punishing enemies, and getting big results. With the exception of a lone Republican assemblyman, Democrats hold all countywide and Gloucester County legislative seats.

Last week, the Angelini era came to an end.

The West Deptford resident, who has been plagued by a pension-abuse investigation, decided not to seek another term. State Sen. Fred Madden replaced him Tuesday.

Angelini made a "strong commitment to the party," Madden said. Among his accomplishments was Madden's Senate campaign, which the new chairman said Angelini had tirelessly guided after Madden resigned as acting colonel of the state police.

"I have a lot of respect for Michael," Madden said. "Not one time have I reached out to him for a consult on an issue has he not been there."

In December, state Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper issued a caustic report that questioned Angelini's bid to collect about $100,000 a year in state pension payments. He had cobbled together numerous part-time public jobs while working as a partner in the Woodbury firm Angelini, Viniar & Freedman.

He was more a contractor than a government employee, according to the investigation by Cooper's independent office. And associates often covered for him, the report said.

Asked whether the pension probe had played a role in his decision not to stay on, the former party chairman enunciated slowly, "That had nothing to do with it."

Angelini, 57, rattled off a list of family obligations.

"I want to spend a lot more time with my wife, my kids, and my grandchildren," he said. Two of his five children are getting married this summer, and a fifth grandchild recently arrived.

"I have some mixed emotions about leaving, but probably it's the right time. I don't know that you ever know it's the right time," he said.

Angelini "led with a strong voice but was always approachable," said Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D., Gloucester). "When you are confident, you can carry a big stick but you don't have to use it."

"Under his leadership, we achieved a 7-0 majority on the freeholder board," he said.

"He's a warrior," Burzichelli added. So is Madden, but the new chairman is "more reserved, while Michael can be more animated."

Board President Stephen Sweeney, who is state Senate president, did not return calls for comment about Angelini. He and his West Deptford neighbor have long been powerful allies.

During the Angelini years, the party gained control over more than 70 percent of the county's municipalities, took every county seat, and won all nine legislative seats. The stranglehold ended in November when Republican Domenick DiCicco shocked Democrats by taking a District 4 Assembly seat.

Angelini tended to stay in the background, interviewing candidates, developing campaign strategy, and raising money to keep the party in power.

But after the Cooper report, he found himself in the spotlight.

With Sweeney rallying to his defense, Angelini suffered little fallout at first. "The report I read didn't say he broke any laws," Sweeney told the Gloucester County Times in December.

In recent years, pension laws have been changed to clarify gray areas and to ban towns' part-time lawyers from getting pension benefits.

Angelini and his firm had "acted appropriately and with the best interests of our clients," he said in a statement in December.

Early this year, Angelini's contracts with West Deptford, the Gloucester County Improvement Authority, and the South Jersey Port Corp. were renewed. He also got family health benefits from West Deptford, a perk that has become rare as towns struggle to pay bills and lawmakers restrict coverage to full-time state employees.

Last month, the state Division of Pension and Benefits was still investigating Angelini's pension. It also was looking into details surrounding 11 other lawyers who are accruing public pension credits.

Bill Fey, the county Republican chairman, challenged Angelini over the pension investigation. If Angelini remained party chairman, it would show Democrats didn't "care about unethical behavior," Fey said in a statement after the Cooper report was released.

Angelini, who won't comment on the pension issue, said in a written statement that he would miss being chairman, but would be around to help his party.

His first foray into politics was when he was voted sixth-grade president at SS. Peter and Paul School in Camden. He was demoted to vice president when he failed to get students a football team, he said, chuckling.

But Angelini said it was his role as a guard on the Camden Catholic High School football team that best prepared him for politics.

"I come straight at you, with no fancy footwork," he said. "That's all I know."