Matthew Feldman

By DAVID BLOMQUIST, Trenton Bureau Chief

(From:  The Record, February 18, 1993)

TRENTON – Matthew Feldman, the respected elder statesman of Bergen County Democratic Politics, announced Wednesday that he will retire from the Senate when his term runs out in January.

“For the Democratic Party to remain vital, it must continually redefine and renew itself,” Feldman, 73, wrote in a letter sent to members of the Democratic County Committee. “To do that, it must permit younger people to move up into positions of responsibility.”

As a civic and religious leader, a councilman and mayor of Teaneck, and, finally, the Senator from central Bergen’s 37th District, Feldman has been a pivotal force in shaping state policy on education, environment, and civil rights for more than three decades.

His decision to step aside is expected to spark a scramble in both Parties that could significantly change the face of Bergen politics, as a generation of leaders forged in the 1960s gives way to a younger, more ethnically diverse group eager to move tip the ladder.

A feisty former boxer who served in the Army Air Force during World War II, Feldman has been in poor health in recent years.  Many Democrats were surprised when he chose to seek a seventh term in 1991, and expected him to bow out before all 120 seats in the legislature come up for election this fall.

In an interview Wednesday, Feldman left little doubt that his retirement comes with mixed feelings. But he said his wife, Muriel, and his three children convinced him that it was time to leave.

“We’ve been agonizing over this for months,” said Feldman. “‘The family has insisted that I’ve given public service over 30 years. It’s time to conclude that public service.”

He said the inauguration last month of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore underscored the importance of passing the baton to a new generation of Democrats.

“I took pride in their success,” Feldman said, “confirmed in my belief that it was not only time for a political change, but for a generational change.”

Feldman was first elected to the Senate in 1965 as part of a group of Democrats who rode the coattails of Gov. Richard J. Hughes to the party’s largest legislative victories in Bergen County since World War II. Defeated for reelection in 1967, he served as the county’s Democratic leader for four years before winning another Senate term in 1973. He has been continuously reelected to the upper house ever since.

As word of Feldman’s retirement spread throughout Bergen political circles Wednesday, two candidates started lining up to replace him: Assemblyman Byron M. Baer, D-Englewood, who has served with Feldman in the legislature for 20 years, and Englewood Mayor Donald Aronson.

Aronson said he is testing the waters for a possible campaign. “It’s an honor to be considered to be able to fill the shoes of Matty Feldman,” he said. “I just don’t know yet. I’m asking questions of friends in the area.”

Baer said he had been waiting for Feldman to make a decision, and expects to announce his candidacy for Senate sometime next week. he said he wouldn’t shy away from a primary battle with Aronson, but said he’s willing to abide by the endorsement of the county Democratic committee — an endorsement Baer said he expect to win.

But with Feldman’s proven ability as a fund-raiser and vote-getter out of the picture, county Republicans think they may have a strong chance of capturing the district. Bergen Republican Chairman John Schepisi said he expects several candidates to materialize for the open seat.

“Even though District 37 has been predominantly a Democratic stronghold, I think the strength was because of Matty Feldman at the top of the ticket,” Schepisi said. “We have a darned good shot at Republicans taking over.”

One Republican mentioned as a possible contender is Freeholder Todd Caliguire, who gave Feldman an unusually close race two years ago amid the backlash against Governor Florio’s record tax hike.

“I’m thinking about it, but I haven’t decided yet,” Caliguire said on Wednesday.

Baer’s decision to pursue the Senate seat will leave an opening on the Democratic ticket for the Assembly. For the first time in two decades, insiders say, the candidate is likely to be someone other than a liberal Jewish Democrat.

The 37th District has the largest black population of any legislative district in Bergen County, and black Democrats have been seeking a slot on the ticket for some time. Potential black contenders include Hackensack’s deputy mayor, Sandra A. Robinson, who was an unsuccessful freeholder candidate in 1991.

But the 37th District also contains a substantial Italian-American population that may lay claim to Baer’s seat. Insiders named Hackensack Democratic Chairman Ken Zisa as one possible challenger.

Longtime State Senator Matthew Feldman Dies”Always wanted to do what was right”

By Pat R. Gilbert and David Gibson, Staff Writers

(From: The Record, April 12. 1994)

For four decades, Matthew Feldman brought wit, high purpose, and a love of the art of politics to a storied public career divided between Teaneck and Trenton, giving it up reluctantly when his health gave out.

Feldman died Monday morning at his Teaneck home.  He was 75.

“Matty the Mensch” — as he touted himself during one of his many electoral campaigns — was a master of legislative diplomacy and finesse who made his mark as a civic and religious leader, a councilman and mayor of Teaneck, and later as the longtime senator from central Bergen’s 37th District, a Democratic stronghold.

Former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, served with him in the Legislature, where both men, despite their partisan differences, championed the cause of education.

“Matty was one of nature’s gentlemen. His bottom line was never really politics”, said Kean, who knew Feldman for 25 years. “He always wanted to do what was right.”

Feldman was last seen in Trenton on Thursday, when he attended a State House ceremony at which Governor Whitman signed a bill requiring schools to teach about the Holocaust and other genocides.

“The passing of Senator Feldman is a very sad occasion,” Whitman said Monday. “He served the people of New Jersey with compassion and intelligence … His contributions in the field of public education will stand as a tribute to his distinguished service.”

A silver-haired grandfather who helped to shape state policy on education, the environment, and civil rights, Feldman had attended his son-in-law’s 50th birthday party on Sunday night in North Brunswick, where his closest friends described him as being in good spirits and “rare form.”

On Monday at 7 a.m., he arrived at the Jewish Center of Teaneck, a Conservative synagogue where he regularly attended services. An hour after he arrived home, he sat down and collapsed, said Leon Sokol, a close friend and counsel to the Senate Democrats.

Feldman was not breathing when an ambulance crew arrived to try to revive him. He was taken to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, where he was pronounced dead.

Feldman was ailing in recent years, and declining health had forced him to retire in January. But his friends said that even after his wife, Muriel, died in November, he had been looking well and was talking about starting new projects.

Elected mayor of Teaneck in 1958, Feldman was instrumental in advancing the politically volatile integration of the township’s schools in 1964. A year later, he won election to the state Senate for the first time, only to be turned out in the Republican landslide in 1967.

He returned to the upper house in 1973, and, as Senate president, helped overcome strong opposition to pass the state’s first income tax in a battle that highlighted his qualities as an arm-twister and respected deal-maker. During that time, the burden of passing the income tax fell largely to him because former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne had very little influence left after two years of fighting tax battles with the Legislature.

Byrne fondly recalled the man everyone knew as “Matty.”

“I’ll miss his sense of humor,” Byrne said, adding that the state will also miss his “absolute commitment to education.”

Feldman stood 5 feet 9 inches tall, but to many he loomed larger than life. He was born in Jersey City to immigrant parents on March 22, 1919. He was a captain in the Army Air Corps during World War II, where he gained renown as a scrappy and successful middleweight boxer. The war interrupted his studies at Panzer College, now a part of Montclair State College. He also attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, but did not graduate.

As a lawmaker, Feldman was legendary in his pursuit of education issues, and was the father of the 1966 law that created the state Department of Higher Education. He supported the controversial Quality Education Act of 1991, and last April, former Gov. Jim Florio appoin ted him to the Education Commission of the States, a Denver-based group committed to improving education.

“There are few individuals who have so selflessly dedicated their lives to the betterment of society – particularly our young people,” Florio said.

During Kean’s administration, the former Republican governor recalled, Feldman would sometimes vote with his fellow Democrats, then come into Kean’s office and apologize. “He would say, ‘You know, my leadership wanted me to vote that way. But I wanted to tell you that I wasn’t sure that was right'”, Kean said. “Nobody else does that. . . . It was an endearing quality.”

An unbashed liberal, Feldman defended abortion rights, attacked the death penalty, and fought Republicans who tried to lift the assault weapons ban. He was known for tackling and sticking by unpopular causes and was resolute in his opposition to racial and ethnic discrimination.

Sokol recalled a hot day in 1946 when Feldman was driving along Route 17 on the way to the Catskills with his family when he noticed a sign advertising new housing in Ridgewood that said, “Restricted Development.”

“That was the code for no Jews or blacks,” Sokol said. “Matty was so incensed, he got out of the car, called his veteran friends, and threw a picket line up around the place with Muriel and the kids screaming in the car.”

Feldman was heir to the multimillion-dollar liquor business his father created and always resisted declaring his net worth. In 1976 he pleaded guilty to a charge that grew out of a payment made to a restaurant to guarantee a liquor supply contract for the family business. Many believed that blemish thwarted his gubernatorial ambitions.

When Feldman’s grandson was killed in a traffic accident in 1986, he took a week off at the height of what would prove to be an unsuccessful campaign for county executive to mourn in the traditional Jewish manner. It was a personal blow to Feldman, who always seemed to bounce back from any loss.

“A little piece of Matty died when the boy died,” said Mahwah’s John J. McCarthy, a former secretary of the Senate and a close friend to Feldman.

The dogged Feldman had pledged after his 1991 reelection that he was “making my comeback now … I’ll be here until I’m 80.” But failing health prevented that.

In February 1993, he announced his retirement, and in November, Byron M. Baer, an Englewood Democrat and assemblyman who served with Feldman in the Legislature for 20 years, won Feldman’s seat.

The political infighting of recent years appeared to diminish Feldman’s appetite for the legislative arena. “I think the public and I myself were tired of the constant confrontation between the governor’s office and the Republican majority,” Feldman said in an interview last April. “It takes the idealism out of politics.”

Funeral services will be today at noon at the Jewish Center of Teaneck. Feldman will be buried at Cedar Park Cemetery in Emerson.

He is survived by his daughters, Beth Metzger of Englewood and Rachel Silverstein of North Brunswick; a son, Daniel of Maplewood, and a brother, Melvin of Margate.

The family has asked that any donations be made to the Matthew Feldman Memorial Fund, 714 Carroll Place, Teaneck, N.J. 07666.