Line #91 Characters/BoardwalkEmpirePoliticians


1	[[Characters/BoardwalkEmpire Click here to return to the main character page]].
2
3	[[foldercontrol]]
4
5	!New Jersey Politicians
6
7	[[folder:Ed Bader]]
8	!!Edward Lawrence "Ed" Bader
9	->'''Played By:''' Kevin [=O'Rourke=]
10	[[quoteright:174:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/EdwardBader_1918.jpeg]]
11	[[caption-width-right:174:''"Let's get something straight. [[BlatantLies Nucky Thompson does not run this city]]. I do!"'']]
12
13	A prominent construction businessman in Atlantic City, he accepts Nucky's offer to run for Mayor in the 1920 local elections when the incumbent republican starts to lose steam and wins. He knows that he is nothing but Nucky's pawn, and the common folk laughs at his attempts to appear otherwise.
14	----
15	* AuthorityInNameOnly: Everybody laughs when he tries to deny being a mayoral marionette of Nucky Thompson.
16	%%* ButtMonkey
17	* CasualKink: He likes some erotic spanking.
18	%%* CorruptPolitician
19	%%* DeadpanSnarker
20	%%* DecoyLeader
21	%%* DudeWheresMyRespect
22	%%* HistoricalDomainCharacter
23	%%* OnlyInItForTheMoney
24	%%* SleazyPolitician
25	* {{Turncoat}}: In Season 4 [[spoiler: he joins Narcisse's camp, betraying Nucky and Chalky, by extension.]]
26	* UnwittingPawn: Subverted. He knows he has no real power as mayor but he plays along so he can manage his construction business.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Harry Bacharach]]
30	!!Harry Bacharach
31	->'''Played By:''' John Rue
32
33	Bader's predecessor as Mayor of Atlantic City.
34	%%---
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Frank Hague]]
38	!!Frank Hague
39	->'''Played By:''' Chris Mulkey
40	[[quoteright:217:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hague_boardwalkempire_9053.jpg]]
41	[[caption-width-right:217:''"I'm just proposing we call a spade, a spade."'']]
42	The corrupt mayor of Jersey City. Unlike his homologues in Atlantic City who are just pawns of Nucky, he is in full charge of his town and deals with Nucky himself.
43	----
44	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: He could apparently side, backstab and come back to Nucky multiple times in the same week. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Hague History]] tells us that he was already doing that years before the timeframe of the show.
45	* DemotedToExtra: He only appears in the second season to introduce Jack Dempsey to Nucky.
46	%%* HistoricalDomainCharacter
47	* TheHypocrite: A very pragmatic one, he is a Democrat, but doesn't bat an eye at doing nefarious deals with Republican politicians. Also, while he does not care about women's rights he does care a lot about their votes.
48	* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Even when compared to [[GrayAndGrayMorality other characters]].
49	* PetTheDog: Arguably gets such a moment when he tells Nucky that Senator Edge is backstabbing Nucky, even though said backstabbing benefited Hague.
50	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He is a corrupt whoremonger that does not believe in female suffrage and defends women battering.
51	%%* SleazyPolitician
52	* StrawMisogynist: He is put in his place by Margaret right after his introduction.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Nucky Thompson]]
56	!'''Enoch Malachi "Nucky" Thompson '''
57	See Characters/BoardwalkEmpireThompsonFamily
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Louis Kaestner]]
61	!'''Louis "Lou" Kaestner a.k.a. "The Commodore" '''
62	See Characters/BoardwalkEmpireDarmodyFamilyandAssociates
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	!Washington, D.C. Politicians and Aides
66
67	[[folder:Walter Edge]]
68	!!Walter Evans Edge
69	->'''Played By:''' Creator/GeoffPierson
70	[[quoteright:215:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BE_Walter-Edge_6338.jpg]]
71	[[caption-width-right:215:''"It was just politics. I'll make for it later."'']]
72	US Senator for the State of New Jersey and the owner of a construction firm. Nucky was his campaign manager, believing that Edge would return the favor once elected by helping pass bills for the construction of roads that would benefit Atlantic City.
73	----
74	* AmbitionIsEvil: His desire to become the president of the United States is presented this way.
75	%%* HistoricalDomainCharacter
76	* ILied: He gives the promised road funding to Hague... who [[NoHonorAmongThieves promptly stabs him in the back]] and tells Nucky about it.
77	* IronicEcho: When Eddie tells Edge that they are out of Pimm's, Edge looks back to Nucky and says that he can't expect to have everything. The next day, Nucky sends Edge a few crates of Pimm's with a note saying "I '''do''' expect to have everything."
78	%%* SleazyPolitician
79	* SpannerInTheWorks: Edge appears at least one time per season to cause trouble for Nucky back in DC. In the first, he allocates his promised road funding to Frank Hague; in the second, he presses Daugherty to assign a more professional attorney to handle Nucky's corruption case. In the third season he doesn't even make it willingly: he heads a Senate investigation about the poor enforcement of the 18th Amendment that puts heat on Daugherty, Daugherty tells Nucky to be more discreet and he cuts all liquor sales except Rothstein's. [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Cue war with]] [[AxCrazy Gyp Rosetti]] (and Daugherty [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder indicting Nucky anyway]]).
80	* StrawMisogynist: Like Hague, he only supports women's vote "on the record".
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Harry Daugherty]]
84	!!Harry Micajah Daugherty
85	->'''Played By:''' Creator/ChristopherMcDonald
86	[[quoteright:266:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/christopher-mcdonald-boardwalk-empire_9231.jpg]]
87	[[caption-width-right:266:''"You have heard I play ball."'']]
88	The ''massively'' corrupt campaign manager of Warren Harding and US Attorney General after his presidential election. Nucky uses his connections to help Harding get the nomination in exchange for some favors in the future, but when he finally needs them Daugherty just keeps making excuses.
89	----
90	* ActorAllusion: He takes Nucky to golf in "Gimcrack and Bunkum". [=McDonald=] played the bad guy in ''Film/HappyGilmore''.
91	%%* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder
92	%%* CorruptPolitician
93	* DiscOneFinalBoss: Of Season 3. At the beginning of the story arc, it is revealed that he is conspiring to indict Nucky Thompson to divert public attention away from a Congressional investigation into his department's criminal activities.Upon learning of his plans, Nucky spends a substantial portion of the season working to engineer his downfall. [[spoiler: In the end, he is neutralized as a threat early on in the season and merely serves as a distraction to [[BigBad the greatest danger to Nucky's family and associates: the bloodthirsty gangster, Gyp Rosetti]]]]
94	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Jess Smith. Gaston Means says that some have cast doubts on the heterosexual part (and the fact they share a hotel room does not shut these in the least).
95	%%* HistoricalDomainCharacter
96	* ILied: He phones Nucky twice to tell him that, in essence, he is not saving his ass.
97	* TheManBehindTheMan: To Harding.
98	* {{Protectorate}}: He will consider anything before harming Jess Smith. It takes a ManipulativeBastard of Gaston Means' caliber to convince him of the opposite.
99	* PutOnABus: His downfall takes place offscreen, with Nucky simply reading about it in the paper.
100	* SleazyPolitician: And almost open about it. Nucky is baffled to find that he has already things to hide when he has been in office for less than three months.
101	* [[StockVisualMetaphors Visual Metaphor]]: He puts on [[ConvenientColorChange green shoes]] when he decides to sell Nucky down the river in order to save himself.
102	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: He even boasts about outmatching Nucky in this regard.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Jess Smith]]
106	!!Jess W. Smith
107	->'''Played By:''' Ed Jewett
108
109	[[quoteright:227:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BE-Jess-Smith_788.png]]
110	[[caption-width-right:227:''"Bootleggers are the people we are in business with!"'']]
111	Harry Daugherty's best friend and gofer who actually holds no official position in Washington. He is the middleman between Daugherty and George Remus.
112	----
113	* AmbiguouslyGay: His close relationship with Daugherty has already given rise to rumours.
114	* ChildhoodFriends: With Daugherty.
115	%%* DirtyCoward
116	* DrivenToSuicide: After Means is discovered trying to kill him.
117	* EarlyBirdCameo: He prevents Nan Britton from entering Harding's campaign party in season one's "Hold Me in Paradise", although he is played by a [[TheOtherDarrin different actor]].
118	%%* EtTuBrute
119	%%* GuiltRiddenAccomplice
120	* HatedByAll: Everyone [[{{protectorate}} but Daugherty]] has contempt for him.
121	%%* HeKnowsTooMuch
122	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Harry Daugherty. Well, Daugherty is at least his.
123	%%* HistoricalDomainCharacter
124	* HistoricalInJoke: Smith is remembered today only because of his well-timed, high profile suicide at the worst of the Harding administration scandals in 1923. Almost every author defends that he was murdered to [[HeKnowsTooMuch keep him quiet]], so the show writers were free to write in any conspiracy they wanted, and in his last episode both [[BeenThereShapedHistory Nucky]] and Daugherty are shown considering his assassination. Smith actually manages to thwart this assassination, only to reach the DespairEventHorizon upon realizing Daugherty, his only friend, was behind the attempt, and kill himself on the spot, technically proving history right.
125	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When the whole scheme begins to crash down, he regrets his decision to leave Ohio.
126	* TheOtherDarrin: Played by an extra in the first season.
127	* TookALevelInBadass: In "A Man, A Plan...". After spending most of the third season as what Means calls a "[[VillainousBreakdown blabbering walrus]]" he fools his would-be assassin and holds him at gunpoint.
128	* VillainousBreakdown: In the third season.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Andrew William Mellon]]
132	!!Andrew William Mellon
133	->'''Played By:''' Creator/JamesCromwell
134
135	[[quoteright:288:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AndrewMellon_6467.jpg]]
136	[[caption-width-right:288:''"Daugherty is nothing but a shabby little huckster."'']]
137	The US Secretary of the Treasury and therefore the person responsible for upholding taxes and Prohibition, despite the fact that he hates both. Also one of the richest men in the country.
138	----
139	* [[AdaptationDyeJob Adaptation Haircut]]: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_W._Mellon real Mellon]] had a mustache and a head full of hair in the timeframe of the show. The crew obviously valued more having Cromwell than hairdressing accuracy though.
140	* CharacterizingSittingPose: Used to illustrate his power compared to Nucky, a man of impressive standing on his own. During their meeting at the country club, Nucky sits tensely poised and upright while Mellon lounges comfortably and at ease.
141	* CorruptPolitician: He's portrayed as more professional than most of Harding's administration, but he still allows Nucky to run the Overholt Distillery and collect the profits.
142	%%* DeadpanSnarker
143	* DemocracyIsBad: Says so to Nucky.
144	%%* HistoricalDomainCharacter
145	* HypocriteHasAPoint: Like most others in the Executive Branch, he knows that Prohibition worked better as an idea rather than a reform; it doesn't stop him from working with Nucky. He also criticizes the income tax's questionable legality despite being the man to manage it.
146	-->'''Nucky''': The income tax.
147	-->'''Mellon''': Sanctioned robbery, with no constitutional basis.
148	-->'''Nucky''': And Prohibition?
149	-->'''Mellon''': A child's idea at morality.
150	* MyCountryRightOrWrong: He thinks that the Volstead Act was a very bad idea, but he fights to enforce it, rather to profit from it like Daugherty.
151	* {{Irony}}: Randolph is shocked to discover that he owns a distillery, although it has been out of work since the beginning of Prohibition.
152	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness
153	* ShutUpHannibal: To Nucky in "The Pony" when Nucky tries to pull a NotSoDifferentRemark with him. Mellon makes the deal proposed at the end of the episode, however.
154
155	[[/folder]]
156

Context Characters / BoardwalkEmpirePoliticians