Elections: Old Deal for New York

In the view of some of its despairing critics, New York City is just too large and complex for any one man to govern properly—and Mayor Robert Ferdinand Wagner has certainly done much to confirm that belief during his eight fumbling, scandal-specked years in office. But Wagner is a Democrat, and New York is an overwhelmingly Democratic city. And last week, after one of the dreariest campaigns in its history, New York gave Bob Wagner 1,239,533 votes for a plurality of 402,980 over his Republican opponent, Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz. Running as an independent, City Controller Lawrence Gerosa collected a protest vote of 321,996—drawn mostly from Democrats who shuddered at the thought of four more Wagnerian years.

Failure to Impress. Wagner had to work uncommonly hard for his third term. A docile favorite of Tammany Hall during his first seven years, Wagner this year annoyed the bosses by picking his own—and abler—running mates: Civil Servants Abraham Beame for controller, Paul Screvane for council president. For that effrontery, Wagner had to defeat State Controller Arthur Levitt, the bosses’ choice, in a primary to win the Democratic nomination. But the primary gave Wagner what he badly needed: an issue. Ignoring the past, the mayor promised to put an end to “boss rule” if reelected, vowed to clean up the civic mess that had developed in his own regime, accused Opponent Lefkowitz of being the tool of Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller and other G.O.P. leaders. A drab, hand-waving campaigner, Lefkowitz hammered hard at the Wagner scandals, but for all his hammering failed to impress the voters as a plausible, forceful alternative to the mayor.

The vote was a blow to Governor Rockefeller, who campaigned hard for Lefkowitz, hoped to enhance his own prestige by capturing the state’s biggest Democratic stronghold, or at least to come close. But even in defeat, Republicans, long lacking an effective city organization, had some reason to feel encouraged by the outcome. Lefkowitz, polling 836,553 votes, did better than expected and carried ten of 65 assembly districts, including the entire borough of Richmond (Staten Island), which Wagner won by 18,600 votes in 1957. In The Bronx, running with the support of the labor-backed Liberal Party, Republican Joseph F. Periconi won the borough presidency from a hand-picked candidate of Congressman Charles Buckley, most puissant of the Democratic bosses. In the 25-man city council, the G.O.P. doubled its strength—jumping, that is, from one seat to two.

Unable to Count. Victory presumably made Bob Wagner undisputed leader of New York State’s Democrats, gives him the chance to heal the canyon-sized breach between the organization regulars and the Herbert Lehman-Eleanor Roosevelt reformers who backed him against the bosses.* Wagner’s probable first move: replacing State Chairman Michael Prendergast, who openly backed Gerosa. Since the voters also approved a drastic reform in the city charter. Wagner will have far more control of city affairs than ever before, might be able to achieve a measure of administrative efficiency.

But no one was really counting on that. New York was still the same ungovernable New York—and Bob Wagner was still Bob Wagner.

* In the general election, the reformers produced more noise than votes. In districts headed by reform leaders, Wagner either lost or won by narrow margins. The mayor piled up his biggest majorities in Brooklyn and The Bronx—areas still controlled by the kind of bosses he scorned.