[3][1] From 1970 to 1974, during the administration of Governor William Cahill, Renna served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Housing Finance Agency (HFA).
Renna immediately became a candidate for Essex County Republican Chairman (the incumbent, Frederic Remington, had won a GOP primary for Kean's State Assembly seat[6] ).
Kean was one of five Essex County candidates seeking the GOP nomination, along with State Senator James Wallwork, Assemblyman Anthony Imperiale, former Superior Court Judge Richard McGlynn, and millionaire businessman Bo Sullivan.
[4] Renna considered his greatest achievements in that role the enforcement of the boarding home regulations and a new fire safety code.
Sensing an opportunity, Renna pulled his candidate, Carl Orechio, off the ticket and replaced him with Nicholas Amato, who had won three terms as Essex County Surrogate as a Democrat before Shapiro dumped him from the party line a few months earlier.
[13] In 1988 he convinced Joe Louis Clark, the principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, and the subject of a semi-biographical film, Lean on Me, to run for Essex County Freeholder as a Republican.