Farewell to a favorite son

Former longtime Pine Beach Mayor Russell K. Corby has never forgotten the advice Brick Mayor Daniel F. Newman gave him after he was sworn in for his first term in the late 1980s.

Daniel F. Newman "He said, 'Kid, you've got to learn to shut your mouth,' " Newman told Corby. " 'When you walk into a room, everybody knows you're the mayor. You don't have to say a word. Everybody in that room is going to wait to hear from you. Let them call you names. The longer you can sit there quietly, the more anxious they are going to get. And when you open your mouth, you're going to say something important.' "

"It was a great piece of advice," Corby said this weekend, after learning of the death of the man he considered a mentor and a friend.

But Newman often didn't follow his own advice, Corby said.

"Danny would argue with a tree stump," Corby said. "He loved it. He was Irish. He had such great passion."

Newman, like Corby, was an oddity in the GOP land of Ocean County. He was a Democrat who won elections.

His political career began when he was a member of the Brick Board of Education in the late 1960s. That's when he first met John F. Russo, an up-and-coming Ocean County assistant prosecutor who served as the school board attorney. Russo didn't care for the gruff Newman at first.

"I didn't like him at all," he recalled. "He was a rough and tough guy."

But a few years later, Russo changed his mind. Newman called him up and told him he would like to run a fundraiser for Russo's fledgling state Senate campaign. The cocktail party was a big success.

"I was so overwhelmed by it, we became close friends in 1973," Russo said. "I asked him to be on the ticket. From that day, we were very close friends. He was one of the most decent people I've ever known."

That was the beginning of the Democratic political powerhouse triumvirate of Russo, Newman and

John Paul Doyle. They ruled Ocean County politics from the mid- 1970s into the 1980s, winning election after election in a historically Republican stronghold.

The trio was "a dynamic team," former Republican Mayor Warren Wolf said.

"A Democratic team in a Republican county," said Wolf, who can hold his own in the Brick legend department.

"It was astounding. They did a lot of good things."

Newman was a "politician's politician," Wolf said.

"He had a political mind," Wolf said. "He had a gift of knowing what the public was looking for. I think he was born with a political mind. He could talk to a room of people and communicate with them."

Newman also had his share of charisma, Wolf said.

"When he spoke, everybody listened, including me," he said. "Most of the time he was right. He always spoke his mind, whether you liked it or not. He could out shout anybody. If you tried to out shout him, you'd lose."

Russo as a state senator and Newman and Doyle as assemblymen opened the first joint legislative office in Ocean County back in the early 1970s. They tapped Corby to serve as a legislative assistant and public relations manager.

"When I become mayor, I didn't even know how to spell the word 'legislator,' " Corby said. "They taught me so much about politics. I had the best education in politics anyone could ever have."

The three men showed up at a party last May celebrating Corby's more than two decades in politics. It was the first time Russo, Newman and Doyle had appeared in public together in years.

"It was the biggest event since they got the Beatles back together," Corby said. "They never were all three in the same place.

Danny Newman pretty much stayed away from Township Council meetings over the past few years. He preferred instead to fire off letters to the editor. But he made sure he showed up at the Jan. 3, 2007, Township Council meeting. That was the night council members picked one of three names submitted by the local Democratic Party to serve as former Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli's replacement until an election could be held in November for the remainder of his term.

The pick came just five days before Scarpelli pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting bribes from an unnamed developer. He was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and is slated to be released on May 29.

Newman was one of the names on the council's short list. Daniel J. Kelly and former Councilwoman Kim Casten were the other two.

Newman didn't stand a chance of being selected, even though he had two terms as mayor under his belt. There was no way the Republicans were going to appoint someone as forceful as Dan Newman.

Newman stood quietly against the wall in the packed Township Council caucus room as council members tapped Kelly as Scarpelli's replacement.

But you could see the steam coming out of his ears when Councilman Daniel Toth passed him on his way out of the crowded meeting room. Newman had read in a local paper that Toth said he didn't favor Newman or former Township Councilwoman Kim Casten, because they were associated with Scarpelli.

He buttonholed Toth as the councilman made his way through the crowd.

"Someday I hope to judge you on what you do and not what your friends do," he thundered at Toth. "It's typical what you guys are up to. You insulted me."

And he didn't mince words when asked that same night what he thought about the GOP's attempt to keep Kelly from making his own municipal appointments.

"That was highway robbery," he snorted. "Those appointments belonged to the mayor and they bulldozed the clerk into doing it. The Republican Party in Ocean County never surprises me."

But he wasn't all politics. Newman was a rabid New York Giants fan and often talked football with Wolf, who coached the Brick Township High School Green Dragons football team for 51 years.

"We'd get into football conversations all the time," Wolf said. "He knew football inside out. He'd say, 'Warren, you ran the same stupid play again.' And he was usually right."

One of the last times Corby saw Newman was last year, when Corby went to a local plumbing supply outlet to pick up some items for a home renovation.

"Danny pulls up in his old beatup pickup truck and we sat in that parking lot and talked for more than an hour," Corby said. "He was truly a friend, above everything else."

Patricia A. Miller is the editor the Brick Bulletin.