Joseph Suliga

Joseph S. Suliga (December 25, 1957 – February 18, 2005) was an American Democratic Party politician, who served in the New Jersey State Senate, where he represented the 22nd Legislative District, until 2004. Suliga did not run for re-election in 2003 after a scandal involving his alleged drunken sexual harassment of a woman in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Instead he resigned and entered rehabilitation for alcoholism and was replaced on the ballot and in the Senate by fellow Linden Democrat Nicholas Scutari.

In 2005, Suliga was killed in an automobile accident in the parking lot of a Linden go-go bar. Governor Richard Codey ordered that flags be flown at half-staff in Suliga's honor. Suliga was sitting in the back seat of an Infiniti that had been illegally parked by his driver, Nicholas Sorrentino; the car's back was sticking out onto the street. The Infiniti was struck while Sorrentino and Suliga were inside and Joan Hannon was about to enter the vehicle, by an automobile driven by Omar Beeks. Beeks later testified that he had struck the Infiniti while trying to avoid hitting another vehicle. Hannon was thrown twenty feet and suffered cracked ribs and pelvis in addition to a broken ankle. In a civil trial, a jury found Sorrentino liable for the accident and awarded $621,410 to Suliga's widow, Annemarie Pakulski, as well as $150,000 to Hannon for her injuries. The jury did not find Beeks liable for the accident in any amount. He was the Linden City Treasurer at the time of his death.

Suliga received a B.A. from Kean University with a major in Political Science, and was granted a Master of Public Administration degree in 1993 from Kean University and earned an M.S. degree from Rutgers University in Industrial Relations.