In addition to practicing law, Hackett was involved in several business and banking ventures, including serving as president of the Albany City Savings Institution, Albany City Safe Deposit Company, and New York Mortgage and Home Building Company.

Hackett was reelected in 1923 and 1925, and was planning to campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor of New York in the 1928 elections when he was injured in a February 1926 automobile accident that occurred while he was vacationing in Cuba.

[17] He was president of the Boulevard Garage Company, and treasurer and board of directors member for the Albany Chamber of Commerce.

[18] Hackett developed a friendship with Daniel P. O'Connell, another South End resident, who worked in the early 1900s to reestablish Albany's Democratic Party following over 20 years of domination by the Republican organization of William Barnes Jr., the grandson of Thurlow Weed.

[24] Hackett indicated to friends in late 1925 and early 1926 that he intended to enter the campaign for governor in 1928, presuming that Smith won reelection in 1926 and made the presidential race in 1928.

[25] Hackett was visiting Cuba in February 1926 when, without warning, the car in which he was a passenger hit an obstruction or a rough patch of road.

[30] As a result of Hackett's death, the Democratic Party in New York next turned to Edwin Corning as their likely nominee for governor in 1928.

[33] As a result of Hackett's death and Corning's poor health, in 1928 New York Democrats attempted to recruit several other prominent politicians to run, including Robert F. Wagner, George R. Lunn, and Peter G. Ten Eyck.

[35] He was nominated by acclimation at the state party convention, and went on to defeat Republican Albert Ottinger in the general election.