Peter Shapiro, who as a 23-year-old rebel was the youngest person ever elected to the New Jersey General Assembly and who later became the first executive of Essex County, died Thursday at his home in South Orange, NJ. At the age of 71.
The cause was respiratory failure after long-term treatment for lung disease, said his wife, Bryna Linett.
As a young congressman, Mr. Shapiro helped streamline the way local government worked after successfully campaigning in 1977 for a charter change that combined the nine-member Essex County Board of Select Freeholders (now the Essex County Board of Commissioners county) with a strong county executive. it was the most populous county in the state, which includes Newark.
He ran for the newly created seat the following year, defeating a Democratic candidate for the nomination and defeating a Republican challenger, Robert F. Knott, by a record margin. As county executive, he reformed the county welfare program, decentralized other services to better respond to localities, refunded the pension system and lowered the county’s property tax rate.
“Peter, what you’ve done for Essex County is exactly what I’m trying to do at the state level,” Gov. Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, said at the time.
Seeking re-election in 1982 and after defeating two opponents in a Democratic primary, Mr. Shapiro said: ”We were able to show that it is possible to take an old urban government like that of Essex County, a government that many people had given and make it more responsive, more efficient, lower taxes and make it a model of what’s right with government.”
After the landslide re-election, Mr. Shapiro concluded that he could repeat his success in Essex as governor. In 1985, he challenged Mr Kean, who had taken office on shaky ground during a recession. But by then, the state’s economy was booming again, and Mr. Shapiro lost the race, 71 percent to 24 percent, the largest margin in a New Jersey gubernatorial race.
In 1986, after his fellow Democratic lawmakers voted for higher spending and taxes than Mr. Shapiro had recommended, he was defeated for re-election as county executive by Nicholas R. Amato, a former Democrat.
Peter Ian Shapiro was born on April 18, 1952 in Newark to Dr. Myron and Henrietta (Asch) Shapiro. His father was an ear, nose and throat surgeon and professor at the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry (now the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey). His mother ran a bookstore in South Orange and ran the household. Peter grew up in Orange and South Orange.
At Columbia High School in Maplewood, he was expelled for leading a demonstration against the Vietnam War, but reinstated after the American Civil Liberties Union intervened.
After graduation, he traveled as a merchant mariner, then earned a degree in economics and history from Harvard College in 1974. After working on Brendan T. Byrne’s gubernatorial campaign, he was hired as an aide by a family friend, Alan Sagner , the new state transportation commissioner.
In his first race for the Assembly, just a year after graduating from college, Mr. Shapiro campaigned door-to-door to defeat the organization’s candidate, Rocco Neri, in the Democratic primary, winning by 183 votes. against 8,530 voters. He served in the Assembly from 1976 to 1979, when he took office as county executive.
He married Ms. Lynette, a teacher, in 1982. Besides her, he is survived by their son, Samuel, and two sisters, Nancy and Margaret (née Pooh) Shapiro.
After leaving office, Mr. Shapiro worked for Citibank and later founded Swap Financial Group, a highly successful independent investment advisor based in Manhattan. He also advised other companies and government agencies on regulatory reform and how to extricate themselves from the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. He retired in 2019.
Sofia Poznansky contributed reporting.
