Joseph George Minish (September 1, 1916 – November 24, 2007)
was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey who represented New Jersey's
11th congressional district in the United States
House of Representatives. Born in Throop, Pennsylvania,
Minish was the son of a coal miner, George Joseph Minish (1894-1932). His
grandfather, Vincenzo "James" Minisci (1860-1920), emigrated to the
United States from Italy in 1886. His mother, Angeline
Nardozzi Minish (1898-1954), emigrated to the United States from Italy as an
infant. Minish had two brothers: James Minish (1920-1928) and Francis X. Minish
(1926-2009); and three sisters: Pauline Minish LaBelle (1918-2001); Mary Minish
Mecca (1921-2000); and Lena Minish Mecca (1923-1994).[2] His brothers-in-law, Charles and James Mecca,
were brothers. He graduated Dunmore High School in
1935, and served in the United States Army from
1945 to 1946. Minish spent his early career in organized labor. He was the Executive Secretary of the
Essex-West Hudson Council, Congress of Industrial Organizations, from 1954 to
1960, and the Executive Director of the Essex-West Industrial Union Council,
AFL-CIO, from 1960 to 1962. In 1962, seven-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Hugh Joseph Addonizio gave
up his Essex County, New Jersey-based
House seat to run for Mayor of Newark. Essex County Democratic leaders picked the
46-year-old Minish to defend the seat, which was considered to be politically
competitive, especially in the mid-term election of President John F. Kennedy. The district included tenements and low-cost
housing in Newark, New Jersey, as
well as wealthy suburbs like South Orange and West Orange. He was
unopposed in the Democratic primary. In the general election, he faced
Republican Frank A.
Palmieri, a lawyer who had won 36% of the vote against Addonizio in
1960. Labor leaders rallied behind Minish, who as a
first-time candidate pledged to support the Kennedy Administration. His
campaign platform included advocacy of "Federal aid for education for
construction and teacher salaries; extension of the Social Security Act to
provide medical care for the aged; 'long-term loans and technical assistance to
emerging nations; and the establishment of a cabinet-level Department of Urban
Affairs." Minish won by a large margin, 48,102 (59.45%) to 30,244 (37.28%)
for Palmieri. Minish spent 22 years in the U.S. House of Representatives,
winning re-election easily. In 1964, he beat William L. Stubbs, who had been the first African American to
win a major party nomination for Congress in New Jersey. He beat: attorney
Leonard Felzenberg in 1966; George M. Wallhauser, Jr., the son of a former
Republican congressman, in 1968; businessman James Shue, the
father of actors Elisabeth Shue and Andrew Shue. in 1970; and in his first seriously contested
re-election bid, former State Senator Milton Waldor in 1972. Later, easily defeated attorney
William Grant in 1974; former Essex County Young Republican Chairman Charles
Poekel in 1976; businessman Julius George Feld in 1978; conservative activist
Bob Davis in 1980; and businessman Rowley (Rey) Reddington in 1982. As a
Congressman, Minish served on the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs
Committee, and was the Chairman of the Subcommittee on General Oversight. The Newark Star-Ledger, which covered Minish's
entire political career, said that he was a staunch party loyalist and
supporter of organized labor who ran a strong constituent service operation but
had no real impact on legislation. Minish was a somewhat conservative Democrat by
New Jersey standards. He drew poor ratings from civil liberties groups,
supported the Vietnam War, and opposed campaign finance reform and legalized
abortion. Minish was described as a low-key Democrat with few accomplishments.
During his two decades in the House, Minish was a supporter of big
financial institutions and received considerable campaign contributions from
the banking industry. He won some headlines for criticizing profiteering by
defense contractors and accusing natural gas producers of price gauging. In
early 1984, a court-ordered redrawing of New Jersey's congressional districts
radically altered Minish's district. Most of the Democratic-leaning areas were
cut out, replaced with heavily Republican areas to the west—most notably, most
of Morris County, one of the
most Republican counties in the state. Minish joked that the new map pushed his
district so far to the west that he might as well be a congressman from Pennsylvania. Although Minish now found himself in one of
the most Republican districts in the Northeast, he opted to run for reelection
in the reconfigured 11th. He lost, 133,662 (56%) to 106,038 (44%) to State Assembly Minority
Leader and Morris County resident Dean Gallo. Minish blamed his loss on redistricting that
made his district so heavily Republican that "I'm not sure the good Lord
could have survived." He also blamed special interest groups who had long
lobbied against him. "If you measure a man by his enemies, I'm pleased to
have these guys as my enemies. They're no good for the country. They're
greedy," Minish said in a New York Times post-election interview. Proving just how
Republican this district now was, a Democrat would not cross the 40 percent
mark again for 34 years, until Mikie Sherrill reclaimed the seat for the Democrats in
2018.