John F. Russo

John Francis Russo

Career He served for nine years as an assistant prosecutor in Ocean County, and was first elected to the State Senate in 1973.

In the Senate, Russo served on the Joint Committee on Appropriations and a Special Sub-Committee on Tax Reform and was the chair of the Committee on Energy, Agriculture and Environment and the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1982, he wrote a bill reinstating capital punishment in New Jersey.

Russo ran for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of New Jersey in 1985, placing second behind nominee Peter Shapiro, who was in turn soundly defeated by Thomas Kean in the general election.

He was a fan of the New York Giants. In 1974, when the Giants were building a new stadium in New Jersey, Russo co-sponsored a resolution in the Senate which asked the team to consider changing their name to fit their location. Eugene J. Bedell, the author of the measure, introduced Russo on the floor under the nickname "Ripper". When the Giants started the 1974 season 1–5, he attempted to remove his name from the bill because "I don't think New Jersey needs its name on a team playing like that."

Russo died on August 12, 2017, of esophageal cancer at the age of 84.