Dean Gallo

Who was Dean Gallo?

Dean Anderson Gallo was an American Republican party politician, who was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing New Jersey's 11th congressional district for nearly ten years.

Gallo was born in Hackensack, New Jersey. After a career as a realtor, he spent the rest of his life in politics as a Republican. He served on the Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Council in 1970. In 1973, he was elected to the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders, becoming the board's chairman and the county's de facto chief executive.

In 1975, he was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly and served there eight years, the last four as minority leader. He was elected to the House from New Jersey's 11th congressional district in 1984, defeating 11-term incumbent Joseph Minish by 11 points amid the landslide by Ronald Reagan that year. Gallo got a major assist when a court-ordered redrawing of New Jersey's congressional districts drew most of heavily Republican Morris County into the 11th, turning it into one of the most Republican districts in the Northeast. Gallo was reelected four times, never facing serious opposition.

He had been nominated for a sixth term in 1994, but dropped out of the race on August 29, 1994, due to prostate cancer. He died at the age of 58 at St. Clare's-Riverside Hospital in Denville on November 6, 1994. State Assemblyman Rodney Frelinghuysen was named to replace Gallo on the ballot, and was elected two days after Gallo's death.