Clive Davis obit

Clive Davis Dies: Music Biz Icon Who Discovered Whitney Houston & Revived Careers Was 94

 

He was not on the list.

Clive Davis, the Grammy-winning music mogul who founded Arista Records, discovered and mentored Whitney Houston, had a storied ear for a hit and specialized in resurrecting the careers of artists many considered past their peak, died Monday at his New York City home, his family announced. He was 94. No cause of death was provided, but he had been hospitalized recently with respiratory problems.

“Our father was the iconic music legend whose vision, instincts, and relentless pursuit of excellence shaped the soundtrack of countless lives,” his family said on social media in part. “He discovered, mentored and championed the greatest artists in modern music history, leaving an indelible mark on culture that will endure for generations.”

A four-time Grammy winner, Davis most recently had served as Chief Creative Officer at Sony Music since 2018. He founded Arista Records in 1974 after a storied tenure in senior posts at Columbia/CBS Records and later Arista predecessor Bell Records. His label would specialize in revitalizing the careers of veteran artists whose commercial success seemed to have peaked. Among those were Aretha Franklin,the Grateful Dead, Santana, the Kinks, Dionne Warwick and many more. The label also was home to such popular acts as Houston, Barry Manilow, Air Supply and Patti Smith.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Davis’ legacy is tied to one of the most popular singers of the past half-century. Whitney Houston had been a backup singer for such acts as Lou Rawls, Chaka Khan and Jermaine Jackson before Davis saw her onstage in New York. He signed her to Arista in 1983 and would mentor the young phenom for the next quarter-century. Houston became Arista’s all-time best-selling act, with sales of her albums and singles topping 109 million in the U.S. alone. She died in 2012 at the Beverly Hilton, a day before a planned appearance at Davis’ annual star-studded pre-Grammy party.

Born on April 4, 1932, in Brooklyn, Davis worked as a lawyer before landing an assistant counsel job at Columbia Records in the early 1960s at age 28. By 1965, he was upped to administrative VP and GM following an exec reshuffle, charged with overseeing the Columbia and Epic labels. The CBS-Columbia Group was launched a year later, and Davis headed up the new division.

During his tenure atop CBS Records, Davis would sign and record such legendary acts as Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Santana, Donovan, Chicago, Aerosmith, Billy Joel and Earth, Wind & Fire. But he would be fired unceremoniously in 1973 amid a scandal over alleged padding of expense reports for personal use.

But the mogul hardly was done.

Davis took over the reins at CBS’ Bell Records, which scored a global smash by a young singer-songwriter who had made a name penning and singing such earworm commercial jingles as “You Deserve a Break Today” for McDonald’s and “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There” for the insurance giant. Barry Manilow’s “Mandy” — renamed from “Brandy” after Looking Glass had a big hit with the maritime-themed “Brandy” — topped charts on both sides of the pond and launched a stellar pop career.

Bell would morph into Arista Records, which was the label home to dozens of popular and acclaimed acts. Arista Nashville began in 1989 with the signing of future legend Alan Jackson. There were missteps for Arista along the way, including the Milli Vanilli fiasco of the late 1980s, but the label would become a destination where artists would revive their careers after commercial step-backs or dormancy.

During Davis’ quarter-century tenure atop the label, it scored platinum success with many “heritage” acts including The Grateful Dead, which had its lone Top 10 single with “Touch of Grey” in 1987, culled from In the Dark, the best-selling LP of the group’s career. Davis signed British Invasion stalwarts The Kinks in 1976, and the group would see its first real U.S. chart success in years after ditching its ’70s concept-album streak and focusing on guitar-fueled rock ‘n’ roll.

 Arista inked the Queen of Soul in 1980 and would revive Franklin’s commercial fates with such tracks as “Freeway of Love,” “Who’s Zoomin’ Who” and “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).” Warwick hadn’t scored a solo hit in a decade before inking with Arista and releasing “I’ll Never Love This Way Again.”

 But Davis and Arista’s biggest commercial coup with a legacy act would be at the end of the millennium, and the exec’s swan song.

 Davis first signed guitar phenom Carlos Santana’s eponymous band in to Columbia in 1969, months before the group’s triumph at Woodstock. After a long string of hit records, the band’s fortunes waned from the mid-’80s to the late ’90s. Davis signed the group and persuaded its leader to record an album with a number of mostly younger artists. The result was Supernatural — and supersonic.

Its lead single was “Smooth,” co-written and sung by Rob Thomas, whose Matchbox Twenty had scored a massive hit with its 1996 album Yourself or Someone Like You, which was stacked with hit singles. “Smooth” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a dozen consecutive weeks, reached No. 1 in 10 other countries and was among pop’s all-time biggest hits. Follow-up single “Maria Maria” was No. 1 for 10 weeks, and Supernatural went on spend 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200, ultimately shifting more than 15 million units in the U.S. alone. Davis produced the album — which also featured such collaborators as Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Dave Matthews, Maná, CeeLo Green, Everlast and Eagle-Eye Cherry — and earned Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Rock Album of the Year.

Davis left Arista in 2000 and formed indie label J Records, which during the next decade would release music by the likes of Alicia Keys — whose debut Songs in A Minor sold millions — along with hit albums by Luther Vandross, D’Angelo, Monica, Jamie Foxx and others.

From 2004-11, Davis would run RCA Music Group, whose labels also included RCA Records, Jive Records and LaFace Records, which was founded by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and Antonio “L.A.” Reid, who had taken over from Davis as Arista chief. BMG took a controlling stake In J records in 2002.

BMG would merge with Sony Music Entertainment in 2004, Davis stayed with RCA until being named Chief Creative Officer at Sony BMG four years later. Arista and J Records were dissolved in 2011, with its acts migrating to RCA Records.

“Clive of course played a seminal role in the story of Sony Music through two incredible chapters, and he is responsible for a huge part of the recorded legacy of the company permanently,” Rob Stringer, Chairman of Sony Music Group, said in a statement. “Not only are many, many artists we represent continuously indebted to his service but so many staff members have been influenced and mentored by his deep love and respect for our company which he carried right up until today. Our working lives are better for having had his constant presence in the aura and perception of Sony Music.”

Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and was honored with the prestigious Grammy Trustee Award the same year. He received the President’s Merit Award at the 2009 Grammys. Along with his two wins for Supernatural, Davis won Grammys for producing Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway in 2006 and Jennifer Hudson’s self-titled disc in 2009. The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles named its 200-seat performance space the Clive Davis Theater.

In 2017, he was the subject of Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, a feature doc by Chris Perkel that won Best Music Documentary at the Critics Choice Awards. He also produced a number of music-themed movies and TV specials including Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody — the biopic in which Stanley Tucci portrayed Davis — and Rod Stewart’s It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook.

Davis is survived by his children Fred, Lauren, Doug and Mitchell.

Alan Greenspan obit

Alan Greenspan, economist and longtime head of the Federal Reserve, dies at 100

The influential economist died Monday from complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his wife of 29 years, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

 He was number # 360

Alan Greenspan, the influential economist who steered U.S. monetary policy during his five terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve under four presidents, died Monday, according to his wife, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

He was 100.

Greenspan helped define modern American capitalism from the final years of the Cold War-era through the dawn of the digital age. He presided over the Fed during one of the longest economic expansions in U.S. history, a boom stretching from 1991 to 2001. But he was also faulted for decisions that critics say created the conditions for the global financial crisis of 2007-08, such as advocating for deregulation of the financial sector.

Mitchell, the chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, announced her husband’s death in a statement. They were married for 29 years.

“Alan passed away at our home this morning at the age of 100 from complications of Parkinson’s disease,” Mitchell said in a statement. “He was a giant of a man who helped shape the U.S. economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes,” she said.

“To me he was my husband, who shaped my life from our very first date in 1984. He had ‘irrational exuberance’ for baseball, the Washington Commanders, tennis, golf and music, especially jazz,” Mitchell added. “He will be remembered for his brilliance and his kindness. Being his life partner was the joy of my life.”

In a statement, the Fed extended condolences to Mitchell and said Greenspan’s “contributions to monetary policy and economic thought left a lasting mark on this institution, on the broader field of economics, and on the country.”

Greenspan was born March 6, 1926, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, where he showed mathematical acumen from a young age. In his early years, he attended the Juilliard School and played jazz saxophone and clarinet in a band.

He studied economics at New York University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1948 and a master’s in 1950, and then started work on a doctorate at Columbia University under economist Arthur F. Burns, a future chairman of the Federal Reserve.

In the early 1950s, Greenspan became an associate of the “Atlas Shrugged” writer Ayn Rand, whose “objectivist” philosophy of self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism inspired future generations of political libertarians and conservatives. Greenspan embraced some of her beliefs and paid tribute to her in his 2007 memoir.

“Ayn Rand and I remained close until she died in 1982, and I’m grateful for the influence she had on my life. I was intellectually limited until I met her,” Greenspan wrote in “The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.”

Greenspan left Columbia in 1953 and joined an economic consulting firm that became known as Townsend-Greenspan Co., Inc. Five years later, he became president and chief owner of the firm.

Greenspan’s initial foray into the political world came in 1967 when he served as an adviser on Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. He assisted with Nixon’s transition to the Oval Office but turned down an official role in the administration.

He advised Nixon on an informal basis and, following Nixon’s resignation in 1974, took a position in President Gerald Ford’s administration as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, serving until 1977. He pursued policies that, together with tighter monetary policy from the Paul Volcker-led Federal Reserve, helped reduce inflation from 11% to 6.5%.

In 1977, at the dawn of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, Greenspan returned to his consulting firm in New York and accepted an adjunct professorship at New York University, where he received a Ph.D. in economics.

Greenspan returned to government service when President Ronald Reagan appointed him to fill Volcker’s term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Greenspan’s nomination was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 11, 1987, during Reagan’s second term.

On Oct. 19, 1987, or “Black Monday,” when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted by more than 22% — the blue-chip index’s largest one-day percentage fall ever — Greenspan moved swiftly to keep the markets liquid. From then on, Fed moves to support financial markets through episodes of instability became known as the “Greenspan put.”

He drew praise for steering the economy through what was then the longest expansion in U.S. history, running roughly from March 1991 to the first quarter of 2001, a transformative period that saw the acceleration of globalization and the rise of the internet. Greenspan navigated the Fed through seminal events, including the “dotcom” bubble burst and the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He achieved celebrity status when stocks soared to record levels under President Bill Clinton. The writer Christopher Hitchens called him “America’s least-likely celebrity,” The Economist magazine dubbed him a “rock star,” and his admirers called him “the maestro.”

Greenspan, who served five consecutive four-year terms, retired Jan. 31, 2006. He has the second-longest tenure as Fed chair, behind William McChesney Martin, who served from 1951 to 1970.

In the wake of the financial collapse of 2007-08, Greenspan drew scrutiny for decisions that some critics believe set the stage for the meltdown. Despite his infamous warning in 1996 that “irrational exuberance” was unduly inflating stock prices, he was faulted for missing the early-2000s housing bubble.

In 2011, the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission determined that the crisis was triggered in part by Greenspan’s failure to discourage trade in securities backed by subprime mortgage loans amid an unsustainable housing boom and his promotion of financial industry deregulation.

“More than 30 years of deregulation and reliance on self-regulation by financial institutions, championed by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and others, supported by successive administrations and Congresses, and actively pushed by the powerful financial industry at every turn, had stripped away key safeguards, which could have helped avoid catastrophe,” the report said in part.

In testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in October 2008, Greenspan referred to the financial crisis as a “once-in-a-century credit tsunami.”

“The crisis, however, has turned out to be much broader than anything I could have imagined,” he acknowledged.

After leaving the Fed, Greenspan started his own consulting company in Washington and authored several books.

He shared his impressions of the presidents he had worked with in his memoir “The Age of Turbulence” and in interviews. Nixon was smart but paranoid, he said. Ford “was a genuinely nice man who was not ruthlessly ambitious,” he said in a 2009 interview.

Reagan, the president who nominated him, “fervently believed in, and acted on, a small number of important principles,” he said in remarks at the Reagan Library in 2003.

Despite being a lifelong Republican, Greenspan had a strong relationship with Clinton, a Democrat, and praised his intelligence and fiscal discipline. Clinton, he joked, “was the best Republican president we’ve had in a while.”

His relationships with George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were more complicated. The elder Bush blamed Greenspan publicly for the poor economy that likely contributed to his election loss, which Greenspan said in his book “surprised” him.

Greenspan said he was disappointed in the younger Bush for failing to rein in the budget with a GOP-controlled Congress, and that Republicans deserved it when they lost control of both chambers in the 2006 midterms. “The Republicans in Congress lost their way. They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither,” he wrote in his book.

Greenspan’s successors as Fed chair include Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, Jerome Powell and, as of May, Kevin Warsh, who was appointed by President Donald Trump.

Greenspan received various national and international accolades: In 2000, the French government awarded him the Legion of Honor; and in 2002, Queen Elizabeth II named him an honorary Knight of the British Empire. He was awarded the U.S.’ highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by the younger Bush in 2005.

The Fed, in its statement on Greenspan’s death, said he “brought rigorous analytical discipline to monetary policymaking and helped establish the credibility that remains” one of the central bank’s “most important assets.”

“Chairman Greenspan’s legacy endures at the Federal Reserve—in those he mentored directly, in the economists and public servants he inspired, and in the frameworks and practices he helped shape,” the Fed added.

Ange L. Armato Obit

Ange L. Armato Obituary

 

She was not on the list.

Ange L. Armato, age 96, passed away peacefully on June 21, 2026 at Charter Senior Living in Rockford, Illinois. Ange was born in Rockford on October 27, 1929, the daughter of George and Santa Armato.

Ange graduated from West High School and attended art school in Chicago. She worked for a period at Barber Colman and served several advertising agencies in Rockford as a technical artist, commercial artist, production manager and advertising manager. She liked to travel, golf, bowl and play slot machines at casinos. Ange loved baseball and was an avid Chicago White Sox fan. She signed with the Rockford Peaches of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. (AAGPBL) and attended the Peaches’ spring training in 1949 in Opa Locka, Florida. in 1953, she played second base for the Kalamazoo Lassies of the AAGPBL. Ange’s name is on an exhibit honoring the AAGPBL in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. That exhibit names all of the women who played in the league between 1943 and 1954. Less than of 20 of the more than 600 Hall of Fame women are still living. Ange attended many of the AAGPBL reunions.

In 1991, Ange appeared briefly in the baseball movie “A League Of Their Own”. She batted and played shortstop for the blue team in the trailer of the movie.

Ange is survived by her nieces & nephews Louisa (Michael) Giorgi Payden, Paul Toldo, Angela “Angel” Anderson, Tina (Tom) Kopinski), Kay Ellen (Arnie) DiTomassi, Pete (Chandra) Gianquinto, Ronald (Chris) Johnson and Sandy (Michael) Adams, several great nieces and nephews, and many later generations of nieces and nephews, several cousins and longtime special friend Carol Voelz. She was predeceased by her parents and seven sisters, namely, Katherine “Katy” Packard, Margaret “Marge” (August) Giorgi, Frances (Peter) Gianquinto, Angelina Armato, Mary “Honey” Michelon, Josephine (Nick) Giorgi, and Joanne (Ronald) Johnson. She was also predeceased by niece Sandra Toldo, nephews Morris Giorgi, Nick Giorgi and Harold Packard.

A Visitation will be held at 10:00 AM on June 30" followed by a Mass at 11:00 AM at St. Anthony Of Padua Church, 1010 Ferguson St., Rockford 61102. Burial will be at St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetary. Contributions in honor of Ange may be made to the family. Please no flowers.

The family would like to thank the staff of Charter Senior Living, the staff of Mo Cara Hospice (especially Ange’s weekly care nurse Debra Johnson) and good friends Carol Voelz, Nancy Arbisi Gioppo and Tina Kopiniski for their wonderful assistance during Ange’s final days.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Ange, please visit our floral store.

Ange L. Armato, age 96, passed away peacefully on June 21, 2026 at Charter Senior Living in Rockford, IL. Ange was born in Rockford on October 27, 1929, the daughter of George and Santa Armato.

Ange graduated from West High School and attended art school in Chicago. She worked for a period at Barber Colman.

Armato, a proud alumna of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) and one of the trailblazing women who helped change the role of women in professional sports, passed away peacefully on June 21, 2026, at the age of 96.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1929, Armato grew up in a time when girls rarely had the chance to play organized sports at a high level. Her passion for baseball began on the neighborhood sandlots, where she honed the skills and determination that would secure her place in the history of women’s sports. In 1949, she joined the AAGPBL — the groundbreaking women’s league founded during World War II to keep America’s national pastime alive while many male players served overseas.

Armato played for the Kalamazoo Lassies, one of the league’s most beloved teams, and was admired for her steady defensive play and team-first mindset. Though her career in the league was brief, she was part of a generation of women who proved baseball wasn’t just a man’s game. Her playing days coincided with the final years of the AAGPBL, which folded in 1954 but left a legacy that still inspires female athletes today.

After retiring from the game, Armato remained a passionate advocate for women’s sports and preserving the AAGPBL’s history. As a member of the AAGPBL Players Association, she took great pride in seeing the league honored with a permanent exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Her autographed cards and memorabilia are still treasured by fans and collectors who celebrate the women who shaped the game.

Beyond the field, Ange Armato was known for her warmth, humility, and love of community. She often shared stories from her playing days with younger generations, encouraging girls to chase their dreams in sports and beyond. Her life embodied perseverance and passion — qualities that defined the women of the AAGPBL and continue to inspire.

Condolences to her family and friends and may she Rest in Peace.

 

Frank Guarini obit

Frank Guarini, America’s oldest former congressman, dies at 101 

He was not on the list.

Frank J. Guarini, Jr., who served as a congressman from a Hudson County district for fourteen years, died on June 20. He was 101.

The Jersey City Democrat was the oldest living former congressman from New Jersey, the oldest living former statewide candidate, the oldest living former state senator, and the oldest living member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  No Member of Congress from New Jersey has ever lived that long.

Just two weeks ago, Guarini attended a ribbon cutting for the opening of the Frank J. Guarini Justice Complex in Jersey City.

Guarini had spent most of his life around politics.  His father had represented Hudson County in the State Assembly in 1931 and 1932.  A Dartmouth graduate, Guarini was a decorated World War II combat veteran.

A 40-year-old attorney and the chairman of the American Red Cross’ Jersey City Chapter, Guarini decided to run for office in 1965 when reapportionment following the U.S. Supreme Court’s One Man, One Vote ruling increased Hudson County’s presence in the New Jersey State Senate from one seat to three.

Hudson County Democratic Chairman John V. Kenny and other party leaders picked Guarini and William V. Musto, an eleven-term assemblyman and the mayor of Union City, to run for State Senate on a slate with two-term incumbent William F. Kelly (D-Jersey City).  Musto had been an automatic pick, but Guarini edged out Bayonne City Attorney James Dugan.

The Democrats won the general election by over 100,000 votes.

During his first term, Democrats controlled the Senate, and Guarini became chairman of the newly created Senate Air and Water Pollution and Public Health Committee.

Another round of reapportionment gave Hudson a fourth Senate seat in 1967, and Kenny and the Hudson Democrats put Assemblyman Frederick Hauser (D-Hoboken), who had spent eighteen years in the lower house, on the ticket.

The four Democrats easily outdistanced their Republican rivals: Norman Roth, who had come within just 56 votes of winning a seat in Congress in 1956 against Rep. Alfred Sieminski (D-Jersey City); Cresenzi W. Castaldo, who had won 21% in a congressional bid in 1964; Eugene P. Kenny, who won 21% in his 1962 House campaign; and 31-year-old attorney Geoffrey Gaulkin, who later served as the Hudson County Prosecutor and Superior Court Judge.

In his second term, Guarini championed the construction of a new stadium in the Meadowlands and was among the first to meet with New York Giants owner Wellington Mara to pitch New Jersey as a future NFL home.

U.S. Senate Bid

In 1970, Guarini decided to challenge two-term U.S. Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr. in the Democratic primary.  A decade before the Abscam scandal that ended his career, Williams had been censured by the New Jersey NAACP for showing up drunk at a meeting where he was the main speaker.

In late 1969, Williams had released endorsements from eighteen Democratic county chairmen.  In a bid to prevent a primary fight from Guarini, some party leaders offered him the post of Senate Minority Leader – the incumbent, J. Edward Crabiel (D-Milltown) was willing to give up – but Guarini (and Kenny) refused.

Guarini, who had won two Democratic primaries for State Senate with the support of the Hudson County Democratic organization, made a bid for an open primary.  He essentially sought to end New Jersey’s system of preferential ballot positions for organization-backed candidates more than fifty years ago, but without success.

He did that with the support of Kenny, the Hudson boss who had split from most of the state’s Democratic establishment when he refused to back former Gov. Robert Meyner’s bid for a third term against Rep. William Cahill (R-Collingswood).  Cahill carried Hudson by fifteen percentage points.

Former New Jersey Attorney General Arthur Sills, who was supporting Guarini, attacked Williams for his alcoholism, a move that backfired after the Democratic Senator had acknowledged his drinking problem.

With just the Hudson organization line, Guarini lost to Williams by 90,647 votes, a 66%-34% race.  Guarini carried only Hudson County – he scored a 16,194-vote plurality (62%-38%) – and Williams won everywhere else.

After the primary, Guarini refocused on local issues.  He proposed the construction of a freeway that would have connected Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen to Route 80, sponsored legislation to change the legal voting age in New Jersey from 21 to 18, attempted to legalize Jai Alai, and tried to persuade the San Francisco Giants to New Jersey to move to New Jersey and play in a new baseball stadium he wanted built in the Meadowlands.

The lifelong bachelor was the only senator to vote against a bill to make it easier for New Jerseyans to get a divorce.

But in 1971, Guarini decided to eschew a bid for re-election to the State Senate.  That happened when reapportionment reduced Hudson’s Senate delegation from four to three, and Guarini became a redistricting casualty.

Hudson County lost a congressional seat in 1972, when a new district was created in Morris, Warren, Sussex, and Hunterdon counties. Rep. Cornelius Gallagher (D-Bayonne), had been expected to keep the Hudson seat – party leaders were going to tell Rep. Dominick Daniels (D-Jersey City), who was 20 years older than Gallagher, to retire. Gallagher was indicted on tax evasion charges, and the accusations against him came at a considerable cost.

The Hudson County Democratic Organization was in deep trouble.  Kenny had gone to prison, and reformer Paul Jordan was elected Mayor of Jersey City in 1971.  Guarini was a fierce critic of Jordan.

For a short time, there was talk of dropping Daniels and Gallagher, with Guarini becoming the compromise machine candidate against Jordan’s candidate, West New York Mayor Anthony DeFino.  But they decided to stick with Daniels, who won the primary by a 51%-32% margin against DeFino.  Gallagher came in third with just 15% of the vote, with 2% going to former Congressman Vincent Dellay, who had won the other Hudson House seat in 1956 as a Republican and later switched parties.

Guarini also considered challenging three-term Republican U.S. Senator Clifford Case in 1972, but party leaders settled on former Rep. Paul Krebs (D-Livingston) for a nomination not worth fighting for.

In late 1972, a list of potential gubernatorial candidates, drawn up by Democratic State Chairman Salvatore Bontempo to take on Cahill the following year, included Guarini, but he never made any move to run.

Guarini supported State Sen. Ralph DeRose (D-South Orange) for governor in 1973.  He signed on to help DeRose after the Hudson County Democratic Chairman, Francis Fitzpatrick, agreed to give the organization line to Superior Court Judge Brendan Byrne.

When Daniels retired in 1976, Hudson leaders agreed to give the seat to Assembly Speaker Joseph LeFante (D-Bayonne).   Guarini sharply criticized the move to leave Jersey City without a congressman.

Return to public office

Guarini backed Thomas F.X. Smith,  the city clerk, in the 1977 Jersey City mayoral election against Jordan’s handpicked successor, Bill Macchi.

Smith won by a 54%-26% margin.  The seismic shift in Jersey City politics in May caused Jordan to withdraw as a candidate for governor and led to the defeat of several incumbents in the June primary for State Senate and Assembly.

With support from Smith and Musto – and later from Bayonne Mayor Dennis Collins – Guarini was elected Hudson County Democratic Chairman, succeeding a Jordan ally, Bernard Hartnett.

In late 1977, Guarini began seeking party support to challenge Case in the 1978 U.S. Senate race.  He joined a field that included former New York Knicks star Bill Bradley, State Treasurer Richard Leone, Rep. Andrew Maguire (D-Ridgewood), and former State Sen. Alexander Menza (D-Hillside).

Smith had indicated that he would support Guarini if he ran, but he was also feeling pressure from Byrne, who wanted the Hudson line to go to Leone.   Guarini announced he would not run and suddenly became a leading candidate to serve as chairman of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority,  then a hugely powerful post.

But instead, Guarini decided that the Hudson congressional seat should return to Jersey City and that LeFante would be a one-term congressman.

After LeFante left Congress, Byrne put him in his cabinet as Commissioner of Community Affairs.

Guarini won 82% of the vote in the Democratic House primary against two minor candidates, and 64% in the general election against Republican Henry Hill, a Kearny councilman.

As a freshman congressman, Guarini was assigned to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.  He also served on the House Budget Committee.

During his fourteen years in Congress, Guarini became one of the House’s experts on international trade issues.  He was part of the first U.S. trade mission to China, served as a delegate to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and sponsored the Caribbean Basin Initiative, which increased trade with Caribbean and Latin American nations.

Guarini played a major role in revising the Internal Revenue Code in 1986 and led efforts to modernize trade and tariff laws.

He also led the fight against the proposed Westway project in Manhattan, which sought to construct an above-water roadway adjacent to the West Side Highway.  Guarini’s success helped protect New Jersey’s view of the New York skyline, paving the way for redevelopment in places like Jersey City and Hoboken.

In 1986, he defeated Albio Sires, then a West New York gadfly running as a Republican, with 71% of the vote.  Sires retired after fourteen years in Congress as a Democrat in 2022; he is now the mayor of West New York.

Congressional redistricting in 1992 redrew Guarini’s district to include a substantial number of Hispanic voters in North Hudson that had previously been in a Bergen County-based district – and the addition of parts of Newark, Linden, Elizabeth, Woodbridge and Perth Amboy — Guarini declined to run for re-election rather than face a primary against State Sen. Bob Menendez (D-Union City).   Menendez had been eyeing a run for Congress.

After leaving Congress, Guarini continued to practice law and became a highly successful real estate developer.

President Bill Clinton appointed him as U.S. Representative to the General Assembly of the United Nations, a post that carried the rank of Ambassador.

Guarini spearheaded a lawsuit against New York that led the U.S. Supreme Court to return 90% of Ellis Island to New Jersey.

Jersey City’s main post office is the Congressman Frank Guarini Post Office, and other buildings bear his name: a library at New Jersey City University; the business school, Institute for Government and Leadership, and the college president’s residence at St. Peter’s University; and John Cabot University’s Rome campus.