Crecco was a long-time chair of the Bloomfield Republican Party Committee. Crecco was first elected to the General Assembly from the 30th District with running mate
John V. Kelly in the
Kean landslide election of 1985 defeating both
Democratic Party incumbents
Steve Adubato and
Buddy Fortunato. She and Kelly were easily re-elected in 1987 and 1989 in the district consisting of northern
Essex County municipalities. After redistricting following the 1990 Census, Crecco won five elections in the 34th Legislative District in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1999, serving together with Republican
Gerald H. Zecker for all five terms in the Essex and
Passaic county-based district. While in the Assembly, Crecco served in the Republican leadership as Assistant Republican Whip from 1986 to 1989 and Assistant Majority Leader from 1992 to 1995. Building on an experience in which she was unable to connect with her niece following her sister's death, Crecco introduced legislation in September 1996 that would grant aunts and uncles visitation rights, in addition to the grandparents and siblings already covered for unsupervised visitations under previous law passed in 1993. Following the
2001 apportionment which moved her residence of Bloomfield to the western Newark-centered
28th Legislative District, she ran for the
New Jersey Senate in 2001 against incumbent Democrat
Ronald Rice. A lawsuit filed by then-34th District Senator
Norman M. Robertson alleged that the commission charged with drawing the Legislative districts worked to protect incumbent
racial minority members of the
New Jersey Legislature; the suit, in part, cited Crecco's hometown shift to the 28th District whose Senate seat was held by Rice, an
African American. Ultimately, Crecco lost to Rice by a 69.4%-29.6% margin with an
independent candidate taking 1.0% of the vote. ==References==