Angelo Joseph Fortunato (born March 19, 1946), also known as Buddy Fortunato, is an American newspaper publisher and Democratic Party politician who served four terms in the

New Jersey General Assembly The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. Since the election of 1967 (1968 session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...

Biography

Fortunato was born in

Orange, New Jersey The City of Orange (known simply as Orange) is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 34,447, an increase o ...

in 1946. He graduated from Montclair High School where he received all-state high school honors in baseball and football. He then attended

Rider College Rider University is a private university in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, United States. It consists of three academic units: the Norm Brodsky College of Business, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which includes Westminster Choir Coll ...

where he graduated in 1968. Since 1971, he has been executive of ''The Italian Tribune'', a Newark-based publication focused primarily on

Italian American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

culture. In 1977, Fortunato, a resident of Glen Ridge, was elected to the General Assembly from the 27th district encompassing the northern suburbs of Essex County. He came in second place behind incumbent Republican Carl Orechio. In the next election in 1979, Fortunato placed first in the election ahead of Orechio. After redistricting in 1981, the northern Essex district was slightly reconfigured and renumbered the 30th district. Fortunato came in first in the 1981 election ahead of Republican

John V. Kelly John Vincent Kelly Sr. (July 11, 1926 – October 30, 2009) was an American Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician who served as Mayor of Nutley, New Jersey, and served nine terms in the New Jersey General Assembly, bef ...

. He again was reelected in 1983 but for the first time his Democratic running mate,

Steve Adubato Jr. Steve Adubato (born October 7, 1957) is an American television broadcaster, author and university lecturer. In the mid 1980s he was New Jersey's youngest state legislator in the New Jersey General Assembly at age 26. Adubato holds a doctorate f ...

, was also elected. During the 1984–1985 Assembly session, he was chairman of the Committee on Independent Authorities and Commissions and vice chair of the Transportation and Communications Committee. In April 1985, he was indicted on allegedly accepting a bribe of $2,000 in exchange for getting the sons of Clifton resident Vito Maglione jobs at the

New Jersey Turnpike Authority The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) is a state agency responsible for maintaining the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, which are two toll roads in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The agency is headquartered in Woodbridge Town ...

. The indictment plus the strong coattails of Republican

Thomas Kean Thomas Howard Kean ( ; born April 21, 1935) is an American politician, statesman, and academic administrator from the state of New Jersey. A Republican Party (United States), Republican, Kean served two terms as the 48th governor of New Jersey f ...

in the

gubernatorial election A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

led to the defeat of Fortunato and Adubato by Republicans Kelly and Marion Crecco. Fortunato was later acquitted of the bribery charges in 1987 and attempted to stage a comeback to the Assembly in 1989. However, he was narrowly defeated in the general election by Kelly and Crecco.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortunato, Angelo Joseph 1946 births Living people Rider University alumni People from Glen Ridge, New Jersey Politicians from Orange, New Jersey American newspaper publishers (people) American people of Italian descent Democratic Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly 20th-century members of the New Jersey Legislature