Henry Helstoski

Henry Helstoski

Henry Helstoski (born March 21, 1925 in Wallington , New Jersey , †  December 16, 1999 in Wayne , New Jersey) was an American politician . Between 1965 and 1977 he represented the state of New Jersey in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Henry Helstoski attended the public schools in his home country. Between 1943 and 1945 he worked as an instructor and radio technician in the Air Corps of the United States Army during World War II . After the war, he continued his own education at Paterson State College and Montclair State Teachers College , where he was trained as a teacher until 1949. Between 1949 and 1962, Helstoski was a teacher and school councilor in Bergen County . In 1956 he was on the East Rutherford Town Council . Between 1957 and 1965 he was mayor of this city. In 1962 and 1964 Helstoski also worked as an advertising consultant. Politically, he was a member of the Democratic Party .

In the 1964 congressional election , he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the ninth constituency of New Jersey , where he succeeded Frank C. Osmers on January 3, 1965 . After five re-elections, he was able to complete six legislative terms in Congress by January 3, 1977 . During his time in Congress came the final phase of the civil rights movement , the Vietnam War and the Watergate affair . Helstoski was an opponent of the military operation in Vietnam. In 1969 he ran unsuccessfully for his party's nomination for gubernatorial elections . In Congress he was a member of the Committee on Foreign and Internal Trade between 1971 and 1974. In 1975 he came under suspicion of fraud and corruption. Among other things, it was about bribes in connection with illegal immigrants from Chile and Argentina . Some people around him were convicted in this regard; no official charges were brought against Helstoski himself. Nevertheless, the incidents caused his failure in the 1976 elections.

In 1978, Henry Helstoski sought unsuccessfully to return to Congress as an independent candidate. Two years later, he also unsuccessfully applied for the Democratic nomination for the upcoming congressional elections. Between 1981 and 1985 he served as a school councilor in the North Bergen School District . He was also a public relations consultant. Henry Helstoski spent the last years of his life in Rutherford and died on December 16, 1999 in Wayne.

Web links

• Henry Helstoski in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)