Keegan was a political prodigy, serving as national executive director of the Young Democrats.
[1] He was elected to the State Assembly in 1973, representing the 28th district that included South Orange, Irvington and parts of Newark.
He won the Democratic primary without opposition, and defeated Republicans Joseph T. DeVizio and Charles C. Deubal, Jr. by a margin of more than 2–1.
Instead, he spent nearly 20 years building his engineering firm, PMK, and working as a public relations executive for Bally's Casino in Atlantic City.
[3] Governor James Florio called Keegan back into service in 1990 to serve as New Jersey's Democratic State Chairman.