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The 1920 Hudson County Sheriff Election, a contest held during the national Democratic whalloping given by Republican Warren G. Harding to Ohio Governor James Cox was an exemplar of how the Hague Machine would go all out to save itself in the face of certain destruction.
Whilst the people who's names were on the ballot were longtime deputy sheriff, co-appointee with Hague to the position by then Jersey City Boss Robert "Little Bob" Davis in 1899, Thomas "Skidder" Madigan and Republican Organization candidate Andrew Hart,
This was one of the offices, and races, pivotal for Hague establishing and maintaining his control over not just Hudson County Politics; but his personal fiefdom in Jersey City.
The Reason for this being that the Sheriff of Hudson County at the time had control over who was appointed to the grand juries as well as other legal means that could have ended the Hague organization in its early days.
As such, as he saw the tide turning against Democrats nationally, and Hudson county, Hague's City hall had but one mission in the 1920 elections: Save Skidder Madigan.
And with the organization that he would use to dominate Jersey City politics for the next 29 years from 1920, he would—despite the attacks directed against him character by Hart, as well as the promise to clean house and increase criminal prosecutions countywide—deliver a (strong but smaller than usual) 7,862 vote margin in Jersey City, of which a margin of 3,661 came from his home in Ward 2.
This was one election which Jersey City Historian Thomas Fleming would describe as "one hundred per cent stolen", with Hart unsuccessfully suing and charging that "So many illegal votes were cast that, if avoided, his election is assured" (Hudson Observer 12/2/1920)
But still, after a lengthy recount and canvas of the ballots, it was still the case that Madigan, a man who could neither read nor right and had enphasized his character (his campaign slogan was "He was good to his mother"), was still ahead, and in the end, Hague got his way—& close friend—into the Hudson Sheriff's office
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