Before Assemblyman Nicholas Chiaravalloti took office, New Jersey was tough on lemonade stands.
Of the many issues he pursued during his six years in office, a little bill eliminating a permit requirement for kids’ lemonade stands was among the most memorable.
That’s because the idea for it was his son’s, and he brought his son with him to Trenton on the day it was approved.
As election day arrives, the end of Chiaravalloti’s term nears and its things like the lemonade bill that he is now looking back upon fondly. His name won’t be on the ballot Tuesday, where voters will instead find William B. Sampson IV on the Democratic line. Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis’ decision to champion the newcomer prompted Chiaravalloti to opt out of a primary run.
Emotions about the turn of events have subsided, the District 31 assemblyman said in an interview, but he doesn’t know whether he’ll ever want to run for office again.
“I’ll be involved,” said Chiaravalloti, whose term ends Dec. 31. “I’ll always be involved. I’ve been involved in this since I was 14, so to say I wouldn’t be involved would be crazy, but I don’t see myself running for public office in the future. I enjoy it, don’t get me wrong, but if I could effectuate change by serving on committees and providing guidance and counseling people, I’d much rather do that.”
Chiaravalloti was raised in Bayonne politics. That initial involvement at age 14 was an internship with then District 31 Assemblyman Joseph V. Doria Jr.
He later worked in Bayonne City Hall and with U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, keeping politics as a constant in his life even as he pursued a career in law.
He joined the state assembly in 2016 and by 2020 he was the assembly’s majority whip.
Like the lemonade bill that originated as a conversation with his son, many of Chiaravalloti’s proudest accomplishments were education and transportation initiatives he says that directly impact Bayonne.
He sponsored the bill that modernized New Jersey’s school funding formula, funneling dollars into Bayonne’s school district, which had been chronically underfunded.
But he was also there for the discussions on the biggest issues in Trenton as deputy parliamentarian and then majority whip, including criminal justice reform and the package to legalize recreational marijuana.
Then there were the less glitzy bills he championed that he felt were no less important. He helped reform civil asset forfeiture, which had allowed authorities to seize money or property they said residents acquired criminally, but without due process. In many cases, the “bill” to retrieve the cash was more than the amount sought.
“In a place like Hudson County that’s a big deal because we’re not talking about drug kingpins losing their yachts,” Chiaravalloti said. “In Hudson County we were talking about people losing cell phones and losing less than $100.”
Chiaravalloti said he plans to work with opposition campaigns in the Bayonne May election next year, though none have yet been announced. Davis’ abandonment of the assemblyman in the primary was just one of several times the mayor made the news this year for controversial decisions.
The business administrator sued him and the city for gender-based harassment, he pushed for an eminent domain acquisition of Bayonne Medical Center, and he and City Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski appear to have drifted further and further apart politically.
“I do think it’s my responsibility as someone who was entrusted by my friends and neighbors to represent them in the past to recognize that the city’s heading in the wrong direction,” Chiaravalloti said.
Professionally, he’ll have more time to commit to his gig at Hudson County Community College, where he is vice president for planning and development and special counsel to the president.
And in the last couple months of his time in Trenton, he hopes to push through a bill package benefiting the deaf and disabled community.
He wishes he could have gotten further with the Hudson-Essex Greenway, an envisioned bike path along an old railway line that would connect the neighboring counties. He’s also aware that he’s “the type of guy that knows you can do more.”
“It was a great six years and now we move on to whatever the next phase is,” he said. “It’ll be fun.”
