Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 59

C12 Asbury Park PressSun. Jan. 25, 1981 Past wins among Democrats will help, Raff erty; says .) and, when the township's form of government was changed to a stong mayor-council system in 1974, he won election as mayor. He was re-elected mayor, a full-time lob, in 1979. And although he never asked him, Rafferty smiled, he is sure his father who has since died voted for him every time he was on the ballot, even though his father was a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat.

By his own accounting, Rafferty became the first Republican to serve as mayor of Hamilton Township in 26 years. He considers himself a moderate, even moderate-to-liberal on some issues, but expects to garner considerable conservative support by having served as chairman of Ronald Reagan's primary campaign in New Jersey. RAFFERTY CANDIDLY admits he thought of the benefit he might reap, in terms of primary support In his gubernatorial bid, when he accepted the chairman's Job. He maintains, however, that he took it only after satisfying himself that he and Reagan were philosophically compatible in their politics. It was John P.

Sears, a New Jerseyan who was then the manager of the Reagan campaign, who prevailed upon Rafferty to serve as chairman. Rafferty said Sears, later ousted as manager at mid-campaign, had been after him for three years to align himself with Reagan. But Rafferty, who had attended the 1976 Republican National Convention as a delegate pledged to President Ford, rebuffed his appeals. "Then one day Sears asked if he could at least send me some background material on Reagan, and I said sure," Rafferty said. "I read it over and I was really Impressed with Reagan.

He was not as conservative as the press had depicted him." After concluding he and Reagan were philosophically compatible, he went to Arizo- when there was no one else out there. I'm basing a percentage of my effort on that." Rafferty would like to have southern New Jersey solidly behind his candidacy, but realizes that Isn't likely as long as State Sen. Barry Parker, of neighboring Burlington County, remains in the race for the nomination. He said he would reassess his own position in 60 days. If he's not doing well, he'll drop out.

"But I feel I'm doing well right now," he added. "I think with a couple of months (of campaigning) under my belt, I can be the strongest candidate." TO DATE, he has raised approximately (50,000 for his gubernatorial campaign. He has a staff of three. Henry "Hank" Keller, is campaign manager, and there is an office manager and a researcher. Rafferty, 42, grew up In Hamilton Township and served two years In the Navy after graduation from high school.

After picking up an associate in arts degree from Trenton Junior College, he went to LaSalle College in Philadelphia, graduating in pre-law in 1963, then attended the University of Kentucky College of Law, and got a law degree there in 1966. He never practiced law, however. After clerking for the late U.S. District Court Judge George Barlow, he went to work as a legal analyst for the state Division of Taxation. Former Gov.

William T. Cahill subsequently appointed him director of the Division of Administrative Procedure, a division within the Department of State which prints and compiles all state rules and regulations. He left state government when Gov. Byrne, a Democrat, took office in 1974. That same year he was elected mayor of Hamilton Township, a full-time Job.

RAFFERTY AND his wife, the former Doris Tramontana, have two children Megan, 8, and Daniel, 7. "We saved approximately 800,000 gallons of water a day," Rafferty said. Besides ensuring enough water for local residents, be added, the action has saved the township many times the cost of the gadgets. ANOTHER UNUSUAL but less successful approach was that applied to a problem with an excessive number of mosquitoes. Rafferty read somewhere that purple martins eat a lot of mosquitoes and other insects so acquired the materials to build 200 purple martin bird houses In an effort to attract them to the area.

Local residents were invited to assemble the bird houses, on a volunteer basis, and they were hung all around town. I "The birds came," Rafferty said with a smile, "but not so many as we had hoped." Rafferty felt the township should not avail itself of any established government programs that do not work and, to him, that included most programs dealing with the usual problems of urban community. So, at his direction, the township hired a consultant who devised new programs, with new approaches, and then went out and got gov- ernment funding to finance them on an experimental basis. "It's just magnificent what a well-run program can do," he said. "Reducing taxes is not my aim (in throwing out the standard government programs).

My aim is the effi-. clency of it." I Rafferty said he felt his experience as mayor of Hamilton Township has given him the perspective to deal with such problems if he were governor. "I think there's no better training than that on a municipal council or as myor be -cause, believe me, you're right down in the I trenches," he explained. "The is no distance between you and the people you're right there." NEXT SUNDAY: State Assemblywoman Barbara W. McConnell.

His ability to repeatedly win elections in a predominantly Democratic district makes him the strongest of present and potential candidates for the GOP nomination for governor, he said. "I have shown that I can get Democratic and Independent support. This is what we will need on the Republican side to win in November," he said. "Despite Reagan's victory, a Republican is still going to have to fight to win in New Jersey. "There Is not another Republican mayor lA the state who, running as a Republican, represents a larger constituency than he added.

Lawrence "Pat" Kramer, mayor of the Democratic city of Paterson who is considered one of the leading contenders for the GOP nomination, does not run as a Republican in his mayoralty races, Rafferty pointed out. Contrary to what many people believe, Rafferty continued, Hamilton Township is not a small town. Its population is 81,000, and it has the same urban and suburban problems as many other municipalities In the state including Trenton, which it borders, he said. RAFFERTY IS proud of the record of his administration. He notes that the tax rate was lowered four years in a row and cites Innovative approaches to solving problems.

"We have initiated programs which have received statewide attention," he said. One was the township's response to a threatened shortage of water because of lower levels of the Delaware River, a problem other communities are Just now facing. At Rafferty 's direction, the township purchased 30,000 water-saving shower heads to slow the flow of water in showers, and gadgets called Moby Dikes to reduce the amount of water used in flushing tol)ets, at a total cost of $150,000. The devices were distributed door-to-door by volunteer firefighters and Boy Scouts. JOHN K.

RAFFERTY "I run na by himself for a few days to think and to consult with an old friend about what he should do. It would be a politically good move to head up the Reagan campaign and took the Job as chairman, he said. AFTER SEARS' OUSTER, Reagan's Labor Secretary-designate Ray Donovan, a personal friend of the president, became chairman of the general election campaign in New Jersey, replacing Rafferty. But Rafferty said his tenure as chairman during the primary served, as he had hoped, to make Republicans outside of Mercer County aware of him. "People recognize me when I go to Bergen County or to Cape May," he explained.

"A lot of people don't know me as a moderate. They know me as being for Reagan EDITOR'S NOTE: This it another In a series of special report on prospective New Jersey candidates for gubernatorial nomination this year. By SHERRY CONOHAN Press Staff Writer HIS FATHER never quite understood how John K. "Jack" Rafferty came to be a Republican. Rafferty, the mayor of Hamilton Township in Mercer County, has many characteristics attributed to politicians who grow up, as he did, in an Irish, Catholic and Democratic home.

There are the Irish face, the easy-going manner, the intensity of feeling on issues he's involved with, the social conscience. However, Rafferty has been a Republican all of his adult life and is seeking the GOP nomination for governor. "I am a serious candidate," Rafferty "said, directing the remark to those who would doubt his ability as the relatively unknown mayor of what is regarded as a small town in a Democratic county to marshal the power base to win the nomination. "I've been in six elections and they were tough. I run hard." Rafferty didn't win his first time out.

He was defeated in the 1968 primary election when he sought the Republican nomination for freeholder. But he was successful the following year when he ran for the Township Committee, becoming the first Republican to be elected to the committee in 19 years. IN Rafferty met failure again at the polls when he sought election to the state Assembly, losing to the Democratic incumbents Francis J. McManimon and the Rev. S.

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