Renna had a few wins by watching the Democratic primary from the sidelines and then figuring out his ticket over the summer. That's what happened in 1986, when Essex County Executive Peter Shapiro's popularity plummeted—especially among Democrats. 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. For Surrogate, Renna ran another party switcher: Earl Harris, the Newark City Council President. The result was a GOP landslide. 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. In a heavily Democratic district based in East Orange, Clark lost to LeRoy Jones. In 1994, Renna helped another Republican, James Treffinger, win election as Essex County Executive. But after Trefinger took office, he feuded with Renna and in 1996 engineered a coup to oust him. Renna died on August 21, 1998, four months after his wife, Grace Baldanza Renna. The John P. Renna House, or John P. Renna Jr. House, Section 8 low-income senior-citizen housing in West Orange, is named for him. Construction began in 1972.