James J. Devine - Political Career

Political Career

In 1980, Devine volunteered on the unsuccessful mayoral campaign of Raymond Lesniak, who challenged Elizabeth, New Jersey Mayor Thomas G. Dunn, Jr. Later that year, he was employed by the Democratic National Committee on behalf of the re-election campaign of President Jimmy Carter.

Devine was a paid campaign staffer or consultant for Lesniak (1981 Assembly, 1991 Senate), Barbara McConnell (1981 gubernatorial), Frank Lautenberg (1982 US Senate), Bob Janiszewski (1983 Assembly re-election, 1985 County Executive), William E. Flynn (1983, 1985, 1987 and 2005), Jim Hedden (1984 Congress), Oren Teicher (Congress 1986), Richard Kimball (1986 US Senate), Lou Cabassa (1988 Mayor), Cecil Banks (Congress 1996), James Kennedy (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 Mayor), Dan Reiman (2002, 2006 Mayor), among others.

He worked as a community organizer and fundraiser for the New Jersey Environmental Federation in 1988-89, then managed operations in northern New Jersey during the 1990 US Census. In 1991, Devine challenged Elizabeth Mayor Thomas G. Dunn for the Democratic Assembly nomination.

As political director for the New Jersey Democratic State Committee in 1992-93, Devine was credited with helping Bill Clinton become the first of his party's presidential nominees to win the state's electoral votes since 1964. He also contributed to the capture of five Assembly seats while Gov. Jim Florio came within 30,000 votes of winning re-election in 1993.

In 1994, Devine established Devine Advertising Associates and three years later, he purchased New Jersey's oldest weekly newspaper and created Devine Media Enterprises, Inc.

Devine united a group of Democratic Party elected officials to challenge the establishment in Union County's 2010 primary election and scored successes in Elizabeth and Linden. The Democrats for Change candidate for sheriff, Charles Mitchell, came 1,369 votes away from unseating 33-year incumbent Ralph Froehlich.

Devine worked on the upset victory of under-funded political newcomer Wilda Diaz, who stopped Joseph Vas' bid for a sixth term as the Mayor of Perth Amboy on May 13, 2008. In 2009, he helped Joe Menza defeat the powerful Union County political machine to win election as mayor, in what was called 'the Hillside humiliation' by the politickernj.com website.

His roots as a political operative in Union County began in 1980, during Raymond Lesniak's ill-fated primary election challenge to Elizabeth Mayor Thomas G. Dunn. They subsequently founded the Elizabeth Democratic Association and Devine helped Lesniak capture the nomination for a third term in the state assembly after he was denied organization support in 1981. A photograph appeared in the New York Times showing Devine submitting Lesniak's 1981 petitions at the Secretary of State's office in Trenton.

Devine is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, a public-private partnership sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Interior to preserve the environment, promote economic development and create the finest urban waterfront recreation and educational national park system in the world.