- SEC Sanctions JC Exchanges: The Securities and Exchange Commission has sanctioned Jersey City-based Direct Edge Holdings and two electronic exchanges it operates for having weak controls that led to about $2.8 million in trading losses and a systems outage.

- ‘Kitchen Cousins’: The Jersey City contracting business Brunelleschi Construction is the star in HGTV’s new Kitchen Cousins show.

- Judge Forces Landlord’s Hand: A Jersey City judge has ordered landlord to pay to house five families at a hotel after dragging out repairs and leaving their building without gas and hot water for more than two months.

- Global Terminal: As container ships keep getting bigger and bigger, Global Terminal — which straddles the border between Bayonne and Jersey City — is on track to more than double its capacity to stay competitive with other regional ports

In Statewide News:

- Flood Assistance: Two measures to help flood-ravaged communities make emergency repairs and buy out homeowners were advanced by an important Senate committee yesterday at the urging of mayors whose towns are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Irene.

- Utilities’ Response to Irene: The state is broadening its investigation into how New Jersey’s four electric utilities handled events in the wake of Hurricane Irene, a storm that left 1.8 million people without power at one point or another.

- Facebook Comments Lead to Investigation of Supposed Anti-Gay Remarks: School officials in Union Township are investigating allegations that a teacher at Union High School posted comments on her Facebook site criticizing a school display recognizing Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender History Month and calling homosexuality “perverted.”

- HCCC Expansion: Hudson County Community College officials are holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony tomorrow for the school’s newly opened Higher Education Center in Union City.

- Postal Protest in JSQ: Local union workers will descend on Journal Square this afternoon to protest the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to close distribution centers and slash jobs.

- New Charges for JC Father: A Jersey City man whose trial on charges he sexually assaulted his three daughters ended with a hung jury has now been charged with perjury and making a false statement.

Today’s Best Bets:

- The library’s Biblioteca Criolla hosts the children of “Ninos de la Amazonia,” who have documented their everyday lives in the rainforests of Peru through photographs (5:30 pm), while Sandra Swieder’s 9/11 photography exhibition, From Across the River, moves up to the Brennan Courthouse and has an opening reception this evening (6 pm).

In Statewide News:

- Economic Bills: A package of tax cuts, credits and exemptions designed to encourage job growth in New Jersey were passed by the state Senate Monday. The 13 bills would cost the state treasury more than $100 million in tax revenue a year, if they become law.

- Charter Schools: One change to New Jersey’s charter school law passed the legislature yesterday, while talk mounts that a broader rewrite of the state’s 15-year-old statute governing the semi-autonomous schools may be in the offing.

- ‘Jersey Shore’ Tax Credit Vetoed: Gov. Christie has squashed a controversial $420,000 tax credit today for the hit MTV show that first appeared on the air in 2009.

- Laid Off Cops: Throughout New Jersey, a total of 705 police officers laid off since January have been unable to find work in law enforcement again, according to a survey conducted by the State Policemen’s Benevolent Association, the state’s largest police union. The survey includes all officers, not just those represented by the union.

- Presidential Primary: A bill signed into law Monday moves the New Jersey presidential primary back to its traditional month, to be held with the other political primaries for local and state offices. Going back to a single primary is estimated to save New Jersey $12 million by avoiding the costs of hiring poll workers and counting ballots for another election.

- Immigration: Advocates opposed to mandatory detention for immigrants plan to protest Tuesday in Newark to mark 15 years since a law took effect expanding its use.

- Mistrial in Murder Case: The murder trial of the Jersey City man accused of killing a Jersey City father of four ended in a mistrial yesterday when the jury could not reach a verdict.

- NJ Hero Award: Jersey City resident David McCauley has been named a NJ Hero for October 2011 for creating the Rise Up To Cure Paralysis Foundation. McCauley was paralyzed from a diving accident.

- ‘Next Great Baker’ at the Loew’s: The second-season finale of Next Great Baker, a spin-off of TLC’s popular reality TV show The Cake Boss, was taped yesterday afternoon at the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre in Journal Square.

- Hoboken Hospital Sale: Gov. Christie says he would pledge $5 million in state funds to jump start bankrupcty negotiations key to the sale of Hoboken University Medical Center to the ownership group of Bayonne Medical Center.

- Meet-and-Greet: The Jersey City Elks Lodge 211 is inviting the public to meet firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical service workers up close and personal tomorrow from 1 to 3 p.m. at the St. Nicholas Church parking lot

- Crime Blotter: Police believe the same culprits are to blame for the robberies of two people in separate incidents on Broadway on Wednesday between 8:45 and 10 pm.

In Statewide News:

- Irene $: Officials on Thursday announced nearly $10 million in federal grants to aid New Jersey’s recovery from Hurricane Irene.

- Education: The recommendation is tucked deep into the report commissioned by Gov. Christie, one of nearly 50 suggestions to ease the red tape tying up public schools. But it may be one of the more significant or provocative recommendations made by the Education Transformation Task Force: rethink New Jersey’s decade-old requirement that its teachers rack up 100 hours of professional development every five years.

- Trans-Hudson Rail: Amtrak stands to gain $15 million for preliminary engineering of two new Hudson River rail tunnels next year under a bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

- Carl Lewis: A federal appeals panel has reversed itself and decided that former Olympic track and field star Carl Lewis will not be on the ballot for state Senate after all.

- Smog: Four New Jersey metropolitan areas had enough unhealthy smog days in 2010 to land in the top 20 among American regions with the worst air pollution, according to a new study released Wednesday by the group Environment New Jersey.

- Electric Vehicles: New Jersey is taking some small steps toward building a network of charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, joining 10 other states and the District of Columbia in the an effort to come up with a development plan.

- Vets & Construction Jobs: A program that connects military veterans with construction jobs is getting a boost from a state grant.

- ‘Untitled Jersey City Project’: During last night’s Emmy Awards, FX premiered the first teaser for a new dramatic series, Untitled Jersey City Project, right now consisting of eight short-form episodes.

- JCFD: Sixty-three new Jersey City firefighters joined the ranks of the JCFD at a standing room only ceremony in New Jersey City University’s Margaret Williams Theatre Friday morning.

- JC Woman Killed in Traffic Accident: A young and popular diner waitress from Jersey City was killed in a traffic accident Saturday morning just after getting off her night shift at the Malibu Diner in Hoboken where she worked.

- Man Found Dead ID’ed: Officials have released the name of a Jersey City man found dead on a Greenville porch Thursday, and the case is listed as suspicious pending the outcome of an autopsy.

- Cop Shoots Dog: A Jersey City police officer shot and killed a pit bull early yesterday morning on Summit Avenue after the dog’s owner released the dog and it charged at the officer.

- JC Man Charged in Bank Robbery: A 26-year-old Jersey City man has been charged with robbing a PNC Bank in Hoboken.

- Police Blotter: A Jersey City woman recently discharged from the Navy was arrested Thursday night after allegedly threatening to kill her two children and her mother; police arrested two Jersey City men Saturday evening with the help of three storekeepers who chased them after the pair robbed their store; a 40-year-old Jersey City woman was pistol-whipped and kicked to the ground during a robbery at Mallory and Williams Avenues while yelling to try to scare away her assailant Saturday evening; and a Kearny man had his pinkie severed during a melee at a school hall early Saturday morning.

- Fires: A woman and a child suffered smoke inhalation after a stove fire at 2248 Kennedy Boulevard on Saturday, while firefighters fought a fire on the first floor of a vacant two-story home at 42 Bartholdi Avenue early Saturday morning.

Today’s Best Bet:

There’s a free screening of the documentary The Imam & The Pastor at St. Peter’s College.

In Statewide News:

- Christie’s Town Halls: A look at the demographics of where Gov. Christie holds town halls as he roams New Jersey shows that while the ZIP codes change, the audience members consistently remain the same. Most are white. Many are senior citizens. And they’re generally watching the governor in towns that are richer, less racially diverse and more friendly to Republicans than the rest of the state.

- Medical Marijuana: Kenneth Cayre was set to become an influential player at one of the state’s new nonprofit medical marijuana centers: a potential landlord, member of the medical advisory board and, through his foundation, a beneficiary. But Cayre was removed from the Compassionate Care Centers of America Foundation, a planned medical marijuana clinic in Central Jersey, last week after the Ledger inquired about his connection to Solomon Dwek, scam artist and the star informant in the massive 2009 sting that led to charges against 46 defendants in New Jersey and New York.

- State Budget: It took two years of scouring through the books, but the state came out $26 million richer Friday after the Christie administration found unused money buried in bank accounts going back to the 1960s. Meanwhile, public workers looking for the cheaper health plans promised after benefit reforms will not have those choices by October’s open enrollments, while their existing “Cadillac” plans threaten double-digit increases in premiums.

- Mobile Farmers Markets: The state Assembly has passed a bill that calls for the state Department of Agriculture to develop a network of mobile farmers markets that will travel to underserved communities and sell fresh produce. The program will include a voucher system that will let low-income residents buy fresh food at a discount.

- Women in the Statehouse: Even though a record number of women are running as Democrats and Republicans for the state legislature this year, their ranks in the Senate and Assembly aren’t likely to change much after election day.

- NJTV: After undergoing heavy criticism during its initial weeks on the air, NJTV, which has replaced New Jersey Network as the state’s public television outlet, is ramping up operations and has hired a veteran anchor for its news show.

- Rutgers: The university will cut the number of freshmen it enrolls for the fall 2012 semester by 4 percent due to overcrowding, meaning that between 200 and 250 applicants who would have gotten into Rutgers will get rejection letters instead.

- End-of-Life Care: New Jersey nursing-home care is less af­fordable and patients are more likely to suffer bedsores or need trips to the hospi­tal than in many other states, according to a new scorecard on long-term care for the elderly and disabled. Meanwhile, the state has a new advisory council that proponents say will help make end-of-life care decisions easier for residents and their families.

Common, who is also an actor, author and advocate who founded the Common Ground Foundation, will appear at HCCC’s Journal Square campus on Thursday, September 29 at 6:15 pm. Ferrera, best know for her portrayal of Betty Suarez on the hit TV show Ugly Betty, will speak at the college on Thursday, March 1.

There is no charge for admission to the events, which take place at HCCC’s Culinary Arts Institute/Conference Center (161 Newkirk Street), and they are open to the public. However, there are a limited number tickets, which are now available on a first-come, first-served basis from the college’s Office of Student Activities on the 1st floor of 25 Journal Square.

The college says it will announce more details about the speaker series “in the near future.”

- Statue of Liberty Security: While in New York on Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had hoped to announce changes in how visitors to the Statue of Liberty are screened for weapons and other hazards. But because of concerns from federal and city police, the new security plan has reportedly been delayed.

- Church Accountant Pleads Guilty: The former accountant of the Fountain of Salvation Christian Church on Communipaw Avenue has pleaded guilty to swindling the house of worship out of more than $40,000 by pocketing church tax payments and spending some of the money in casinos and restaurants

- Panasonic: Panasonic can move forward with its consideration to move to Newark after the state’s Economic Development Authority voted unanimously today to approve a $102.4 million tax credit the company could use if it relocates from its current North American headquarters in Secaucus. MORE from NJ Biz.

Today’s Best Bets:

- The Warehouse hosts a free screening of the 1953 classic The Big Heat (7 pm), and Manouche Bag plays its weekly Thursday night gig at Madame Claude Cafe (8 pm)

In Statewide News:

- Teacher Tenure: Acting Department of Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf announced a complete overhaul of teacher tenure Wednesday, two weeks out from the completion of a task force report commissioned by Gov. Chris Christie to find out how exactly to evaluate teachers. MORE from NJ Spotlight, the Ledger and the Wall Street Journal.

- Medicaid Funding: Advocates for New Jersey’s poorest residents are bracing for a tough battle starting next week when Gov. Chris Christie unveils a state budget they fear will include painful cuts in Medicaid funding.

- Mayors in Trenton: About 200 mayors were in Trenton yesterday, pressing state officials for pension and health benefit cost reform.

- Christie in D.C.: Gov. Christie mixed bravado and self-professed humility in a speech to a conservative think tank in D.C. on Wednesday that further burnished his rising-star status in national politics. MORE from Politico and the NY Times.

- ICE in Newark: Immigration advocacy groups are planning to march more than three miles across Newark to protest a proposed immigration detention facility that will likely be built in New Jersey.

These requirements would have been stripped away as part of a proposal making its way through Trenton, but opposition from Jersey City officials and residents has already led to some revisions that may have helped preserve public access programming.

The initial versions of the bill, dubbed the “Market Competition and Consumer Choice Act,” would have eliminated the requirements that cable companies provide municipalities with access to public, educational, and government (PEG) channels and that the companies provide basic cable service and internet to municipal buildings and schools at no charge.

As it was considered by a Senate committee late last month, the bill — despite its friendly name — was criticized as being quite anti-consumer by groups like the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel and Free Press, a media reform organization.

“There is no real choice for many consumers and competitive protections when it comes to terms and conditions of service,” Division of Rate Counsel Stefanie Brand said at the January 31 Senate committee hearing. “This bill would leave New Jersey’s residents at the mercy of cable and telephone companies with respect to these issues. It is a profound shift in consumer protection and it should not be undertaken without careful consideration and input from all interested constituencies.”

The proposal is sponsored by a handful of state senators and Assembly members, including Democratic Sen. Ray Lesniak, who has criticized the current regulations as outdated, saying they “went back decades” and were not reflective of the current deregulation-crazy marketplace. The bill has also been pushed heavily by telecom giant Verizon, which has the statewide franchise to provide cable service even though many towns are allowed to maintain their existing agreements with other cable companies. Jersey City, for example, has a 15-year agreement with Comcast to provide cable service; it expires in 2013.

The bill is expected to come before the full Senate this Thursday, February 17. But it also faced a hearing earlier this month in the Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee. There, Jersey City officials and residents, as well as others, testified against the bill, and the committee ultimately added amendments to it that required that cable companies maintain channels for government and education purposes, and continue to provide basic cable service and internet to schools and municipalities free of charge.

Christian Martin, chief of staff for state Sen. Sandra Cunningham, says the senator helped pushed for the amendments before the bill came out of the Senate committee last month.

Yet the compromise stops there as another amendment to the bill calls for the state’s Board of Public Utilities to do a review and study two years after the bill officially goes into effect, to determine whether “an adequate level of competition and consumer choice” exists in the telecommunications and cable television marketplace. A copy of the study is to be disseminated to the governor and the legislature, who may then choose to once again revisit the requirements.

At the hearing, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy thanked the legislators after he’d found out that amendments would keep the public access channels in place. He then went on to talk about the importance of the government and education channel here, specifically known as Channel One, where he hosts an interview show.

“In today’s changing media world, where newspapers are becoming more and more obsolete, we have, of course, employed the use of our municipal website and social media,” Healy said. “But for many people, particularly our senior citizens, our Jersey City Channel One has become their lifeline to city government, municipal news and other emergency notifications.”

Healy added that the “loss of our PEG channel would be devastating for Jersey City, as this is one of our more recognized and respected sources of information.”

Longtime government critic Yvonne Balcer, host of the public access show SpeakNJ on Comcast Channel 51, also testified about keeping public access channels intact for people like her who want to do their own shows.

“There are a lot of people who videotape public meetings that are important but may not be reported in the newspapers,” Balcer says.

- Homicides: The Journal has its annual rundown of Hudson County’s homicides, which in 2010 totaled 35 — up from 31 in 2009. They’ve also created a Google Map with all of the year’s killings.

- Arrest in Shooting: An 18-year-old Jersey City man who was free on $50,000 bail was arrested yesterday on charges he shot a man in the groin at a New Year’s party in the Candlewood Suites Hotel on the Downtown waterfront.

- Rothman Gets New Chief of Staff: Rep. Steve Rothman, who represents part of Jersey City in the House, has tapped a veteran House operative with experience in the New Jersey delegation as his chief of staff.

- Valastro Gets New Show: “Cake Boss” Buddy Valastro, who recently inked a deal to expand his Hoboken business into Jersey City, will be featured in the new show Kitchen Boss, a daytime cooking series that TLC says will “showcase Buddy’s traditional Italian recipes.”

- ‘Suspicious’ Shea Butter: Police, homeland security and health officials responded to a Woodlawn Avenue home Tuesday on a report of suspicious barrels being unloaded from a truck but it turned out to be 28,000 pounds of shea butter, a product used in skin lotions.

Today’s Best Bets:

- There’s plenty to do in Jersey City tonight: 58 Gallery hosts an opening reception for John Besante’s interpretative paintings of works at the Met (7 pm), and there’s a free screening of the 1994 film Once Were Warriors at the Warehouse (7 pm). Art House Productions’ first Art House event of 2011 is also tonight, featuring poet and performer Mel Kozakiewicz, as well as plenty of open mic spots (8 pm). For those looking for live music, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players will perform Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major in the Hamilton Square lobby (7 pm), and singer/songwriter Nick Ciavatta plays a free show at Bar Majestic (8 pm).

In Statewide News:

- Superintendent Hiring: Gov. Christie is pressing for regulations that would allow some New Jersey school districts to hire superintendents without traditional academic backgrounds or experience. But questions are already surfacing about the plan.

- ‘Achievement Gap’: The “achievement gap” between rich and poor students, and among those of different races, persists in New Jersey schools, according to statewide test score data released yesterday by the state Board of Education.

- School Funding: The state Supreme Court yesterday once again began tackling the decades-long case over whether the state’s low-income districts have adequate funding. MORE from the Asbury Park Press.

- Fertilizers Bill: Gov. Christie signed legislation Wednesday that imposes the nation’s strictest limits on fertilizers and creates soil standards meant to prevent pollution from spilling into Barnegat Bay.

- Jobs Bills: The New Jersey Senate and Assembly are scheduled to vote today on more than a dozen bills designed to jump-start the state’s economy by encouraging job growth and creating a friendlier climate for businesses. One of the proposals would create a corporate tax break that is intended to reward multistate businesses that hire and expand in the state but that would cost millions of dollars in lost revenue.

- Pension Reform: Senate President Steve Sweeney once again says an overhaul of the New Jersey pension system won’t fly without a guarantee from the governor that the state will begin paying its share.

- GOP Chairman Resigns: Jay Webber has announced his resignation as Chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee; Gov. Christie is backing Saddle River mayor Sam Raia to replace him.

- Christopher Cerf: Cerf, who was nominated by Gov. Christie last month to fill the position of state education commissioner, was appointed as an assistant education commissioner at the state board of education meeting Wednesday.

- Snow Storm: Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski says he plans to hold a hearing on the state’s response to last week’s blizzard some time late this month.

- Congress: The return of the House and Senate to Capitol Hill on Wednesday had some New Jersey lawmakers focusing on arcane rules that would shape how and whether future laws could be considered and passed.

- Atlantic City: Gov. Christie has signed legislation that says smaller, “boutique” casinos may be a good bet for Atlantic City.

A scene from Boardwalk Empire: At left is Chris Mulkey as Frank Hague, at right is Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson. (Photo courtesy of HBO; Hague photo courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Towards the end of an episode of HBO’s prohibition-era drama Boardwalk Empire, the camera pans to Mayor Frank Hague bouncing two topless women on his lap, as one pours wine down his gullet. Hague, Jersey City’s mayor from 1917 to 1947, is portrayed as a stereotypical political boss — a strong-arming, tough negotiator with rich tastes who likes his booze and women plentiful, and his envelopes fat. 

On the contrary, Hague — who’s become better known for his administration’s corruption and patronage than for the arguable good he bestowed on early 20th century Jersey City — was a teetotaler. Not only did he have a strong disdain for alcohol, Hague was anything but a cassanova. Indeed, he was a workaholic mama’s boy moralist who married relatively late in life and was considered awkwardly shy among the opposite sex.

Hague plays a bit part in the HBO show, which centers on Nucky Thompson, a composite character patterned mainly after Atlantic City’s prohibition era Treasurer Nucky Johnson. Hague, who would become a more powerful player than Johnson in Jersey and national politics, appears in scenes intended to display Nucky’s statewide clout. The two are wrangling over whose fiefdom should get funding from a road appropriations bill with the help of then-Senator Walter Edge.

A frustrated Hague finally sits down with Thompson to talk business after lingering for several days at a ritzy Atlantic City hotel. “I’m a simple man. All I need is a bed, the love of a good woman, and an envelope about so thick,” quips Hague, taking a gulp of white wine.

“I made sure you got all three,” responds Thompson.

“That you did, my host,” affirms Hague, adding, “Where we goin’ after this?”

Thompson invites the Mayor to see a performance by Houdini’s brother (“He’s just as good”), adding “I’ll get you a date.”



“Only one?” laughs Hague.

Later that night, the two men appear again, ties loosened, in a brothel. Hague guzzles more wine and tugs on a cigar as a nude woman sitting across from him croons and strums a ukulele.

By all accounts, Hague was a pragmatist. But even when it came to steering road pork to his neck of the woods, it’s not clear that he would have had or feigned a prurient interest in women.

The idea of Hague in a brothel?

“That’s doubtful,” says John Hallanan, president of the Jersey City Landmark Conservancy. “He was a pretty straightlaced guy.”



Though there were rumors of Hague having a mistress, he didn’t appreciate men in City Hall cheating, Hallanan says, quoting a statement said to have been made by the mayor: “If you have a problem with a skirt, I don’t want to find out about it, and if I do, you’re in trouble.”

And it’s almost certain he wouldn’t drink simply to fit in. He was “very much opposed to drunken behavior,” according to Hallanan, who says Hague once went so far as to tell another political boss who ordered a martini during their lunch meeting at New York’s Plaza Hotel, “You will not have a drink with me.”



Hague’s governing philosophy centered on moral values, or at least the veneer of morality. Under his administration, Jersey City allowed no street carnivals, burlesque shows or dance halls. Hague seemed to expect his city employees to uphold those values also — or appear to do so. Every New Year’s Day, for instance, the mayor held a morning reception at City Hall to greet the citizens and city staffers. It wasn’t a good idea for city workers to show up with boozy breath or bloodshot eyes.

“He wanted to make sure people who worked for him or with him weren’t going out and partying the night before,” Hallanan explains.

Wet Activity Under Dry Law Rakes in the Shekels

But Hague was no fool. He realized the liquor business — especially one operated on the black market — meant big money for the city, for himself and for his cronies. Despite his personal aversion to drink and debauchery, he knew that upholding the federal government’s prohibition on alcohol would be impractical in a city dominated by hard-drinking Irish and Italian immigrants, and just plain misguided from an economic standpoint.

Instead, his administration subtly ignored the liquor ban. Saloon licenses and under-the-table payoffs for speakeasies brought the city valuable funds. Though he himself was dry, Hague was a practical man who recognized a great economic opportunity if he were able to “control corruption, centralize it, and profit from it,” says Hallanan. Some profits would help furnish his expensive tastes, while others would keep the masses at bay, providing Christmastime gifts of turkeys or food baskets, for instance.

In the spring of 1920, mere months after the 18th Amendment had gone into effect, state and local governments questioned the legality of the federal booze ban. Jersey City officials figured they may as well continue renewing saloon licenses — which brought in $500 a pop — just in case the Supreme Court overturned the fresh law.  

Prohibition was “regarded in many parts of New Jersey as little more than a joke,” the Jersey Journal wrote in March of 1920. Jersey City was no exception. “City officials of Jersey City are going right ahead with plans to license about 400 saloonkeepers on June 30 at $500 per license, just as though there were no 18th Amendment in the constitution and no Volstead Act on the federal statute books and just as though no Prohibition Director for New Jersey had ever been appointed by Washington authorities.”



The report noted that the re-licensed saloonkeepers had “been having a perfectly glorious time raking in the shekels.” The licensing, stated the paper, “indicates a refreshing disregard for the dry amendment.”

As for the administration, according to the Journal’s blunt reportage, Hague and co. believed the move was justified, because the approximately $200,000 derived from the licensing fees would “be spent to help run the city government.”

Hague’s tolerance of liquor law violations pleased many of the Irish and Italian immigrants who had recently settled in Jersey City. And, allowing taverns to operate helped him maintain order and control of these local hubs of political organizing.

Hague also probably didn’t appreciate the anti-Catholic immigrant undercurrent of the temperance movement, which was typically promoted by WASPs, some harboring anti-immigrant sentiments. Though he may have felt that alcohol was a disruptive force, particularly in the dominant Irish community of Jersey City, he was not willing to take action about it.

“He recognized [he was] better off not enforcing it,” Hallanan says. “Anytime a move was perceived as anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant or anti-Irish, it was automatically going to lose support in Jersey City.”

Controlling the flow of booze into the city, and maintaining order through a graft-ridden system of payoffs also may have helped Hague ward off mafia infestation at a time when cities like Chicago proved susceptible.

One tale has Hague scaring off the mob in the dead of night. When mobsters en route to New York one evening were busy unloading a trainload of hooch in a Jersey City rail yard, Hague’s men — a hundred cops wielding machine guns — surrounded them.  As the story goes, Hague himself told them to run and not stop until they had left the city limits. They did, and Hague’s men seized the liquor, booty worth half a million dollars.

“If the reason for prohibition of alcohol was to maintain order in society,” says Hallanan, “Hague recognized it would backfire and didn’t enforce it.” Indeed, the city, a prime port and rail hub, was ripe for exploitation by mob bootleggers. “What distinguished Hague is what could have happened but didn’t,” Hallanan suggests.

Yet his administration’s disregard for liquor laws did not sit well with everyone.
 
Anti-Salooners, The Majestic Theater and The Woman Who Dared to Drink

The puritanical Anti-Saloon League was a thorn in Hague’s side even before prohibition. In 1913, when he was still serving as Jersey City’s Public Safety Commissioner, the Anti-Saloon League strolled through the city’s 7th Ward on the lookout for violators of the Sunday Closing Law, a so-called Blue Law that prevented saloons from doing business on the Lord’s Day of rest. A letter sent to Hague by a League leader published in the Jersey Journal in 1913 depicts a day of outrage for the anti-salooners, including for one of the missive’s authors, Samuel Wilson:

I saw a back room in the saloon next door to the Majestic Theater and there are booths in Waytell’s place opposite. There is a small back room with tables and chairs in the saloon at the southwest corner of Grove Street and Railroad Avenue, also Fahey’s, Washington and York Streets, in the new saloon on Harrison and Monticello Avenues, the Belmont Café, Belmont and Monticello Avenues, and Farrell and Bart’s, Montgomery Street and Bergen Avenue. Carell’s on Journal Square was doing a rushing business yesterday. The bar was crowded. The place has booths which to my mind are very obnoxious appurtenances in any drinking place. In one saloon I saw a woman sitting with a man in an alcove drinking.

According to the paper’s report, Commissioner Hague dismissed the complaint. The “activities of the anti-saloon leaguers and their alleged findings had not reached him officially as yet, and until they did he had nothing to say.”

A headline from the local paper just two days after Prohibition began read, “New Jersey Anti-Saloon League Plans to Play More Active Part in Politics Than Ever - Seeks to Elect ‘Bone-Dry’ Officials.” Needless to say, many of the politicians of Jersey City and the rest of the state were considered very “wet” indeed. In fact, the issue so saturated political discourse at the time that candidates and officials were actually referred to as “wets” or “drys.”

Despite Hague’s wet political stance, he most likely agreed with the anti-salooners on the issue of women drinking in saloons. “He was pretty adamant about … laws against women in saloons; it was assumed if she was there she was a prostitute,” Hallanan says.

With such a selective attitude towards the rule of law, it’s no wonder Hague became known as a political boss. “Guys like Edge will come and go,” says Hague to Thompson as they bask in brothel cigar smoke on Boardwalk Empire. “But bosses, like us, we’re here to stay.”

To Hallanan, the idea Hague would actually refer to himself as a “boss” is highly unlikely.

“Hague hated that term,” he says. “He always prided himself that he stood for election. … He would get furious if he ever heard people call him Boss Hague.”



Whether the HBO series evolves to offer viewers a more complex view of Hague remains to be seen. At this stage, worries Hallanan, Boardwalk Empire is “just going to bolster the reputation of Hague being a hopelessly corrupt politician.”

He says that Hague’s checkered legacy should be tempered more often with some of the mayor’s accomplishments, like the building of the Jersey City Medical Center and making the city safer.

“However much he may have profited personally … or looked the other way when these Prohibition laws were to be enforced, he did leave behind him a legacy,” Hallanan says. “Things did get done.”

- O’Donnell & Christie: As he celebrated his election Tuesday night, Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell said he’d tell Gov. Christie to “go to hell” for waging war on seniors, the disabled, teachers and the middle class. Yesterday, the administration shot back, saying the comments displayed a “lack of interest in bipartisan solutions.” O’Donnell himself backed off the comments yesterday, saying “sometimes … you might say things that could have been put a better way. This may be one of those times.”

- Bail Tightened for Murder Suspect: Family members of a man stabbed to death at the Brunswick Estates housing complex last week were outraged by what they viewed as very low bail for a suspect in his murder. Prosecutors have since made it harder for the suspect to make bail, switching the bail from $300,000 cash or bond to $300,000 cash-only.

- PATH: The Times looks at PATH riders who use it as an alternative to the subway inside Manhattan, and calls it “the last truly underground bargain of New York.”

- White Mana: Jersey City’s White Mana will face off against Hackensack’s White Manna in a slider competition on Food Network’s Food Feuds tonight.

- Ken Bastard at LITM: Dislocations has a report from Tuesday night’s opening of The Sacred and the Mundane, the latest show at LITM from artist Ken Bastard.

- Blood Drive for JC Boy: The Ringside Bar and Lounge will host a blood drive this Saturday for an 8-year-old with the rare disease of Aplastic Anemia.

- Baby Jesus Statues: Two statues of the boy Jesus in the form of the “Divino Nino” have been donated to Jersey City’s St. Aloysius Church after a statue of Jesus was stolen from the church this weekend.

Today’s Best Bets:

- Politicos may want to head up to the Loew’s to check out a roast of Hudson County executive Tom DeGise; the $75 ticket is for a good cause, with proceeds going towards the Foundation for Autism Training Education (6:30 pm). Another Austism-related fundraiser is happening Downtown at O’Connell’s, where a new project for The Soccer Learning Center to develop special soccer classes exclusively for young children with autism will raise money with a whiskey tasting (7 pm). Elsewhere on the libations scene, representatives from Maryland craft brewer Flying Dog will be at the Iron Monkey for a Meet the Brewers night (7 pm). The Art House is back at Art House Productions tonight, featuring poet Heather Lee Rogers and plenty of chances to get on the mic and express yourself (8 pm). Kagero returns to Bar Majestic to play three sets at a free show (8 pm), and The Warehouse hosts a free screening of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (7 pm).

In Statewide News:

- Layoffs: State government is on track to shed at least 1,200 jobs in January, Gov. Christie said Wednesday.

- Reform Toolkit: The state’s arbitration and civil service systems need to be reformed, both state Senate President Steve Sweeney and Gov. Christie said Wednesday. But the two remain at odds on how, with each accusing the other of gamesmanship.

- Menendez vs. Christie: Sen. Bob Menendez, the next New Jersey Democrat facing a statewide election, will soon focus his attention on New Jersey politics in an attempt to revive his tattered party, according to three people familiar with his plans. The biggest reason for his party’s woes is the tough-talking Gov. Chris Christie; the Ledger says the “expected clash could prove to be New Jersey’s political fight of this young century.”

- NJ in D.C.: The change in leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives means three New Jersey Democrats will lose their leadership posts on panels that shape legislation, but the state is not expected to lose much of its clout in Washington. Meanwhile, some environmentalists worry the Republican takeover of the House might further slow New Jersey’s efforts to develop cleaner energy sources that do not contribute to global climate change.

- Charter Schools: As to the fundamental question of how New Jersey’s 73 charter schools are doing in terms of student achievement, neither the state Department of Education nor the state Board of Education have any solid answers.

- NJEA Conference: Bucking decades of tradition, New Jersey’s acting education commissioner has declined an invitation to address the state’s largest teachers union at its annual convention in Atlantic City this week.

- Real Estate: Both the commercial and residential real estate markets in New Jersey are stabilizing or showing signs of improvement, but are far from robust, industry insiders say.

- NJ Colleges Look Overseas: Two dozen New Jersey colleges are joining together to try to recruit more international students with the help of the federal government.

- Federal Biotech $: As part of $1 billion in federal funds announced yesterday for biomedical research across the country in the form of tax credits and grants, 132 companies in New Jersey cumulatively received more than $52 million.