BettyLou DeCroce


BettyLou DeCroce is an American Republican Party politician, who has served in the New Jersey General Assembly since 2012, where she has represented the 26th Legislative District after being appointed to fill the seat following the death of her husband, Alex DeCroce.

Biography and early career

DeCroce is a realtor who is the president and owner of the firm ERA Gallo & DeCroce, Inc. She served as a member of the Township Council of Mine Hill Township from 1981 to 1983. She served on the Roxbury Township planning board from 1984 to 1987, and was employed by the township as its deputy township manager from 1991 through 2002 and as its Township Clerk from 1988 to 2010. She has served on the Morris County Joint Insurance Fund and was the North Jersey Health Insurance Fund Commissioner. She was Deputy Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs from 2010 to 2012 in Governor Chris Christie's administration. During this time, she authored the Best Practices for Municipalities, which became a statewide model for identifying efficiencies in local government for reducing property taxes. DeCroce attended Berkeley College and Rutgers University. She married Alex DeCroce, who had been in the Assembly for two terms, in 1994. She currently resides in Parsippany-Troy Hills and has two sons and four grandchildren.

New Jersey Assembly

Alex DeCroce, who had served in the Assembly since 1993, died on January 9, 2012, at the age of 75, shortly after the 214th Legislature had ended. On January 25, 2012, BettyLou DeCroce, his widow, was selected by the Morris County Republican Committee to replace him in the Assembly winning 120 votes to former Kinnelon councilman Larry Casha who received 67 votes. She won a November 2012 special election for the remainder of the term, defeating the Democratic candidate Joseph Raich.

Committee assignments

Each of the forty districts in the New Jersey Legislature has one representative in the New Jersey Senate and two members in the New Jersey General Assembly. The representatives from the 26th District for the 218th New Jersey Legislature are:

New Jersey Assembly