The New York Times/1918/11/11/Does Not Fear Nugent
DOES NOT FEAR NUGENT.
Gov. Edge Declares Threat to Bar Him from Senate is Absurd.
Special to The New York Times.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., Nov. 10.—Governor Edge declared today that James Nugent, Democratic leader of Essex County, was counting upon a Democratic majority in the Senate when he made his threat to prevent the Governor from taking his seat in the upper house in Washington, through recourse to a technicality which lawyers have thrashed out and dismissed. The Governor characterized the threat as absurd. He said that neither he nor his legal advisers had the slightest fear as far as Nugent was concerned. He added:
"The same issue which has been raised in my case might be raised without any more or less justification in the cases of Governor Keyes of New Hampsire, Governor Capper of Kansas, and Governon Stanley of Kentucky, all of whom were elected from Gubernatorial offices to the United States Senate at the same time as myself. The ban upon the election of an incumbent of the Gubernatorial office to the Senate ceased to exist when legislatures ceased to elect Senators."
Governor Edge expects that the Jerset Legislature will wind up its session without four or five weeks after it meets in January, so that the road will be clear when he goes to Washington in March to be sworn in as a member of the Senate.