Jersey City has a long and storied history of mayoral races. 84 years ago, in 1941, Grace Billotti Spinelli ran for city commissioner on the “Citizen’s Ticket,” which hoped to overthrow the regime of Frank Hague and his political machine. Hague had been Jersey City’s Mayor since 1917 and was known for being a corrupt leader, who bought votes, accepted bribes, and sabotaged his political rivals – even sending one of his critics (John Longo) to jail, twice. Billotti Spinelli was a strong critic of Hague and his politics, so when she ran for city commissioner (and was the first woman to do so in Jersey City history), Hague and Daniel Casey, the Public Safety Commissioner, accused Billotti Spinelli’s husband of being a communist. Marcos Spinelli, her husband, had his books banned as a result. Though the Spinellis sued Casey for libel, the declaration had achieved its desired effect. Billotti Spinelli received letters calling for her unfit for office because of her husband’s supposed political affiliations.
In one of her campaign speeches, she had this to say in response: "In order to discredit me in the eyes of the people of Jersey City, Mayor Hague and his carefully selected stooges have vainly attempted to assassinate the character of some of my associates. Little does he care about the future of these people in Jersey City. When he deliberately frames, yes and then packs a jury to send a young man [John Longo] to jail; and then after the young services nine months of his life working on a rock pile, he continually hounds him in an attempt to ruin his life and to have his political leaders perhaps fire him from his job, I say that [Hague] has reached the most contemptible stage of his degrading life."
The “Citizen’s Ticket” and Billotti Spinelli’s campaign sought to inspire hope in the people of Jersey City that they could have a better life free from Hague and his fellow political elites. In another speech, she wrote: "Freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom from want and freedom from fear, which President [FDR] declared his goals for the nation, these are the basic issues at stake in Jersey City on May 13 at the polls. Freedom to live as decent Americans has been denied to the people of Jersey City by the political 'royal dynasty' which barricades itself behind bombast and phoney philanthropy."
Though the “Citizen’s Ticket” ultimately lost to Frank Hague and his commissioners, the machine began to fizzle. Hague stepped down as Mayor in 1947, after a 30 year regime, and handed the position to his nephew, who then lost in the next mayoral election.
For anyone interested in the “Citizen’s Ticket” and in Grace Billotti Spinelli, please visit the Saint Peter’s University ArchivesSpace webpage or the archive’s webpage on the library’s website.
Image above pictures Grace Billotti Spinelli and her husband, Marcos Spinelli, posing reading his book, From Jungle Roots. Image from the Saint Peter's University Archives: Campaign Photographs, c. 1941 (C0020_b001_f003_i0004).
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