He spent his career as a realtor and real estate developer, and was an owner of Gallo & DeCroce, a firm he started with another future elected official,
Alex DeCroce.
Local politics Gallo was elected to the Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Council in 1967, and served as council president from 1968 to 1971. He was elected to the Morris County Board of Freeholders in 1971 to fill an unexpired term, and elected to a full three-year term in 1972. He was the freeholder director from 1973 to 1975. In 1974, Gallo considered running for
New Jersey's 5th congressional district, which included all of
Somerset and parts of
Essex,
Mercer and
Morris counties, including his hometown of Parsippany. The Republican incumbent,
Peter Frelinghuysen, was retiring after 22 years. However, Gallo ultimately did not run and instead endorsed Assembly Minority Leader
Thomas Kean, who narrowly lost the GOP primary to
Millicent Fenwick.
New Jersey Assembly In 1975, Gallo became a candidate for
New Jersey's 24th legislative district, which included part of Morris County and
Summit in
Union County. Gallo won the Republican primary by a more than 2–1 margin against four other candidates, W. Thomas Tintle, Gerard R. Hughes, Jack Newberger and Raymond F. Bonnell. In the general election, he defeated two-term Democratic Assemblyman
John J. Sinsimer by 6,605 votes, 26,277 to 19,672. Gallo faced Sinsimer again in 1977 and won by an even greater margin, 15,505 votes, 33,306 to 17,801. He was re-elected by similar margins in 1979, 1981, and 1983. Gallo was elected Assembly Minority Leader in 1981 and was re-elected to a second term in 1983.
U.S. House of Representatives New Jersey's congressional map drawn after the
1980 United States census was thrown out in 1984 on the grounds that the variations in district populations were too large. A panel of federal judges substituted a new map that significantly altered the 11th District, home to 11-term Democratic incumbent
Joseph Minish. Democratic-tilting towns in Essex, Hudson, southern Bergen and Passaic counties were cut out. To make up for the loss in population, the district was pushed further west to include all of heavily Republican Morris County. It also absorbed several equally Republican areas in Sussex and Warren counties and retained the more Republican areas of
Essex County. Gallo immediately entered the race; the redrawn 11th included his home in Parsippany. Minish was thought to face very difficult odds for reelection, but opted to run in the 11th after considering a run in another district. Ultimately, Gallo defeated Minish by 27,624 votes, 133,662 (56%) to 106,038 (44%). He was undoubtedly helped by
Ronald Reagan's landslide reelection bid that year. Gallo's campaign was managed by Assemblyman (and later Congressman)
Bob Franks. He was easily re-elected in 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1992 in what became one of the most Republican districts in the Northeast. Gallo served on the House Appropriations Committee, and joined the House Republican leadership as a Deputy Minority Whip. In 1994, Gallo faced a primary challenge from Dr.
Joseph Pennacchio, a considerably more conservative Republican. Pennacchio spent over $200,000 of his own money attacking Gallo. Gallo won 26,492 (65.28%) to 10,917 (26.90%) in a four-candidate race. == Personal life ==