The Real Wally Edge

This photo shows Governor Harold Hoffman (r) and former Governor Walter "Wally" Edge (l) arriving at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 8, 1936. Edge was a very accomplished New Jerseyan. With only an 8th grade education, he began a newspaper and public relations firm in Atlantic City, made a bundle of money and then entered politics. A Progressive Republican of Teddy Roosevelt style, he was an avid outdoorsman, lieutenant in the Spanish American War, governor of NJ in WWI, ardent foe of Prohibition, US Senator from NJ, US ambassador to France, and then governor again in WWII. In retirement he wrote (Yes, he wrote it -- not a staff member.) his memoir "A Jerseyman's Journal." Edge purchased the Stockton family Princeton estate of Morven and left it to the state in his will. It should be noted that there is no connection between the real Wally Edge and David Wildstein, the weaselly putz at the heart of the Bridgegate scandal who took his name as a pseudonym.