Everybody, from Wall Street to 42nd Street, from Riverdale to Coney Island, felt as if they were under siege. And Abe Beame, elected Mayor in 1973 as a financial whiz who could bail the City out, seemed unable to do anything, a good man in way over his head. (And that's not just a reference to him being only 5-foot-2.)
The 1977 Mayoral election was a fantastic story, and was detailed in Jonathan Mahler's book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning -- as was the Son of Sam case, the Yankees' turbulent Pennant race, and the City's pop culture scene, including disco, punk rock, art, and the struggles of women, racial minorities and gays.
There were 7 candidates on the Democratic side. In addition to Koch and the Brooklynite Beame, they were:
* Mario Cuomo, the crusading Queens lawyer who was then Secretary of State for the State under Governor Hugh Carey.
* Bella Abzug, a Bronx lawyer who'd become the 1st woman elected to Congress from the City.
* Percy Sutton, who had been Malcolm X's lawyer and was elected in Manhattan to become the 1st black Borough President in the City.
* Herman Badillo, a Bronx lawyer who was the 1st Hispanic elected to Congress from the City and the 1st Puerto Rican elected to Congress from anywhere.
* And Joel Hartnett, a Brooklyn advertising executive (the only non-lawyer in the race aside from former accountant Beame) who chaired a "watchdog group" that had accused the Beame Administration of corruption.
Sutton and Badillo pretty much split the minority vote in early polling, meaning that neither blacks nor Hispanics were going to decide the race unless there was a runoff. They and Hartnett never really had a chance.
The rest all went after the City's liberal vote, and all had reason to think they could get it: Beame because he'd been seen working hard, if not well, on their behalf; Koch because he'd been anti-war, pro-civil rights, and on President Richard Nixon's infamous Enemies List; Cuomo because he'd made his name fighting for fair housing and because he was the only candidate who seemed able to appear to the "Outer Boroughs" (The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island); and Abzug because she was even more anti-war than Koch (the Vietnam War was over but the memory was still fresh), had proposed the first gay-rights bill ever brought before Congress, and because she was sure, as the biggest feminist ever elected to Congress, she could get the women's vote. (With 3 Jewish candidates in the race -- Beame, Koch and Abzug -- the Jewish vote figured to be pretty much split.)
But on July 13, there was a blackout, and the resulting riot put the City's crime and racial problems front and center. And Koch, figuring he'd already made his case that "Abe Beame is an incompetent Mayor," was smart enough to figure out that Beame should no longer be the target: The arch-liberals Cuomo and Abzug should be, as they were the strongest remaining candidates aside from himself.
Without really mentioning them by name, he got tough. He realized that he could be all things to all people. The race was full of brains, but only Koch's brain seemed to figure out that this election would not be won with brains. He knew it would be won in people's hearts.
And if those hearts were cold in the middle of the biggest heat wave New York City had seen in recent memory, so be it. He knew that the winner of the election would need the votes of the Archie Bunkers, as well as those of the Mike Stivics.
And he was not afraid to be the one candidate in the race to call for bringing back the death penalty (which isn't the call of the Mayor at all, but a lot of people were glad he was saying it), or the one candidate in the race to suggest that, if elected, he would crack down on the City's welfare fraud. Translation: "I'm not just the middle-class candidate, I'm the white man's candidate." Or, as the great columnist Jimmy Breslin put it in the Daily News: "Koch got the job as mayor because he promised whites that he could keep the blacks under control."
Once he began suggesting that, he was able to bring liberal-but-scared Jews away from Beame and Abzug, and angry Italians and other Catholics away from Cuomo, whom they might have supported simply because he was the only Italian in the race, and, with Badillo reduced to a fringe candidate, the only Catholic who had a chance.
When the primary was held on September 8, it was very close. Less than 30,000 votes separated 1st place from 4th: Koch got just under 20 percent of the vote, Cuomo nearly 19, Beame 18, and Abzug 16. Since the winner did not get 40 percent, a runoff between the top 2 would be held 10 days later, and it was between Koch and Cuomo. Beame, one of the City's leading politicians for a long time, just missed the runoff, and saw his career come to a sad end.
The runoff got ugly. Koch's appeals to working-class and middle-class whites were seen as terribly cynical. And someone in the Cuomo camp (it's still not clear who) dropped a public suggestion that Koch was gay. Signs appeared a Cuomo events saying "VOTE FOR CUOMO NOT THE HOMO."
Koch blunted this by appearing at events with Bess Myerson, who in 1945 became the 1st New Yorker and the 1st Jewish woman to be named Miss America, and later became a game show panelist and chaired the City's Commission on Consumer Affairs. Signs saying "BESS FOR FIRST LADY" began appearing.
Looking back, years later, Koch said most of the voters didn't care whether or not he was gay. In perhaps no other city, not even San Francisco (more about that in a moment), could that statement have been made. He never married (not Bess nor anyone else), but he never came out, either, and did once publicly deny that he was gay.
The race was decided when Badillo went to see Cuomo, and heard Cuomo talk for an hour, basically saying nothing; then went to see Koch, and heard Koch tell him that Hispanics would be represented in his administration.
Koch was smart enough to know that it was no longer enough to appeal to angry whites: He knew that now, with Sutton and Badillo no longer running, whoever won the minority vote would win the election. Cuomo was smart enough to know that, too, but he wasn't practical enough to get enough of those votes. Beame also threw the last of the old machine vote Koch's way, and even Governor Carey, who seemed to be supportive of Cuomo, endorsed Koch.
Koch won the runoff with 55 percent of the vote. Cuomo still ended up getting the Liberal Party nomination, but when the general election was held, Koch got just under 50 percent, Cuomo 41, and State Senator Roy Goodman, the Republican nominee, and radio talk-show host Barry Farber, nominated by the Conservative Party, got just 4 percent each.
Cuomo's career, of course, was not finished, or even seriously damaged. In 1978, when Carey ran for re-election, he ran with Cuomo as Lieutenant Governor. In 1982, Koch opposed him in the primary for Governor, but made ill-advised comments about the State's rural areas. Cuomo easily won the primary, and then won a close-fought general election against Republican investment banker Lew Lehrman.
Mario Cuomo would serve 3 terms, and his son Andrew also would. Mario once said that New York is the only City in the country where the Mayor wants to be Governor, and the Governor wants to be Mayor. But who's kidding who? Ed Koch never wanted to be Governor. He just liked the attention.
After losing the primary, Koch told his supporters gathered in the hotel ballroom, "It's not the end of the world." Dead silence. Then he gave a big grin and said, "And I'm still the Mayor!" Big cheers.
There were 7 candidates on the Democratic side. In addition to Koch and the Brooklynite Beame, they were:
* Mario Cuomo, the crusading Queens lawyer who was then Secretary of State for the State under Governor Hugh Carey.
* Bella Abzug, a Bronx lawyer who'd become the 1st woman elected to Congress from the City.
* Percy Sutton, who had been Malcolm X's lawyer and was elected in Manhattan to become the 1st black Borough President in the City.
* Herman Badillo, a Bronx lawyer who was the 1st Hispanic elected to Congress from the City and the 1st Puerto Rican elected to Congress from anywhere.
* And Joel Hartnett, a Brooklyn advertising executive (the only non-lawyer in the race aside from former accountant Beame) who chaired a "watchdog group" that had accused the Beame Administration of corruption.
Sutton and Badillo pretty much split the minority vote in early polling, meaning that neither blacks nor Hispanics were going to decide the race unless there was a runoff. They and Hartnett never really had a chance.
The rest all went after the City's liberal vote, and all had reason to think they could get it: Beame because he'd been seen working hard, if not well, on their behalf; Koch because he'd been anti-war, pro-civil rights, and on President Richard Nixon's infamous Enemies List; Cuomo because he'd made his name fighting for fair housing and because he was the only candidate who seemed able to appear to the "Outer Boroughs" (The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island); and Abzug because she was even more anti-war than Koch (the Vietnam War was over but the memory was still fresh), had proposed the first gay-rights bill ever brought before Congress, and because she was sure, as the biggest feminist ever elected to Congress, she could get the women's vote. (With 3 Jewish candidates in the race -- Beame, Koch and Abzug -- the Jewish vote figured to be pretty much split.)
But on July 13, there was a blackout, and the resulting riot put the City's crime and racial problems front and center. And Koch, figuring he'd already made his case that "Abe Beame is an incompetent Mayor," was smart enough to figure out that Beame should no longer be the target: The arch-liberals Cuomo and Abzug should be, as they were the strongest remaining candidates aside from himself.
Without really mentioning them by name, he got tough. He realized that he could be all things to all people. The race was full of brains, but only Koch's brain seemed to figure out that this election would not be won with brains. He knew it would be won in people's hearts.
And if those hearts were cold in the middle of the biggest heat wave New York City had seen in recent memory, so be it. He knew that the winner of the election would need the votes of the Archie Bunkers, as well as those of the Mike Stivics.
And he was not afraid to be the one candidate in the race to call for bringing back the death penalty (which isn't the call of the Mayor at all, but a lot of people were glad he was saying it), or the one candidate in the race to suggest that, if elected, he would crack down on the City's welfare fraud. Translation: "I'm not just the middle-class candidate, I'm the white man's candidate." Or, as the great columnist Jimmy Breslin put it in the Daily News: "Koch got the job as mayor because he promised whites that he could keep the blacks under control."
Once he began suggesting that, he was able to bring liberal-but-scared Jews away from Beame and Abzug, and angry Italians and other Catholics away from Cuomo, whom they might have supported simply because he was the only Italian in the race, and, with Badillo reduced to a fringe candidate, the only Catholic who had a chance.
When the primary was held on September 8, it was very close. Less than 30,000 votes separated 1st place from 4th: Koch got just under 20 percent of the vote, Cuomo nearly 19, Beame 18, and Abzug 16. Since the winner did not get 40 percent, a runoff between the top 2 would be held 10 days later, and it was between Koch and Cuomo. Beame, one of the City's leading politicians for a long time, just missed the runoff, and saw his career come to a sad end.
The runoff got ugly. Koch's appeals to working-class and middle-class whites were seen as terribly cynical. And someone in the Cuomo camp (it's still not clear who) dropped a public suggestion that Koch was gay. Signs appeared a Cuomo events saying "VOTE FOR CUOMO NOT THE HOMO."
Koch blunted this by appearing at events with Bess Myerson, who in 1945 became the 1st New Yorker and the 1st Jewish woman to be named Miss America, and later became a game show panelist and chaired the City's Commission on Consumer Affairs. Signs saying "BESS FOR FIRST LADY" began appearing.
Looking back, years later, Koch said most of the voters didn't care whether or not he was gay. In perhaps no other city, not even San Francisco (more about that in a moment), could that statement have been made. He never married (not Bess nor anyone else), but he never came out, either, and did once publicly deny that he was gay.
The race was decided when Badillo went to see Cuomo, and heard Cuomo talk for an hour, basically saying nothing; then went to see Koch, and heard Koch tell him that Hispanics would be represented in his administration.
Koch was smart enough to know that it was no longer enough to appeal to angry whites: He knew that now, with Sutton and Badillo no longer running, whoever won the minority vote would win the election. Cuomo was smart enough to know that, too, but he wasn't practical enough to get enough of those votes. Beame also threw the last of the old machine vote Koch's way, and even Governor Carey, who seemed to be supportive of Cuomo, endorsed Koch.
Koch won the runoff with 55 percent of the vote. Cuomo still ended up getting the Liberal Party nomination, but when the general election was held, Koch got just under 50 percent, Cuomo 41, and State Senator Roy Goodman, the Republican nominee, and radio talk-show host Barry Farber, nominated by the Conservative Party, got just 4 percent each.
Cuomo's career, of course, was not finished, or even seriously damaged. In 1978, when Carey ran for re-election, he ran with Cuomo as Lieutenant Governor. In 1982, Koch opposed him in the primary for Governor, but made ill-advised comments about the State's rural areas. Cuomo easily won the primary, and then won a close-fought general election against Republican investment banker Lew Lehrman.
Mario Cuomo would serve 3 terms, and his son Andrew also would. Mario once said that New York is the only City in the country where the Mayor wants to be Governor, and the Governor wants to be Mayor. But who's kidding who? Ed Koch never wanted to be Governor. He just liked the attention.
After losing the primary, Koch told his supporters gathered in the hotel ballroom, "It's not the end of the world." Dead silence. Then he gave a big grin and said, "And I'm still the Mayor!" Big cheers.
He would win 3 terms, and help bring the City back from economic ruin. But, despite his bold promises, crime would continue to be out of control -- including, as it turned out, in the City government, which ended up dooming his chances for a 4th term in 1989.
November 8, 1977 was also Election Day in New Jersey. Governor Brendan Byrne, a Democrat, was re-elected. He had been an Essex County Prosecutor and a Judge of the State Superior Court. The FBI had released a wiretap of a Mob boss calling him "the man who couldn't be bought," and Byrne used that in his 1973 campaign for Governor, and he won his 66 percent of the vote, against Charles Sandman, a Congressman from South Jersey, whose support of Nixon to the end of Watergate cost him his seat the next year.
Byrne, with the State House in Trenton behind him
But his signing of the State's 1st sales tax infuriated people, dropping him to 17 percent in the polls, and earning him the nickname "One-Term Byrne." The anger faded, and he won 56 percent of the vote against State Senator Ray Bateman.
In San Francisco, where the city council is known as the Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk was elected to a seat that includes the Castro district, along with New York's Greenwich Village then the most famous "gay neighborhood" in America. The 47-year-old Long Island native and camera store owner became the 1st openly gay public official to win elective office anywhere in America.
Milk thus became a gay icon, and many people hoped he would become their "Martin Luther Queen." Unfortunately, within a year, he faced the same end as Martin Luther King: Assassination and martyrdom.
Sandman lived until 1985, Abzug until 1998, Beame until 2001, Hartnett until 2006, Sutton until 2009, Carey until 2011, Koch until 2013, Badillo and Myerson until 2014, Cuomo until 2015, Bateman until 2016, and Byrne until 2018.
*
November 8, 1977 was, like most modern Election Days in America, a Tuesday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 123-117 at Madison Square Garden. Despite the Spurs' loss, George Gervin led all scorers on the night with 35 points.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Houston Rockets, 117-104 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Denver Nuggets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 111-101 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Kansas City Kings, 130-104 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The Minnesota North Stars beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at the Montreal Forum.
There were 2 games played in the World Hockey Association. The Quebec Nordiques beat the Edmonton Oilers, 7-3 at the Colisée de Québec. And the New England Whalers beat the Birmingham Bulls, 4-3 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama.
No comments:
Post a Comment