William James Pascrell Jr. (January 25, 1937 – August 21, 2024) was an American politician who was a U.S. representative from New Jersey from 1997 until his death in 2024. Pascrell was a member of the Democratic Party and native of Paterson. Before his election to the House of Representatives, Pascrell served in the New Jersey General Assembly for four terms beginning in 1988 and was elected to two terms as mayor of Paterson.
He was initially elected to the House in 1996 representing . In 2012, the 8th district was redistricted into the 9th district. Pascrell defeated fellow Democratic representative Steve Rothman in a primary and was elected to represent the 9th district during the 2012 general election. He served as the representative from the 9th district until his death.
Early life, education, and academic career The grandson of Italian immigrants, William James Pascrell Jr. was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on January 25, 1937, the son of Roffie J. (née Loffredo) and William James Pascrell (originally Pascrelli). He attended St. George's Elementary School, and in 1955 graduated from St. John the Baptist High School, where he was elected student council president. He served in the United States Army and United States Army reserves. Pascrell attended Fordham University in New York City and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and a master's degree in philosophy.
Pascrell spent 12 years as a high school teacher in Paramus, New Jersey, teaching several subjects including psychology, before being hired as a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He was appointed to the Paterson Board of Education and served as board president. He also served on Passaic County Community College's board of trustees.
Early political career State Assembly Pascrell was first elected to office in 1987 when he ran for the New Jersey General Assembly seat, which was vacated by the retiring Vincent O. Pellecchia. He and incumbent Assemblyman John Girgenti retained the District 35 seats for the Democrats by defeating Republican nominees Martin Barnes, a Paterson city councilman, and Robert Angele, who worked in the city housing administration.Full Biography , Bill Pascrell. Accessed November 20, 2016. Pascrell received 34% of the vote, enough to earn him the seat.
Pascrell and Girgenti were reelected in 1989 over Republicans Joaquin Calcines, Jr. and Jose Moore, with Pascrell polling at 36%; however, Girgenti was replaced by Cyril Yannarelli midway through the term when he was appointed to the State Senate following the March 5, 1990 death of Frank Graves.
Entering the 1991 election, District 35 was split as Pascrell and Frank Catania, a Republican, were standing for reelection (Catania having won a special election for Girgenti's Assembly seat). Pascrell and Catania won re-election, with Pascrell's running mate Eli Burgos finishing third and his Paterson rival Martin Barnes fourth.
In 1993, Pascrell and Reverend Alfred E. Steele of Paterson attempted to put Democrats in full control of District 35 again while Catania ran with Paterson's Harvey Nutter to try to win the seats for the Republicans. Once again, the incumbents won, with Pascrell as the leading vote-getter at 31%. Catania had a tighter race with Steele.
Pascrell and Steele broke through as a pair and won control of the Assembly seats for the Democrats in 1995. Facing Donald Hayden, who was appointed to the seat after Catania was selected to serve in a state administrative position, and Dennis Gonzalez in the general election, both emerged with significant victories and Pascrell once again topped out at 33%.Official List General Election Returns for the Office of General Assembly for Election Held November 7, 1995 , New Jersey Department of State, December 4, 1995. Accessed January 29, 2024. He eventually became Minority Leader Pro Tempore.
Pascrell resigned from the General Assembly in January 1997 in order to take his seat in the House of Representatives and was replaced by Paterson municipal administrator Nellie Pou; she would also succeed him in the House in 2025.
Mayor of Paterson In May of 1990, Pascrell ran for the mayoral seat in his hometown, which had also been vacated after Graves' death in March. He faced City Council President Reverend Albert P. Rowe, Passaic County Freeholder Michael Adamo, and former councilman and police officer Roy Griffin in the nonpartisan election, which he won with 51.4% of the vote. He was sworn in on July 1, 1990, and served his term concurrently with his role as State Assemblyman.
Pascrell ran for a second term in 1994 and faced two challengers, his former District 35 rival Martin Barnes and long-standing Sixth Ward councilman and former mayor Tom Rooney. He won the three-way contest with 46% of the vote.
Pascrell resigned as mayor on January 3, 1997, in order to take his congressional seat. The city council appointed Barnes to replace him.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections In 1996, Pascrell ran for the Democratic nomination in New Jersey's Eighth Congressional District. The seat had been reliably Democratic for many years; it had been in Democratic hands without interruption from 1961 to 1995, with Robert A. Roe serving from 1969 until 1993. But in the 1994 Republican Revolution, Republican Bill Martini, a Clifton councilman and Passaic County freeholder, defeated Roe's successor, Herbert Klein. Pascrell won the nomination and the seat, defeating the incumbent with 51% of the vote. The district reverted to form, and Pascrell never faced another contest nearly that close again; winning reelection seven more times with at least 62% of the vote.
2012
After redistricting, the existing 8th district was eliminated, and Pascrell's home in Paterson was placed in the newly redrawn 9th district. Fellow Democratic congressman Steve Rothman decided to move into the reconfigured 9th and challenge Pascrell in the primary. Rothman's home in Fair Lawn had been drawn into a Republican-leaning district against Republican Scott Garrett. Geographically, the new district was more Rothman's district than Pascrell's. It covered 53% of Rothman's former territory and only 43% of Pascrell's.
The primary contest devolved into a highly competitive proxy war over Israel. American Arab Forum president Aref Assaf published a column in The Star-Ledger, "Rothman Is Israel's Man in District 9", in which he wrote:
As total and blind support becomes the only reason for choosing Rothman, voters who do not view the elections in this prism will need to take notice. Loyalty to a foreign flag is not loyalty to America's [flag].
Pascrell supporters reportedly produced Arabic-language campaign posters encouraging the "Arab diaspora community" to elect Pascrell, "the friend of the Arabs." The posters called the race "the most important election in the history of the [Arab American] community."Assaf, Aref. Rothman is Israel's man in District 9 , The Star-Ledger, February 19, 2012.Glick, Caroline B. Defeating the Jewish Alinskyites , The Jerusalem Post, June 7, 2012.
Jewish Voice and Opinion publisher Susan Rosenbluth wrote that "a number of Arab-American constituents have come out with outrageous attacks on Rothman" and "I haven't heard a dual loyalty charge for years." She also sharply criticized Pascrell for remaining silent and refusing to condemn the charges of dual loyalty.Goodman, Alana. Pascrell Stays Silent on Dual-Loyalty Slur, Commentary Magazine, February 24, 2012.Silberman, Zach. UPDATE: Pascrell backer: Rothman is a 'patriot,' but campaign won't condemn Assaf , Washington Jewish Week, February 23, 2012.
Pascrell defeated Rothman in the June 5 Democratic primary, 31,435 to 19,947, capturing about 61% of the vote.
In the general election, Pascrell faced Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Pascrell raised more money than any other congressional candidate in the nation in 2012 ($2.6 million) and raised 10 times the sum that Boteach raised. Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a three-to-one margin in the new 9th district. Pascrell won a ninth term by a margin of 73.6% to 25.4%.2012 House Races, Politico. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
Tenure
On October 10, 2002, Pascrell was among 81 Democratic House members to vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq.
Pascrell was one of the original members of the Homeland Security Committee, eventually rising to the post of ranking member on the Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee. He has a particular interest in fire safety, and authored the bill that created the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, which gives federal grants directly to all fire departments, including volunteer fire departments, which he called "the forgotten part of the public safety equation".
Pascrell was also a member of the House Transportation Committee, where he worked to modernize roads, bridges, airports, and mass transit systems. He secured funding for reconstructing various dangerous New Jersey roads and bridges, including the Route 46 corridor. In addition, he helped craft legislation to renew federal surface transportation programs, providing funding for New Jersey Transit. The legislation concerned projects of rail expansion between Passaic and Bergen counties, bridge construction throughout Route 46, and the establishment of~ a bike-pedestrian path in South Orange.
Pascrell was an Italian American and was outspoken about Italian Americans' stereotypical representation in shows such as HBO's The Sopranos. His Italian heritage was questioned by comedian Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report, who alleged in an interview that Pascrell could not truly be of Italian descent because Italian surnames must end with a vowel. Pressed by Colbert for an example of an Italian surname ending in a consonant, Pascrell responded with "Sole"."Laugh, and the Voters Will Laugh With You, or at Least at You" , The New York Times, February 26, 2006
During Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2009 Working on a Dream Tour, Pascrell asked the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the practices of Ticketmaster and TicketsNow in regard to sales of tickets to the tour's New Jersey shows. He subsequently introduced federal legislation, the "BOSS ACT" (Better Oversight of Secondary Sales and Accountability in Concert Ticketing), to require primary ticket sellers to disclose how many tickets were being held back from sale, prohibit ticket brokers from buying tickets during the first 48 hours on sale, and prohibit primary ticket sellers, promoters, and artists from entering the secondary market. In 2012, problems again arose during the ticket sales for Springsteen's 2012 Wrecking Ball Tour. Ticketmaster said web traffic was 2.5 times its highest level for the year. Shows were selling out within minutes and many tickets at much higher prices appeared on resale websites such as StubHub less than an hour after the onsale time. Pascrell said he would reintroduce the BOSS ACT.
In October 2008, after the death of a young boy in his district who returned to playing football without having fully recovered from a concussion sustained earlier in the season, Pascrell introduced the Concussion Treatment and Care Tools Act (ConTACT), which has been endorsed by the National Football League, the National Football League Players Association, and the Brain Injury Association of America. ConTACT brings together a conference of experts to produce a guidelines for the treatment and care of concussions for middle- and high-school students. It also provides funding for schools' adoption of baseline and post-injury neuropsychological testing technologies.
In 2009, Pascrell was instrumental in the protection of Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park.
In January 2011, in response to the shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords, Pascrell said, "[t]here's an aura of hate and elected politicians feed it. Certain people on Fox News feed it."