Daniel Amster

Democrat, 85, also a developer

Daniel Amster, a feisty force in Bergen County Democratic politics a half-century ago, died Monday. The longtime Ho-Ho-Kus resident was 85.

The cause was complications of Alzheimer's disease, his family said.

Mr. Amster, with a Rutgers law degree, launched a political career from a single term on the Waldwick Council. He also had served as Waldwick borough attorney. In 1956, at age 30, he challenged an entrenched Republican congressman, William B. Widnall.

Mr. Amster got just 30 percent of the vote, but his battling reputation burnished his name recognition. He rose in the Democratic organization and in 1960 was elected Bergen's Democratic county chairman.

Mr. Amster chipped away at the Republicans' significant Bergen advantage. In the 1960 presidential election, Republican Richard Nixon carried Bergen County with 59 percent of the vote, but that was 16 points less than President Dwight D. Eisenhower's percentage of the Bergen vote in 1956. "Under the circumstances, I think we did extremely well," Mr. Amster said.

Mr. Amster and the Democrats did even better in 1964, when local Democrats rode the coattails of President Lyndon Johnson's landslide. Mr. Amster was photographed with Johnson at a Bergen campaign stop, and an anonymous admirer placed this ad in the 1964 campaign journal:

"Congratulations to Danny Amster for bringing LBJ to Bergen County. (I promised him the cost of this back page if he could do it — and he did it! A former non-believer.")

After Mr. Amster was unseated as party chairman the following year, he turned his attention to his real estate development interests, notably a shopping center in sleepy Oakland that generated community opposition because of its appearance, Route 202 location and the trees that were cut down. He also established Oakland State Bank, which after 4ï¾½ years was merged into the much larger Citizens First National Bank.

In 1972, The Record published an investigative series that focused on Mr. Amster's business dealings with a member of the Bergen County Tax Board. Mr. Amster sued The Record for libel, claiming that the articles insinuated that he was one of the most successful lawyers representing clients going before the tax board because of that business relationship.

A Bergen County jury ruled in his favor after a nine-day trial. He was awarded $12,500 in punitive damages and nothing for compensatory damages and attorney fees. Superior Court Judge Harvey Smith immediately set aside the $12,500 award, holding that Mr. Amster, as a prominent tax attorney and former Democratic county chairman, was a public figure and therefore not entitled to punitive damages.

Mr. Amster, an Army veteran of World War II, is survived by his wife of 56 years, Lucille, and two sisters. The funeral was Tuesday at Robert Schoem's Menorah Chapel in Paramus.

E-mail: levin@northjersey.com