Hazel Gluck


Hazel Sara Frank Gluck is an American Republican Party politician and lobbyist who served in the New Jersey General Assembly and held several posts in the cabinet of Governor Thomas Kean. She was a top advisor to NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman as well as a founding member of one of NJ's largest lobbying firms.

Early life

Gluck was born in New York City, the only daughter of Jewish immigrants from the United Kingdom. She was raised in Brooklyn and Westchester, and graduated from A.B. Davis High School in Mount Vernon, New York. She is a 1956 graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She married Joseph Gluck, a physician, and had two children: Deborah and Michael.

Political career

A resident of Lakewood Township, New Jersey, Gluck became active in the League of Women Voters and served as President of the chapter in Lakewood. She became active in Ocean County Republican politics as a protege of Joseph Buckalew, who had served as Lakewood Mayor, Ocean County Freeholder and Republican County Chairman. She was later appointed Director of the Ocean County Department of Consumer Affairs.
In 1976, Gluck was elected to the Ocean County Board of Freeholders. She defeated a Democratic incumbent who was elected in the 1973 Watergate landslide. Her election gave the Republicans control of the Freeholder Board, which they have held since then.
Gluck gave up her Freeholder seat to run for the New Jersey General Assembly in 1979. She defeated three-term Democratic Assemblyman Daniel F. Newman by 697 votes, 37,221-36,524.
In 1981, Gluck gave up her Assembly seat and challenged two-term Democratic State Senator John F. Russo. Russo won easily, defeating Gluck by 11,233 votes, 38,166 to 26,933. Gluck later called her Senate bid a "stupid" mistake, saying that Russo had done a good job and there was no reason to throw him out.
For a brief time in late 1981 and early 1982, Gluck served as the Ocean County Administrator, as the replacement for Frank B. Holman, who had become executive director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee.

Kean administration

After taking office in January 1982, Governor Tom Kean appointed Gluck to serve as executive director of the New Jersey Lottery Commission. She was appointed Commissioner of Insurance in 1985, and Commissioner of Transportation in 1987. She also served as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of [New York and New Jersey] from 1987 to 1993.

Gubernatorial candidate

Toward the end of Kean's second term, Gluck began to explore a possible bid for the Republican nomination for Governor of New Jersey in 1989. She was considered a potential gubernatorial candidate in 1993, but instead backed Christine Todd Whitman, who won. She was a top advisor to Whitman, both in her campaign and in her administration.

Lobbyist

Gluck resigned as state Transportation Commissioner on July 7, 1989, to form a lobbying firm, Public Policy Advisors, Inc., with former state Department of Environmental Protection Assistant Commissioner Sidney Ytkin. She later formed GluckShaw in a partnership with Judy Shaw. Shaw resigned from the firm in 1994 to become Governor Whitman's Chief of Staff. In 2003, the firm merged with Martin-Bontempo-Matacera-Bartlett, Inc., to become MBI-GluckShaw, which became one of the state's largest lobbying firms. She is now retired.

Gay rights activist

Gluck was married to Joseph Gluck, M.D. for 25 years before divorcing in 1981. In 2013, at age 78, she announced that she was gay. In 2013, she attempted to lobby New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to support marriage equality.