PARTY HISTORY
Thomas P. Giblin
Assemblyman Giblin was elected into the Assembly in 2005, re-elected in 2007, 2009 and 2011. He was chairman of the New Jersey State Democratic Committee from 1997 to 2001. He also served as chairman of the Essex County Democratic Committee from 1993 to 2002.
His career in public service began in 1977 when he was elected to serve as an Essex County Freeholder. In 1979, he became a commissioner on the New Jersey Real Estate Commission. He returned to the Essex County Board of Freeholders in 1982 and served until 1990. He was the surrogate of Essex County from 1990 to 1993. He was a member of the 2001 New Jersey Legislative Apportionment Commission and, in 1996, was a member of the New Jersey Electoral College.
Mr. Giblin is business manager of the 5,800-member Local 68 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL-CIO, headquartered in West Caldwell. A previous president of Local 68, Mr. Giblin served as chairman of the board of trustees for the union’s pension, welfare, education, and annuity funds. He is the President of the Essex-West Hudson Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations and the Seton Hall University College of Arts and Sciences.
Raymond M. Durkin
Raymond M. ‘Ray’ Durkin has served as chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee as well as the Essex County Democratic Committee.
Durkin grew up in the Vailsburg neighborhood in the West Ward of Newark, New Jersey. He was a member of the Newark Fire Department for 15 years, before becoming secretary to the county purchasing agent under former Essex County Democratic Chairman Harry Lerner. He became purchasing agent after Peter Shapiro defeated Lerner’s organization to become Essex County’s first elected executive in 1978. Durkin was an early active supporter of Shapiro.
Durkin was selected as Essex County Democratic Chairman in 1980. In 1985, when Shapiro was the Democratic candidate for Governor of New Jersey opposing incumbent Tom Kean, Durkin was named chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee. Durkin helped Jim Florio win the Democratic nomination for governor in 1989 and also assisted Ron Brown in his election as chairman of the Democratic National Committee that same year.
Phil Thigpen
Philip Thigpen was elected in 2009 to serve as Essex County Register and lead the Essex County Office of Register of Deeds and Mortgages in Essex County. Mr. Thigpen also was Chairman of the Essex County Democratic Committee, a position he was first elected to in 2001 and to which he had been re-elected three times. Mr. Thigpen previously served as Essex County Freeholder and Councilman in East Orange. While serving as Director of the Essex County Department of Planning and Economic Development, he was responsible for the development and implementation of fiscal and administrative policy in issues such as economic and physical planning and solid waste disposal.
From 1980 to 1987, he was Vice President of Urban Data Systems, Inc. in Newark, a computer forms manufacturer. Prior to joining Urban Data Systems, Mr. Thigpen was Executive Vice President of Leon N. Weiner & Associates, Inc., a real estate development firm based in Wilmington, DE, where he ran a joint venture with Campbell Soup and RCA to develop low- and moderate-income multi-family properties in the East and Midwest. He was a member of the National Association of Homebuilders and was Chairman of its Affirmative Action Committee.
