Legendary Newark politician Anthony Carrino, a former Newark police officer who represented the North Ward on the city council for 28 years, has passed away. Carrino was one of Newark Mayor Kenneth Gibson’s fiercest opponents during the twelve years that the two served together.  His final term on the Newark council overlapped with the four years U.S. Senator Cory Booker served as the Central Ward councilman.

He challenged Council President Frank Megaro for the North Ward seat and won in 1974. Carrino’s candidacy was boosted by Megaro’s vote in support of a the controversial Kawaida Towers housing project in the North Ward that was supported by poet Amiri Baraka, the father of current Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.  In the early 1970s, the North Ward was still heavily Italian-American.