By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
Atlantic County Commissioner John Risley announced last week that he is running for a seat in the state Assembly.
The Republican from Egg Harbor Township, along with former Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, will challenge incumbents Vince Mazzeo of Northfield and John Armato.
Risley, who just won re-election to the Atlantic County Board of Commissioners in November, will continue his decades-long public service whether he wins the Assembly seat or not.
When it comes to length of public service, it would be hard to beat Risley.
Former Margate Mayor Bill Ross had him beat but he died in 2013 at 88, while the vice president of the board shows no signs of quitting.
Ross served the city of Margate, as a city commissioner and longtime mayor, for more than 43 years until his retirement in 2002. He was clerk of the Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders for six years and chairman of the Atlantic County Republican Party for 20 years.
Risley is now in his 20th year on the board but has been serving in elected office for the past 43 years.
He did not serve on the freeholder board, which is now known as the Atlantic County Board of Commissioners, for 20 years straight, instead doing it in two stints. But he was not idle during the interim. During his political career he also has served on school board and as a member of the governing body in three municipalities.
Risley won his first election to the Mainland Regional High School Board of Education in 1977, at age 20, and served as president of the board in 1979.
“Three years after I graduated from high school I was on the Board of Education,” Risley said.
The 1974 graduate of MRHS served on Linwood City Council for a couple of years, then moved to Somers Point and was on Somers Point City Council for 10 years.
“I was president of Somers Point Council for seven of the 10 during some very interesting times,” Risley said, noting he served there from 1985-94.
He then was elected to the county board and served for 10 years until 2004. During that time he had moved to Egg Harbor Township.
He lost his re-election bid in 2004 in a “presidential sweeping-out kind of election,” but it would not be long before he was serving again. In fact, it wasn’t even a day.
As his term was winding down, Township Committeeman Bob Reed died, opening up a seat on that body.
“When I lost in 2004, when President Bush — he didn’t do very well in Atlantic County and took me with him — and in December 2004 it would have been the end of my service on the freeholder board,” he said. “But unbeknownst to me Sonny McCullough and Jake Glassy put my name in for Township Committee.”
His name was on the ballot and he won.
“It was the only thing in my whole life that was handed to me,” Risley said. “I didn’t ask for it. They put my name in and I was sworn in Jan. 1, so I wasn’t out of office a day,” he said.
He then served on EHT’s committee for seven years and then “got itchy to go back on the board of freeholders because I really enjoyed the work because it was so diversified.”
Risley ran and won in 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2020 and now serves as vice chairman of the board behind Maureen Kern, who coincidentally also served on Somers Point City Council as president.
