Rahway Mayor Raymond Giacobbe Opens Up About Loss And Leadership
Chris Howell | July 22, 2025
Rahway Mayor Raymond Giacobbe recently opened up about the loss of his daughter, Anabelle, and how the tragedy reshaped his family, his leadership, and his perspective.
The mayor said he wanted to honor his daughter’s legacy and address lingering rumors about the cause of her death. He also hoped his experience might help other parents who have lost a child.
“So many parents go through this,” he said. “And until it happens to you, you really have no idea.”
A Private Grief, Made Public
On September 24, 2022, Mayor Giacobbe received the call that parents spend their entire lives worrying they might get—and hope they never do.
Bella had just been discharged from Overlook Medical Center, where she was being treated for blood clots. As she left the hospital, she collapsed in the parking lot. Due to an ongoing legal dispute with the hospital, the mayor said he couldn’t speak in detail about her medical care.
He said he and his wife, Laura, arrived at the hospital as staff were performing CPR. The shock was so overwhelming that she had to be sedated and was inconsolable for weeks.
He was stunned—and furious.
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“I thought, this can’t be happening,” he told me. “I felt helpless as a father. I wanted to crawl into a closet and never come out.”
In an immediate effort to cope, he returned to the office just two days later, only to learn that rumors were already spreading about his daughter.
“When you hear a 22-year-old girl suddenly died, the first thing you think is drugs,” he said. “That’s not who Bella was.”
Overwhelmed by grief and frustration, the mayor broke down in his office and went home. He decided to throw himself instead into organizing Bella’s funeral.
The service was held on Saturday, October 1, at St. Thomas the Apostle Byzantine Catholic Church in Rahway. According to the mayor, nearly 10,000 people attended, including the mother of a girl Bella had mentored at Union Catholic Regional High School. Bella had been class president, an honors student, and captain of the volleyball team. Her entire team came to the funeral.
“She used her status to make people feel comfortable and welcome,” the mayor said.
Governor Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy also attended. In the weeks that followed, the governor texted the mayor regularly to check in.
“When you start something, you finish it.” — Bella Giacobbe
After the funeral, the city still needed leadership. The mayor wrestled with whether to continue on a second term after his term ended. Few would have blamed him for walking away. Finishing his first term alone would have exceeded the tenures of Rahway’s previous two mayors, who both resigned amid scandal.
Stepping down was his first instinct. He wasn’t sure his family could endure another term. But when he spoke with Laura, she encouraged him to reconsider.
A few months later, he attended a memorial hosted by the Rutgers Volleyball Club, where Bella had been a member. During a tribute video, he heard someone quote Bella, who had once shared her father’s advice: When you start something, you finish it.
“It was one of those moments when, as a parent, you realize you were getting through to them,” the mayor said.
He took it as a sign. Resigning, he decided, would be a mistake. Recently re-elected, he felt he owed it to the city—and maybe to himself—to continue serving. He committed to a second term, determined to take Bella’s advice and finish what he started.
Grieving on the Job
As the mayor managed personal loss and civic duties, political tensions occasionally erupted.
The mayor said working helped him through the grieving process. There have been, as he put it, “ups and downs.”
His administration has its fair share of success stories.
Rahway was one of the first municipalities in Central Jersey to offer universal pre-k, rolling out its program before many larger and wealthier municipalities in the area. While Rahway’s taxes are higher than some of its neighbors, the savings in preschool tuition for parents far exceed the tax burden.
In Bella’s honor, the mayor and his wife founded the Bella Kind Foundation, which awards thousands of dollars in scholarships annually and runs a volunteer-based mentorship program for middle school girls.
Mayor Giacobbe’s administration has also overseen the revitalization of the city’s downtown, with many chic storefronts and popular restaurants within walking distance from the railroad station. Downtown Rahway was named one of the Great Places in New Jersey in 2020 by the NJ Chapter of the American Planning Association.
The Hot Rods and Harleys festival attracts tens of thousands of people to Rahway’s downtown every year. (Michelle McTamney)
This spring, the neighborhood hosted a traveling exhibition by the Smithsonian Institution called “Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight,” celebrating the contributions of African American aviators.
But not everything has gone smoothly.
The Library Uproar
What typically are mundane library board meetings turned dramatic after tensions over funding spilled onto social media. The city already funds its library less proportionally than its neighbors. Linden’s public library budget is roughly double the size of Rahway’s, for a population that is only about 50 percent larger. Clark’s population is half the size of Rahway’s, but it spends roughly the same amount on its public library and, unlike Rahway, keeps the library open on Sundays.
Public frustration boiled over in August of last year, when the library announced major service cuts in a Facebook post. Due to a lack of funding, the library said, there would be no more weekend hours, no more digital services, no more new books, and no more programs.
Libraries are loved by local taxpayers. A 2023 survey by the American Library Association finds public libraries are very popular among millennials and Gen Z, with more than half of those who responded saying they made a physical visit to their local library during the prior year.
“If you would like to voice your concerns, please attend either a Rahway City Council meeting or a meeting of the Library Board of Trustees,” the post said, listing several meeting times.
The backlash was swift, and the mayor erupted.
In a three-paragraph comment on the library’s Facebook post, he wrote: “The library’s struggles stem not from a lack of funding, but rather from the executive director’s incompetence and poor management of both the budget and staff.” He added that increased funding “would be futile” under the current leadership.
The mayor’s criticism of the library director followed a heated library board meeting several years earlier over the director’s hiring. In a video posted on social media, the mayor appears to threaten to slash library funding by hundreds of thousands of dollars if the board does not hire a different director.
During fiery library board meetings after the mayor’s critical Facebook post, it was revealed that the library has been saddled with large maintenance costs just to keep the building operational. Among the issues, a leaky roof and a failing HVAC system.
After public backlash, the city and the library reached a compromise. Building maintenance costs were shifted to the city. In our interview, the mayor pledged increased library funding in the upcoming budget. However, the library received minimal funding from the city once again in the new budget. Library board officials say an increase was not needed due to the shift in maintenance costs to the city and other factors.
“If I can go through that, then I can go through anything.”
— Mayor Raymond Giacobbe
The mayor now says he regrets his Facebook comment about the library director.
“Big mistake,” he said. “The library director’s job is to run the library. He shouldn’t have to spend all of his time fixing things.”
He also said the incident occurred between his and Bella’s birthdays, a time when he was emotionally vulnerable. Therapy, he said, has helped him manage the lows.
“Just getting it out is important and helpful,” he said.
Now, Mayor Giacobbe says he’s looking ahead to a third term. Despite the recent challenges, he easily defeated his opponent in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary.
If re-elected, he’ll face tough challenges: underperforming schools, roads that need repaving, and an effort to renovate the city’s public housing has stalled over federal funding.
Yet after enduring tragedy, grief, and political turbulence, the mayor says he feels undaunted.
“If I can go through that, then I can go through anything.”
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***Editor’s Note (August 2, 2025): This article was updated for clarity.