Union County Republican served as an assemblywoman, BPU president, judge, and NJ GOP executive director
By David Wildstein, New Jersey Globe
Gov. Phil Murphy today ordered that flags remain at half-staff at all state buildings and facilities on Thursday, February 10 to honor former Assemblywoman Barbara A. Curran, the first woman to serve in all three branches of New Jersey state government.
Curran died on January 29. She was 81
She served in the state legislature, in the cabinet as president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, and as a Superior Court Judge.
“Judge Curran was a trailblazer who was well-respected by Democrats and Republicans alike,” said Murphy. “Throughout her remarkable career, she broke several glass ceilings in state government and served as a role model for many women in public service. She will be greatly missed.”
Curran was first elected to the State Assembly in 1973, at age 33.
Curran became involved in politics working on Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign and managed former Senate President Frank McDermott’s 1969 campaign for the Republican nomination for governor. She served as an assistant to Republican State Chairman Nelson Gross during William Cahill’s successful bid for governor in 1969. Before that, she worked as an editor of the Rahway News Record and the Clark Patriot.
In 1971, at age 30, GOP State Chairman John Dimon named Curran as the executive director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee. She was the first woman to hold that post. In 1972, she became the executive director of the New Jersey Committee to Re-elect the President.
After a new legislative map was drawn for the 1973 elections, Curran became a candidate for Assembly in the new 24th district, which started in Summit and extended through eastern Morris County and into part of western Passaic County. The district had three incumbents: State Sen. Peter Thomas (R-Chatham) and Assemblyman James Vreeland (R-Montville), both Republicans and Assemblyman John Sinsimer (D-Pompton Lakes), a Passaic County Democrat who had been redistricted into the new 24th.
With the endorsement of the Union County Republicans and the Morris GOP with no organization line, Curran won the primary by 2,258 votes against John Kroeger, a Parsippany school board member. The top vote-getter was Vreeland, who had won the seat in 1971 after his brother, Everett Vreeland, passed away. Edward Ambry, a Montclair State University professor, ran a distant fourth.
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