Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-08-17
DEMOCRATIC SURVEY
SHOWS SOME SPLITS
fcontinued from page ID

AGOHl1HuEu IOhA Da66
The fight In this county Is between
a group of Democrats headed by
Newark City Commissioners Bremen
and Gillen and City Clerk Egan and
! II is threatening the grip which
! Nugent has held on the county or
ganization for years. The Bremen
Gillen-Egan faction claims that
I! there is no real party organization
and that this is responsible o re-
peated defeats in recent years. They
! think also tina a better type of can
| didates might be chosen for legisla-
tive and other Offices. Several at
tempts have been made before to
road Mr.. Nugent Out as county leader
and boss but each time he has
emerged the victor. Its not the
first attempt and I don't suppose 1t
will be the last" he philosophically
commented recently. ut will get out
our party vote"
OF course the lieutenants of Mayor
| Hague, of Jersey City, and the mayor
himself will watch the result in Es-
sex. Hague has deposed Nugent as
the strongest individual factor in the
state Democratic ranks and Nugents
| elimination as leader in his home
| county of Essex would, of course,
remove any possibility of his rising
! again to snatch the scepter from the
hands of the Jersey City mayor.
Several other counties have IN
t%ernecine ancors among the leaders
| which the diplomats of the state
| committee may find will require
their utmost finesse to smooth out.
, Take Union county as an example.
There the factions are divided into
what are described by political OBJ
servers as the Elizabeth Democrats
and the u~p-county Democrats. Coun-
ty Chairman Francis V. Dobbins, as
head of the up-county group, repre-
senting most of the leaders outside
of Elizabeth, has beer at logger
! heads with the other group for more
than a year. But the situation has
been intensified in recent months
over questions of patronage. MI.
| Dobbins, OF Railway, was the candi-
date for prosecutor of the pleas and
was endorsed by a majority OF the
| county committee, yet Abe ]. David,
of Elizabeth, received the appoint
ment at the hands of Governor Sill
| ger. Dobbins was renamed as a
! member of the Union County Tax
Board, however. The comforting or
| such a desirable and lucrative state
| office as state commissioner of bank
ing and insurance on Edward Max
son, a place paying $4,000 a year for
three years, has also been question
ed, Democrats recall that Maxson
has never been known here as a man
active in party affairs and 1t has been
declared that last fall he efused 10
pull the Union county leaders out OF
a bad plight when they were sorely
in need of a candidate for state SEN
ator and asked him to run. His
home is in westfield, that county.
Down in Gloucester county there
is a lot OF iil-feeling too over the
question of party patronage. the
failure of the administration TO re-
name acting Common Pleas Judge
Willis I. Porch, a young and popular
Democrat, for the full term has
ranked in the bosoms of some OF
the most active party workers in the
county. Governor Edwards named
Porch to serve until the 1923 legls-
lature. Then a hot fight started be-
tween Porch's friends on one side
and supporters of former Judge
Austin II. Swackhammer, led by
Joseph Newton and Edward ]. Crist,
state committeeman, on the other.
Porch's friends thought he should
have been renamed, especially as
| Swackhammer had already held the
office some years before for a full
term and Porch had serve but a
few months.
The atmosphere appears to be
clearing in Middlesex county since
Edmund J. Hayes consented TO TAKE
the county Craftsmanship for another
.v., NJ IJo ua1 PaRnnf1V resigned
and the party ranks were stirred
TO find a suitable successor when
he could not be prevailed upon to
continue. However, he was finally
induced to do so. Hayes said pres
| sure of his private business affairs
prompted his resignation. But he
made some interesting and caustic
comments about a group of office
holding Democrats in the county
upon resuming office of chairman.
Seldom, if ever, could he discern a
job-holder at q meeting of the
! county committee workers, he de-
elared.
ut is their duty to attend these
meetings" said Mr.. Hayes, for
don't believe fifty per cent of the
committee lsnow the Democrats who
! are on the payroll of the county and
state. If these job-holders dom
want to take an active interest in
the affairs of the party by attend
ing the meetings we ought to know
about It. We should have a bulle-
tin board and have the names of all
the office holders placed upon II
and at each of these meetings we
should call the roll and find out
what they are doing toward max
ing the Democratic party success
full in M~iddlesex."