Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times And Corruption of Atlantic City (32 page)

The sun was setting on Frank Farley’s career, but he refused to accept it. The first half of his life had been devoted to sports, the second half to elective politics, and he was a champion in both worlds. For nearly 70 years the gratification derived from excelling in competitive activities had been Hap Farley’s life. He had never known life without the excitement of combat, whether on the playing field or in politics. It wasn’t possible for him to step down gracefully. Like an aging boxer who believes he can win one more title bout before retiring, Hap Farley was destined for a knockout.

Farley’s fortunes were tied to those of his city. As the boss of his town’s politics, he was the one the voters would eventually hold accountable as things got worse for the resort. It was only a matter of time before Farley’s constituents would turn on him and seek a new leader in hopes that someone else could turn things around.

In addition to the resort’s deteriorating economy and exposure of corruption in its government, there was growing discontent within the Republican organization. The exodus of middle-class Whites from Atlantic City during the ’50s and ’60s to the mainland communities along Shore Road, namely Absecon, Pleasantville, Northfield, Linwood, and Somers Point, produced a dramatic change in the county Republican organization. These mainlanders didn’t have the loyalty to Farley’s machine their parents and grandparents had for the political ward system. They were more educated, more affluent, employed at jobs unrelated to tourism, and not beholden to the Republican Party. Atlantic City’s influence in county politics had been diluted. The power was now more evenly distributed, and the Shore Road Republicans were growing tired of Farley. They wanted a change in party leadership.

Politicians begin thinking about the next election as soon as the last one is over. Once the polls have closed and the votes are tallied, would-be candidates and their supporters begin vying for position in the next contest. Coalitions are formed and commitments made early in this unending process. The several months after an election may appear uneventful to the general public, but this is the time when politicians make their decisions concerning who will be rewarded or punished for their role in the previous campaign. It’s a critical period in the political process. What the public sees later is window dressing. While Hap Farley had worked tirelessly in the 1970 general election and his candidates were all victorious—albeit by slim margins—there were those within the Republican organization who began to view him as a liability to the party. Before the month of November was over, the dissatisfaction that had been simmering for several years boiled to the surface.

Less than 10 days after the ’70 election, Farley had a revolt on his hands. It began with a resolution adopted by the Linwood Republican Club. The Linwood group was only one of several mainland Republican clubs that was growing restless with the Farley-Boyd stranglehold on the party. The statement endorsed by the Linwood GOP called for “political and governmental reform in Atlantic County” and warned that their party was “in need of more enlightened leadership to meet head-on the needs of today. Policies of the past must be abandoned.” It was a bolt of lightning.

In calling for Farley to step aside, the Linwood faction shattered the public image of unity that Farley had so carefully maintained. Hap was only able to hold the pieces together by consenting to the creation of a countywide executive committee. The committee would have input on the selection of candidates and setting party policy. Sharing power was a major concession for Farley, but it wasn’t enough.

While Hap Farley was doing everything he could to keep the lid on his troubles, the county Democrats were finally putting together an organization. The Leo Clark campaign in ’65 and the several following elections saw the Democrats begin to make inroads on the local level by electing candidates in several mainland communities. Nevertheless, the growth of an independent Democratic organization was pathetically slow. The Republican Party had held every governmental position in its grip since the beginning of the 20th century. The only persons who would ally themselves with an independent Democratic organization were idealists opposed to boss rule, Democrats who had moved into Atlantic County from out of the area, or disgruntled Republicans who had been rejected by the party power structure. No practical person who might ever want something from city or county government would register as a Democrat. One of the disgruntled Republicans upon whom the Democratic organization was built was resort attorney Patrick McGahn. His rites of passage into the Democratic Party illustrate how stifling Farley’s power had become.

Patrick McGahn was born in Atlantic City in 1928. His father was a native of Ireland and was the owner of “Paddy McGahn’s,” a local bar at Iowa and Atlantic avenues. Hap Farley was the McGahn family’s attorney, and both of Pat’s parents were strong supporters of the senator. Paddy McGahn was active in the Fourth Ward Republican Club and at the time of his death in 1949, his honorary pallbearers included Nucky Johnson, Hap Farley, Jimmie Boyd, and Mayor Joseph Altman. After graduating from college and starting his first year of law school, Pat McGahn was called up by his Marine Reserve Unit to fight in the Korean War. He served with distinction and was a decorated war hero. Upon returning to the resort in 1953, McGahn gave thought to getting involved in local politics prior to returning to law school. He had grown up under ward politics and the boss rule of Johnson and Farley. He understood the scheme of things and was prepared to become a foot soldier in Farley’s organization in hopes of rising through the ranks. At the urging of his mother, McGahn sought a meeting with the senator to get Farley’s advice on how he should go about becoming active in the party.

Hap Farley was “very pleasant” to McGahn but advised him that “there were too many ahead of me and that it would be wise if I went to law school and then seek another area out of Atlantic County to start my career.” McGahn found Farley “very gracious” as he closed the door on future involvement. “He had to take care of the people that were already involved. There was no room in the inn.” Farley rejected McGahn without even knowing what he had to offer. Thus did Pat McGahn become a Democrat; there were many more frustrated Republicans who found their way to the Democratic Party in a similar fashion.

The frustration felt by Atlantic City’s residents as their town deteriorated with no end in sight came to a head in 1971. The beneficiary of this emotional tidal wave was Joseph McGahn, Pat’s older brother. Dr. Joseph L. McGahn was the ideal candidate to oppose Farley. An Irish-Catholic, born and raised in Atlantic City, McGahn attended Our Lady Star of the Sea School and Holy Spirit High School. He was valedictorian of his college class and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Before entering politics, McGahn had played a positive and highly visible role in the greater Atlantic City community. He had been a Little League Commissioner for more than 10 years, and as an obstetrician/gynecologist, McGahn and his partner had delivered more than 12,000 babies. Intelligent, articulate, witty, and personable to all his patients, his following included thousands of entire families. It was an excellent base for an aspiring politician.

Joe McGahn’s first run for political office was for Absecon City Council in 1966. He was elected the lone Democrat on a seven-member council. Two years later he ran for mayor and scored a startling victory, winning by a margin of two to one in a city with almost no registered Democrats. It was a phenomenal accomplishment and made “Doc Joe” a leader among the independent Democrats. With Joe serving as the spokesman and Pat as strategist, the McGahn brothers devoted their time and spent their money building up the County Democratic organization, all the while aiming toward the ’71 Senate race. After the 1970 election, there finally was a legitimate second party with the Democrats having four mayors and 25 councilmen holding office throughout Atlantic County. While a far cry from the cohesive unit that the Republicans had assembled over the years, it was all the McGahns needed as a base for their battle with Farley.

The McGahn brothers took their battle right into Farley’s backyard. They knew their campaign needed much more than the support of Democrats and Independents. The edge in registered voters was so huge that to be successful, Joe McGahn needed the votes of a large percentage of rank-and-file Republicans. Building on relationships they had made over the years, Pat and Joe McGahn reached into the Republican organization and whittled away at Farley’s core of strength. The natural place to begin was on the mainland.

The Shore Road Republicans had little difficulty supporting Joe McGahn. In many ways he was one of them. He had re-established his home on the mainland to escape Atlantic City’s urban rot. Like them, he saw no future in a city or political organization dominated by an aging autocrat whose practices were better suited for the old style ward politics of 30 years earlier. These mainlanders wanted a change even if it meant voting for a Democrat. Any reluctance they might have had in supporting McGahn was eliminated by Farley’s refusal to step aside. They had given him his chance. He could have bowed out gracefully and maybe even chosen his successor. It’s likely someone such as County Freeholder Director Howard “Fritz” Haneman, son of Hap’s crony, Vincent Haneman, would have been acceptable to Farley’s critics. But Farley wouldn’t consider passing the reins and that left the Shore Road Republicans with no choice. In their view, Farley had to go.

With Shore Road Republicans on board, the McGahns turned to Atlantic City. That front was handled deftly by brother Pat. Both the McGahns were born and raised in the Fourth Ward and had strong ties there, but it was Pat who was his father’s son, the bartender who could read his customers in a single glance. As a politician, Pat had much in common with Nucky Johnson. Streetwise and tough nosed, Pat McGahn understood what it took to survive in Atlantic City politics. Like Nucky, Pat was as nasty as an alley cat to his enemies, and generous and loyal to his friends.

There was almost no one in Atlantic City who didn’t know Pat McGahn and that he was the force behind his brother’s campaign. Their association was comparable to the division of responsibilities that existed between Hap Farley and Jimmy Boyd; Joe was the candidate and good guy; Pat was the tactician and enforcer. As was true with Boyd and Farley, Pat didn’t have to confer with Joe before making a commitment. Meeting individually with dozens of precinct workers and ward heelers, Pat exploited the discontent of Atlantic City Republican Party regulars and persuaded them to support the Democratic slate.

He knew that many of them had counseled Farley against seeking re-election, and they saw his defeat as inevitable. Pat McGahn wooed them on terms they understood; this was a watershed election, there was going to be a major transfer of power, and they could be part of the new regime. In short, the train was leaving the station and this was their chance to get on board. His appeal was effective. While there were few publicly announced defections, there were many ward workers who quietly urged their neighbors to dump Farley.

And dump him they did. It was a humiliating defeat. Farley was beaten almost three to two, losing by a margin of nearly 12,000 votes. The entire ticket went down in 18 of 23 municipalities in Atlantic County. Hap lost Atlantic City by more than 2,000 votes. In Jimmy Boyd’s vaunted Fourth Ward, where Farley had consistently received pluralities by as much as 5,000 votes, the McGahns fought him to a standoff, with Hap edging Joe McGahn by less than 200 votes. For the first time in his life, Hap Farley had been whipped. It was something beyond his experience and left him numb with disappointment. Despite the hurt, Farley conceded defeat graciously. There were no harsh words nor recriminations. He congratulated Joe McGahn and wished him well. Through it all he remained a gentleman.

If Hap Farley had any regrets about the ’71 campaign, he never expressed them. Had he stepped down voluntarily, he could have been the resort’s distinguished elder statesman; instead, after his defeat—with the exception of a critical election in 1976—he was shoved aside like a worthless relic. There were still those who sought his counsel, but they were few in number and it was always privately. The stigma of his rejection by the voters ostracized him from the political mainstream; however, Farley didn’t permit bitterness to consume him and he accepted his fate. For the next several years, until his death to cancer in 1977, Farley was a booster for his city whenever he had the chance.

Of the three bosses who reigned over the corruption of Atlantic City, it was Francis Sherman Farley who ruled with the most knowledge of government and restraint on unlawful excesses. Hap Farley was a giant. In the history of New Jersey politics, he is in a league of his own.

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