His father, Pelligrino Rodino (1883–1957), was born in Atripalda, a town in the province of Avellino, in a region of southern Italy known as Campania.

Rodino Sr. emigrated to the United States around 1900 and worked as a machinist in a leather factory, as a cabinet maker and carpenter, and for thirty years as a toolmaker for General Motors (Hyatt Roller Bearing).

[1] Rodino served in the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt as an appeals agent for the Newark Draft Board.

Rodino attended the British Officers Training University of England[citation needed] and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

He was assigned to the First Armored Division in North Africa, and later in Italy with the Military Mission Italian Army, a joint Allied force.

[3] In 1940, Rodino made his first bid for public office as a Democratic candidate for the New Jersey General Assembly from Essex County.

Rodino had the benefit of running on a ticket with president Harry Truman, who carried Essex and Hudson counties.

[19] He was re-elected in 1960 with 65% against Alphonse A. Miele, and in 1962 with 73% against Dr. Charles Allen Baretski, the Director of the Newark Public Library and the founder of the Institute of Polish Culture at Seton Hall University.

Rodino faced his first African American opponent in 1966, when Earl Harris, a Republican Essex County Freeholder (and future Newark city council president) ran against him.

[19] He was re-elected in 1968 (64% against Dr. Celestino Clemente, a surgeon), 1970 (70% against Griffin H. Jones,[21] a Montclair lawyer), 1972 (80% against bakery owner Kenneth Miller[22]), 1974 (81% against Newark-South Ward Republican Chairman John R. Taliaferro), 1976 (83% against Tony Grandison), 1978 (86% against John L. Pelt, an auto salesman), 1980 (85% against East Orange businessman Everett Jennings), 1982 (83% against Tim Lee), 1984 (84% against conservative activist Howard E. Berkeley), and 1986 (96%, with no Republican in the race).

For many years, Rodino shared a Washington apartment with Hugh Addonizio, a fellow Newark Democrat who was also elected to Congress in 1948 as a young World War II veteran.

[24] Rodino, who had spent a career fighting on behalf of civil rights, was now a white congressman in a district that was drawn to increase African American representation in Congress.

He considered moving into the neighboring 11th district, which lost its black, urban municipalities in redistricting and instead included suburban Essex County towns (including a slice of Rodino's former territory); this would have forced a primary against Rodino's colleague (and Capitol Hill roommate), Joseph Minish.

[29] Payne was elected in 1988 and was re-elected eleven times without substantive opposition, never dropping below 75% of the vote and died in office on March 6, 2012.

He was the Co-Sponsor of what became the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, and authored the bill that designated Columbus Day as a national holiday.

Democrats believed they had a chance to pick up the open Senate seat and party bosses decided they would clear the field for a single candidate, avoiding a primary.

[36] Rodino was the Assistant Majority Whip of the House from 1965 to 1972, and served as a member of the Democratic Steering & Policy Committee during the same years.

Later in 1973, after President Richard Nixon fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox on October 20, in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre", numerous presidential impeachment related resolutions were proposed in the House.

[38] The resultant impeachment inquiry and public hearings put Rodino, who until then had kept a low profile in Congress, front and center in the political limelight.

[39] The committee spent eight months gathering evidence and pressing the president to comply with subpoenas for White House tape recordings and documents.

[2] In 2005, John Doar, who was Special Counsel to the Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings, said of Rodino: He was able to impose discipline on the staff.

[40]Rodino presided over Gerald Ford's December 1973 vice presidential confirmation hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

O'Neill said that Rodino was a Catholic from a northeastern state who could bring middle class Italians back into the Democratic fold.

[43] After Kirbo finished vetting possible candidates, Carter created a short list of seven—Rodino, and Senators Walter Mondale, Frank Church, Henry Jackson, John Glenn, Edmund Muskie, and Adlai Stevenson III.

"[45] In 1972, 57 delegates to the Democratic National Convention voted for Rodino for vice president instead of Thomas Eagleton, who was picked by nominee George McGovern.

"Between 1990 and 1999, he taught two seminars each year, providing students a unique opportunity to actively participate in research, study, and discussion of some of the many areas of law affected by his time in public office.

"While at Seton Hall, Professor Rodino participated in many significant programs and events, including a Celebration of the Bicentennial of the Bill of Rights.

He also wrote several important law review articles on the Ninth Amendment, the Special Prosecutor Statute, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Presidency.

"[1] In 1998, when the House was considering articles of impeachment against president Bill Clinton, Rodino urged congressmen to be "cautious, restrained and non-partisan when weighing whether such an investigation is warranted".

[3] He lay in state at Seton Hall Law Chapel and the funeral mass was celebrated at St. Lucy's Church in Newark.