Edwin Jaeckle
Encyclopedia
Edwin Frederick Jaeckle was a Republican
politician and party chairman in New York State during the 1930s. During his tenure as chairman, Jaeckle enforced strict adherence to party discipline, which significantly bolstered the party's standing in the state.
As chairman, Jaeckle exerted an outsized influence on the state's political landscape. In Charles Van Devander's 1944 book The Big Bosses, Jaeckle was portrayed as controlling the state legislature and helping shape and execute the party's platform. According to the book, the Albany Legislative Correspondents' Association included in its annual satirical show a song with the refrain: "You've gotta get Jaeckle's O.K."
Jaeckle also sometimes played kingmaker
; for instance, he selected New York City
District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey as the Republican candidate for the New York governorship. Dewey won the race and served three terms as governor; Jaeckle is credited with helping lift him onto the national stage. Dewey later lost two unsuccessful campaigns for the White House in the 1940s. Jaeckle was Dewey's campaign chairman during his first presidential run.
Jaeckle attributed his success as Republican Party leader in New York to integrity, tight fiscal control and tight control of his office holders. He also was a successful lawyer in private practice. His law firm, Jaeckle, Fleischmann & Mugel is still in existence.
Jaeckle died in Florida
and is buried at Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery.
who had arrived in Buffalo during the great migration of the 1840s. His father was a carpenter who eventually became a general building contractor. Among other projects, Jaeckle's father literally built the family church, St. Peter's United Evangelical, completed in 1877.
For years the Jaeckles lived in the house Jacob built at 26 Lemon St. in the "Fruit Belt" of citrus-named streets in the German Near East Side of Buffalo. Mary Marx had grown up in that neighborhood, and her father had a grocery store on Mortimer Street. "They were just good hearty German-American people who worked like hell," Jaeckle recalled in 1980 in a Buffalo News article.
Jaeckle graduated in 1915 and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1916. Shortly after, Schmidt suggested that he run for the Erie County Board of Supervisors in the 13th Ward. In 1917, at age 22, he ran for the nomination against a Republican incumbent. He won the general election, after a brutal primary campaign.
After having served in the United States Navy
during World War I
, Jaeckle returned to New York to build his private law practice. In 1920, he became clerk of the County Board of Supervisors. In 1927 he became back tax collector for the county treasurer. During this time he cultivated his inside knowledge of the political game. Jaeckle was elected Erie County (Buffalo) Republican Chairman in 1935 and held the position with an iron fist until he resigned it in 1948, ostensibly to devote his full efforts to Dewey's 1948 presidential campaign. During his tenure, he made the county's political organization one of the most powerful in the nation and dominated local elections.
Dewey lost the general election to the Democratic incumbent Governor Herbert Lehman; but the Jaeckle-Dewey partnership was now established and the two men would advance each other's interests off and on over at least the next decade.
After the 1938 election, Jaeckle assumed the chair of the GOP State Executive Committee and, with it, de facto leadership of the state party organization. His election to the Republican state chairmanship came in 1940. He ran Dewey for governor again in 1942, this time successfully. Dewey would retain control of the office for twelve years.
After Dewey's successful gubernatorial career, Jaeckle set to work helping campaign for the presidency in 1944, campaigning against Franklin D. Roosevelt
.
In analyzing Dewey's success in maneuvering for the Republican nomination that year, Time Magazine concluded it was due to the " . . . power and precision of the politicos who surround Dewey" -- "a group of political advisers perhaps unequalled since the first Roosevelt Brain Trust." Preeminent among them, the article listed Jaeckle, describing him as a "bulky, well heeled Buffalo lawyer, who almost singlehanded turned Buffalo's meager Democratic majorities into Republican landslides."
However, during the campaign against Roosevelt, Dewey broke with Jaeckle over strategy. As Jaeckle recalled in a 1971 interview with The Buffalo Evening News, "I played the game until after the election, then I quit as state chairman." The two men later reconciled, and Dewey asked Jaeckle to join his 1948 presidential run against incumbent Democrat Harry S. Truman
. Jaeckle agreed and served as Dewey's floor manager at the 1948 Republican National Convention. During the general election campaign, Jaeckle rode the campaign train with Dewey and did most of his political work.
With polls showing Dewey in the lead, the governor chose to adopt a restrained campaign strategy. Once again as in 1944, however, the two men saw strategy differently and Jaeckle cautioned Dewey against this laid-back approach. Dewey lost the election in one of the most surprising upsets in presidential campaign history.
In his own dealings as party leader, he was attentive to his subordinates and fair but firm. As Van Devander noted: "Jaeckle spends half of each week at home and during the rest of the time shuttles back and forth to New York City [where his headquarters famously was the Hotel Roosevelt on Madison Avenue at 45th Street], to Albany when the legislature is in session [where his headquarters was the Ten Eyck Hotel], and to other parts of the state. He is in frequent touch will all of the county chairmen, and succeeds in giving them the double impression that he is devoted to their individual interests, and that he is quite capable of breaking any one of them, politically, who might attempt to put anything over on him."
In his political retirement, Jaeckle built a substantial law practice and a substantial personal fortune. He retired from his law firm in 1988.
He lived long enough to see the demise of party control of politics and government and to lament the rise of the cult of individual personality over party organization. He believed this phenomenon fostered a lack of accountability in government. As he told The Buffalo News toward the end of his life: "Politics no longer operates the way it should. There's no party responsibility; too many individuals are calling the shots. . . . Everybody is a victim of this system. In the old days, the party was responsible for the conduct of government. If you did the job right and served the people, they kept you in office. If not, you were gone. It's not like that anymore."
After retirement, he divided his time between Rochester, Minnesota
and St. Petersburg, Florida
, where he died of pancreatic cancer at age 98.
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
politician and party chairman in New York State during the 1930s. During his tenure as chairman, Jaeckle enforced strict adherence to party discipline, which significantly bolstered the party's standing in the state.
As chairman, Jaeckle exerted an outsized influence on the state's political landscape. In Charles Van Devander's 1944 book The Big Bosses, Jaeckle was portrayed as controlling the state legislature and helping shape and execute the party's platform. According to the book, the Albany Legislative Correspondents' Association included in its annual satirical show a song with the refrain: "You've gotta get Jaeckle's O.K."
Jaeckle also sometimes played kingmaker
Kingmaker
Kingmaker is a term originally applied to the activities of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick — "Warwick the Kingmaker" — during the Wars of the Roses in England. The term has come to be applied more generally to a person or group that has great influence in a royal or political succession,...
; for instance, he selected New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey as the Republican candidate for the New York governorship. Dewey won the race and served three terms as governor; Jaeckle is credited with helping lift him onto the national stage. Dewey later lost two unsuccessful campaigns for the White House in the 1940s. Jaeckle was Dewey's campaign chairman during his first presidential run.
Jaeckle attributed his success as Republican Party leader in New York to integrity, tight fiscal control and tight control of his office holders. He also was a successful lawyer in private practice. His law firm, Jaeckle, Fleischmann & Mugel is still in existence.
Jaeckle died in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and is buried at Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Early life
Jaeckle was born in Buffalo of pioneer stock to Jacob Jaeckle and Mary Marx Jaeckle, who themselves were born in Buffalo in the 1850s. His grandparents were GermansGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
who had arrived in Buffalo during the great migration of the 1840s. His father was a carpenter who eventually became a general building contractor. Among other projects, Jaeckle's father literally built the family church, St. Peter's United Evangelical, completed in 1877.
For years the Jaeckles lived in the house Jacob built at 26 Lemon St. in the "Fruit Belt" of citrus-named streets in the German Near East Side of Buffalo. Mary Marx had grown up in that neighborhood, and her father had a grocery store on Mortimer Street. "They were just good hearty German-American people who worked like hell," Jaeckle recalled in 1980 in a Buffalo News article.
Early political career
Jaeckle was first exposed to politics while attending the University of Buffalo Law School. A neighborhood restaurateur, Leo J. Schmidt — a family friend — was running for state committeeman and needed help. Jaeckle, then 20, offered his services, primarily driving Schmidt around.Jaeckle graduated in 1915 and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1916. Shortly after, Schmidt suggested that he run for the Erie County Board of Supervisors in the 13th Ward. In 1917, at age 22, he ran for the nomination against a Republican incumbent. He won the general election, after a brutal primary campaign.
After having served in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Jaeckle returned to New York to build his private law practice. In 1920, he became clerk of the County Board of Supervisors. In 1927 he became back tax collector for the county treasurer. During this time he cultivated his inside knowledge of the political game. Jaeckle was elected Erie County (Buffalo) Republican Chairman in 1935 and held the position with an iron fist until he resigned it in 1948, ostensibly to devote his full efforts to Dewey's 1948 presidential campaign. During his tenure, he made the county's political organization one of the most powerful in the nation and dominated local elections.
State chairman and beyond
In 1938, Jaeckle threw his support behind Dewey, a racket-busting New York City district attorney, to be the next New York governor. Jaeckle was the sole upstate chairman to push for Dewey's nomination behind the scenes; he also served as Dewey's floor manager at the state convention.Dewey lost the general election to the Democratic incumbent Governor Herbert Lehman; but the Jaeckle-Dewey partnership was now established and the two men would advance each other's interests off and on over at least the next decade.
After the 1938 election, Jaeckle assumed the chair of the GOP State Executive Committee and, with it, de facto leadership of the state party organization. His election to the Republican state chairmanship came in 1940. He ran Dewey for governor again in 1942, this time successfully. Dewey would retain control of the office for twelve years.
After Dewey's successful gubernatorial career, Jaeckle set to work helping campaign for the presidency in 1944, campaigning against Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
.
In analyzing Dewey's success in maneuvering for the Republican nomination that year, Time Magazine concluded it was due to the " . . . power and precision of the politicos who surround Dewey" -- "a group of political advisers perhaps unequalled since the first Roosevelt Brain Trust." Preeminent among them, the article listed Jaeckle, describing him as a "bulky, well heeled Buffalo lawyer, who almost singlehanded turned Buffalo's meager Democratic majorities into Republican landslides."
However, during the campaign against Roosevelt, Dewey broke with Jaeckle over strategy. As Jaeckle recalled in a 1971 interview with The Buffalo Evening News, "I played the game until after the election, then I quit as state chairman." The two men later reconciled, and Dewey asked Jaeckle to join his 1948 presidential run against incumbent Democrat Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
. Jaeckle agreed and served as Dewey's floor manager at the 1948 Republican National Convention. During the general election campaign, Jaeckle rode the campaign train with Dewey and did most of his political work.
With polls showing Dewey in the lead, the governor chose to adopt a restrained campaign strategy. Once again as in 1944, however, the two men saw strategy differently and Jaeckle cautioned Dewey against this laid-back approach. Dewey lost the election in one of the most surprising upsets in presidential campaign history.
Retrospective and Death
Jaeckle was a liberal Republican who established a tough political machine, ran it with an iron fist, insisted on integrity in party and government affairs, and fostered a progressive agenda.In his own dealings as party leader, he was attentive to his subordinates and fair but firm. As Van Devander noted: "Jaeckle spends half of each week at home and during the rest of the time shuttles back and forth to New York City [where his headquarters famously was the Hotel Roosevelt on Madison Avenue at 45th Street], to Albany when the legislature is in session [where his headquarters was the Ten Eyck Hotel], and to other parts of the state. He is in frequent touch will all of the county chairmen, and succeeds in giving them the double impression that he is devoted to their individual interests, and that he is quite capable of breaking any one of them, politically, who might attempt to put anything over on him."
In his political retirement, Jaeckle built a substantial law practice and a substantial personal fortune. He retired from his law firm in 1988.
He lived long enough to see the demise of party control of politics and government and to lament the rise of the cult of individual personality over party organization. He believed this phenomenon fostered a lack of accountability in government. As he told The Buffalo News toward the end of his life: "Politics no longer operates the way it should. There's no party responsibility; too many individuals are calling the shots. . . . Everybody is a victim of this system. In the old days, the party was responsible for the conduct of government. If you did the job right and served the people, they kept you in office. If not, you were gone. It's not like that anymore."
After retirement, he divided his time between Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on both banks of the Zumbro River, The city has a population of 106,769 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it Minnesota's third-largest city and the largest outside of the...
and St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
, where he died of pancreatic cancer at age 98.
Highlights of the Jaeckle Political Career
- (1916) Wins a seat on the Erie County Board Supervisors from the old 11th Ward.
- (1918) Wins re-election but resigns in January 1919 to accept the position of Clerk of the Board of Supervisors.
- (1926) Wins a seat on the State Republican Committee.
- (1928) Named Erie County collector of taxes.
- (1935) Elected Erie County Republican chairman.
- (1937) Runs for mayor of Buffalo and loses to Thomas F. Holling by 1,427 votes.
- (1938) Leads a group of GOP reformers in nominating Thomas E. Dewey for governor in an unsuccessful attempt to win the statehouse.
- (1940) Elected New York State Republican Charmian, controlling the largest bloc of delegates at national conventions.
- (1940) Heads Dewey's unsuccessful presidential campaign. Wendell Willkie is his party's nominee and loses to incumbent President Roosevelt.
- (1942) Dewey wins the governorship and Jaeckle is put in charge of shepherding Dewey's legislative agenda.
- (1944) Leads drive for Dewey presidential nomination by acclamation at Chicago convention. Dewey loses wartime election to incumbent Roosevelt.
- (1944) Quits as state GOP chairman 10 days after the Dewey defeat.
- (1947) Dewey and Jaeckle reconcile and Dewey eyes another run at the White House.
- (1948) Accompanies Dewey on the campaign train throughout the fall, but in November, Dewey is upset by Truman.
- (1948) Shortly after the election, Jaeckle retires from politics to work full time at his private law practice.