June Fischer, a loyal party stalwart and popular insider who spent 28 years as a Democratic National Committeewoman from New Jersey, died today. She was 94.
Fischer was the Democratic nominee for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district in 1986, winning 21% of the vote against seven-term Rep. Matthew Rinaldo (D-Elizabeth). Fischer stepped up to run an unwinnable race against the popular Rinaldo, a moderate Republican with labor endorsements and the ability to win the city of Elizabeth despite his party.
She defeated James Cleary, a Lyndon LaRouche follower, with 87% of the vote in the Democratic primary.
Joe Biden, then a three-term U.S. Senator from Delaware, came to Bridgewater to campaign for Fischer’s congressional bid.
She began her political career in 1959 when she won a Democratic County Committee seat in Hillside. She later won the same post after moving to Scotch Plains.
In 1981, Fisher ran for Union County Clerk against Walter Halpin, the three-term Republican incumbent. Halpin was re-elected by a 60%-40% margin. Republican Thomas Kean carried Union County in his gubernatorial run that year, and the GOP swept three freeholder seats. She served as chair of the Union County Board of Elections.
In addition to her national committeewoman post, Fischer spent 32 years as a Democratic State Committeewoman from Union County, and served on the DNC’s 25-member Rules Committee. In the early 1990s, she was the Eastern Regional Caucus Chair of the DNC – a post she won after months of campaigning; she succeeded Jim Roosevelt, the former president’s grandson.
Fischer backed Ted Kennedy’s unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination against incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980. She had backed Carter in 1976. In 1978, she backed a longtime friend, former State Sen. Alex Menza (D-Hillside), when he ran for U.S. Senate against Bill Bradley in the Democratic primary.
She was a vice chair of the New Jersey delegation to the 1992 Democratic National Convention that supported Bill Clinton for president.
Fisher had worked as the financial administrator for the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union. She was a member of the Jewish Democratic Council of North America.
