Gill Earns Democratic Nod for 5th District Freeholder

Nov. 5, 1974 was an important day; voters went to the polls in an election that saw the Democrats gain seats in Congress after the wake of the Watergate scandal.

It was also an momentous day in Montclair, when residents Daniel Gill, a history teacher, and Michelle Gill, a homemaker, welcomed the birth of their son Brendan Gill. Needless to say, they forgot to cast their votes that day.

“My father always like to kid it was the only election he missed,” said Gill, laughing.

Gill, a 36-year-old Montclair resident, is now running for the 5th district seat on the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders after years of serving in all levels of government and running numerous political campaigns.

Gill will be on the ballot as an uncontested Democrat for the June 7 primary elections. Republican Steven L. Rogers of Nutley and Carmen Bucco of Belleville, an independent Republican, are also running for the 5th district freeholder seat.

Gill currently works as state director for Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, which entails running the senator’s Newark and Camden offices, managing a staff of 20, and counseling Lautenberg on political, legislative, and press matters.

Gill also is the chairman of the Monclair Democratic Party.

Public service and policy run in his blood, Gill acknowledged. The anecdote on the day of his birth is just one example.

Growing up as one of three siblings with a father who has long served as a teacher in the Montclair school system, Gill said their “dinner-time conversation often centered around government and politics.”

Seeing also the impact his father had on Montclair made an impression, he said.

“Since he was a teacher, I saw first hand the value that a public servant makes in the community,” he said.

Gill took his father's lessons to heart and graduated from Seton Hall University in 1996, earning a bachelor's degree in political science.

Gill then went on to work for U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell and Steve Rothman and state Assemblyman Peter C. Eagler. He has also helped Pascell, Lautenberg, Sen. Robert Menendez, and other elected officials during their political campaigns.

Gill was also spokesman for the state Department of Transportation and a former member of the Monclair Planning Board.

Running for election as freeholder brings Gill back to this roots because the 5th district covers Belleville, Bloomfield, Nutley, Glen Ridge and Montclair - an area he said he knows intimately.

The freeholder post became open when Freeholder Ralph Caputo, who also currently serves as an assemblyman in the 28th legislative district, said he would not seek re-election as freeholder.

“It’s my home, where I am from,” Gill said. “I know the neighborhoods and the community.”

Gill lives in Monclair with his wife Alixon Collazos-Gill, a Colombia native, and their son Gabriel, a toddler. He said he shares the same concerns as the many residents in the 5th district.

“We love this area and we want to make sure place is affordable,” he said.

Across the 5th district, Gill said the towns are concerned about property taxes and keeping those under control while having municipalities do more with less.

“They (residents) need to have voice that’s looking out for them; so there’s no taxation without representation,” he said.