1966; George M. Wallhauser, Jr., the son of a former Republican congressman, in 1968; businessman James Shue, the father of actors Elisabeth Shue and Andrew Shue. in 1970; and in his first seriously contested re-election bid, former State Senator Milton Waldor in 1972. Later, easily defeated attorney William Grant in 1974; former Essex County Young Republican Chairman Charles Poekel in 1976; businessman Julius George Feld in 1978; conservative activist Bob Davis in 1980; and businessman Rowley (Rey) Reddington in 1982. As a Congressman, Minish served on the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee, and was the Chairman of the Subcommittee on General Oversight. The Newark Star-Ledger, which covered Minish's entire political career, said that he was a staunch party loyalist and supporter of organized labor who ran a strong constituent service operation but had no real impact on legislation. Minish was a somewhat conservative Democrat by New Jersey standards. He drew poor ratings from civil liberties groups, supported the Vietnam War, and opposed campaign finance reform and legalized abortion. Minish was described as a low-key Democrat with few accomplishments. During his two decades in the House, Minish was a supporter of big financial institutions and received considerable campaign contributions from the banking industry. He won some headlines for criticizing profiteering by defense contractors and accusing natural gas producers of price gauging. In early 1984, a court-ordered redrawing of New Jersey's congressional districts radically altered Minish's district. Most of the Democratic-leaning areas were cut out, replaced with heavily Republican areas to the west—most notably, most of Morris County, one of the most Republican counties in the state. Minish joked that the new map pushed his district so far to the west that he might as well be a congressman from Pennsylvania. Although Minish now found himself in one of the most Republican districts in the Northeast, he opted to run for reelection in the reconfigured 11th. He lost, 133,662 (56%) to 106,038 (44%) to State Assembly Minority Leader and Morris County resident Dean Gallo. Minish blamed his loss on redistricting that made his district so heavily Republican that "I'm not sure the good Lord could have survived." He also blamed special interest groups who had long lobbied against him. "If you measure a man by his enemies, I'm pleased to have these guys as my enemies. They're no good for the country. They're greedy," Minish said in a New York