He served with John Kelly of Nutley for many years in the Assembly, but for his last two terms in office he served as part of a split ticket; Wood-Ridge, New Jersey mayor Paul Sarlo was elected to Kelly's seat in 2001 and after Sarlo moved to the State Senate Frederick Scalera of Nutley was elected in 2003 to replace him.
[2] During his legislative career, DiGaetano pushed many measures that served the public’s interest, such as the HMO right-to-sue legislation, mandatory health insurance coverage for women’s cervical cancer tests, lightening the tax burden on New Jersey’s working poor and cutting taxes more than fifty times.
DiGaetano worked on legislation to create Urban Enterprise Zones, protect children from sexual predators, toughen rape penalties, reform binding arbitration, create New Jersey’s first ever cord blood resource center, secure funding to purchase enhanced testing equipment for newborn infants.
[2] In 2016 DiGaetano challenged incumbent Bergen County Republican Organization chairman Robert Yudin in the race for chair.
DiGaetano also had support from the local Young Republicans chapter, with Paul offering to make several members leaders in his administration.