Rocco Neri

Rocco Neri (September 26, 1919 – October 6, 2011) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1974 to 1976. A resident of Irvington, New Jersey, Neri was the Essex County Undersheriff from 1972 to 1980, serving under Sheriff John F. Cryan, and owned Stuyvesant Auto Body for three decades. He was elected to the State Assembly in 1973, representing the 28th district that included South Orange, Irvington and parts of Newark. He won the Democratic primary without opposition, and defeated Republicans Joseph T. DeVizio and Charles C. Deubal, Jr. by a margin of more than 2-1. Neri sought re-election to a second term in 1975, but was unsuccessful. Despite the support of the powerful Essex County Democratic Committee, he lost the Democratic primary by 183 votes to 23-year-old Peter Shapiro, who mounted a grass roots campaign that included personal visits from his Harvard classmate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr..