Joe R. Hanley
Joseph Rhodes Hanley (* May 30, 1876 in Davenport, Scott County, Iowa, † 1961) was an American lawyer and politician ( Republican).
Career
Joseph Rhodes Hanley served during the Spanish- American War in 1898 in the U.S. Army. In this context, he held later in the years 1941 and 1942 the post of Supreme Commander ( Commander -in- Chief ) of the United Spanish War Veterans.
Hanley was 1927-1931 member of the New York State Assembly, where he represented the Wyoming County. After that, he was from 1932 to 1943 Member of the Senate of New York. During this time, Perley A. Pitcher died, Majority Leader ( Majority Leader ) in the Senate from New York, so that Hanley was elected on 27 February 1939, his successor. When Charles Poletti the retiring Governor Herbert H. Lehman, 1942, was succeeded in his office, Hanley served for four weeks as acting Lieutenant Governor of New York.
When Thomas W. Wallace then died on July 17, 1943 in his office as Lieutenant Governor of New York, Hanley acted again as acting vice governor. In the subsequent by-election (special election ) for the office of lieutenant governor in November 1943, he defeated Democrat William N. Haskell. He was re-elected in 1946 and then held the post of Deputy Governor by the end of 1950. During this time he was a delegate in 1944 and 1948 participated in the Republican National Conventions.
In the spring of 1950 Governor Thomas E. Dewey announced that he would not seek another term as governor. Hanley was the leading candidate to succeed him, however, Dewey decided then still to come and has been re-elected. Officially claiming Hanley that he would be voluntarily opted out of the campaign to clear the way for Dewey. But in a letter to U.S. Representative William K. Macy wrote that Dewey would have convinced him to run for the U.S. Senate. He also made him a promise of an item in the event of defeat. In the following Senate election he was defeated and shortly thereafter appointed as Special Advisor to the State Division of Veterans ' Affairs.