New York City Political Power and Coalitions Since WWII

Introduction: Coalition Politics and the Machine's Decline

Success in New York City politics is about building coalitions. Since World War II, the Democratic machine has been in decline. Without an organized institution, politicians must find a way to appeal to multiple groups — a challenge that often means alienating others. Politicians who succeed in building a winning coalition find it difficult to maintain it because the ethnic and social dynamics of the city are constantly changing. Jewish voters are the single most important electoral group, but other groups are gaining increasing influence. The following is a survey of New York City politics from the era when the machine began its decline through the 2001 mayoral election.

The Late 1940s and 1950s: Wagner and the Fading Machine

Following World War II, the Tammany Hall political machine began to lose the nearly overwhelming power it had once enjoyed. The emergence of Jewish and Italian populations challenged the old Irish dominance, and shifts in the loyalties of Jewish and Irish voters brought new political figures to the forefront. Political parties such as the Liberal Party — primarily Jewish in composition — began to exercise real influence in elections. In 1945, William O'Dwyer, an Irishman, was elected mayor of New York with the support of the Tammany Hall machine and Irish, Italian, and Jewish voters. He also won a majority of the Black vote, which had previously gone to the Republicans. The Tammany machine believed it could dominate O'Dwyer, but he had an independent streak. The Democratic Party in New York was difficult to control because its ethnic cleavages — Irish, Italian, Jewish — threatened to split the party as Jewish and Italian politicians began to demand more control from the Irish (McNickle 63–90; Moscow 31–34).

In the 1949 election, O'Dwyer split with Tammany Hall and won a second term anyway in a three-way race. Tension between Catholics and Jews in the city doomed the party's candidate. Jews supported O'Dwyer in part because of his backing of Israel. However, the mayor resigned the following year. Against the wishes of Carmine DeSapio, head of Tammany Hall, Vincent Impellitteri ran in a special election to finish O'Dwyer's term. Impellitteri ran as an anti-machine candidate and won the three-way race with 43% of the vote, carrying the Irish vote, half of the Italian vote, and a small portion of the Jewish vote. The Jewish vote was ordinarily the decisive swing vote, and Impellitteri's ability to split it proved critical (Moscow 34–37; McNickle 72–87).

In the 1953 election, Robert Wagner, a Democrat, was elected mayor. Both the Republican and Liberal Parties ran Jewish candidates, yet Wagner won a majority of the Jewish vote by convincing that community he was genuinely pro-Jewish. His Catholic upbringing attracted both Italian and Irish support. Wagner also captured 70% of the Black vote, once solidly Republican. His broad coalition carried him to three terms in office (Morris 16–24; McNickle 105–108).

The end of the 1950s brought problems for DeSapio. In 1956, he alienated powerful Black congressman Adam Clayton Powell of Harlem. More damaging still, he antagonized former governor Herbert Lehman through his manipulation of the 1958 state party convention. Lehman resolved to dismantle DeSapio's power base (McNickle 130–138).

The 1960s: Lindsay and the Liberal Coalition

During the early 1960s, a struggle for control of the Democratic Party intensified as Irish influence waned, Jewish power grew, and Blacks and Puerto Ricans gained greater political weight. Many Irish and Italian voters migrated to the Republican Party as the Democratic Party fractured, and New York City politics took an increasingly liberal direction.

In the battle for control of the Democratic Party between DeSapio and Lehman, Mayor Wagner was compelled to side with the reformers as Lehman made "bossism" a central issue. Wagner and Lehman engineered the ouster of DeSapio and the other — mostly Irish — borough bosses. Machine politics in New York would never again be a dominant force (McNickle 136–175; Connable and Silberfarb 295–333).

Wagner appointed J. Raymond Jones, the Black party leader of Harlem, to the Manhattan party leadership to replace DeSapio. Though whites were upset, Wagner made the appointment in recognition of the growing importance of the Black vote. Around this same time, conservatives dissatisfied with the increasingly liberal slant of the local Republican Party formed the Conservative Party, aiming to influence local elections much as the Jewish Liberal Party was doing. The Jewish vote was becoming ever more significant as affluent Catholics moved to the suburbs; by the early 1960s, Jewish voters made up roughly 30% of the city electorate (McNickle 175–188).

As the Wagner era drew to a close, the city faced enormous problems. Noise, traffic, pollution, sanitation, fire control, crime, and housing were major election issues, and civil rights tensions added further strain. The Democratic Party was badly split, with rivalries between Jewish and Black constituencies worsening the situation. Republican congressman John Lindsay ran for mayor as a reform candidate in 1965. Lindsay alienated traditional Republicans but gained the Liberal Party's endorsement. In a three-way race, he assembled a coalition of Jews, Blacks, Italians, Protestants, and Irish to win — a coalition in which Jewish voters notably declined to support the Jewish candidate, Abraham Beame (Cannato 19–74; McNickle 187–209).

Lindsay's first term was tumultuous. Transit workers struck at the very start of his administration. The Italian-dominated sanitation workers and the Jewish-dominated teachers' union also walked out. Lindsay alienated the Irish by promoting Jews and Blacks within the Irish-dominated police department, and he further divided the city by proposing a Civilian Review Board for the police. He was popular with Black and Puerto Rican communities, whom he sought to assist through social programs and expanded access to political power, but this only deepened resentment among white ethnic communities who viewed his policies as favoritism toward minorities (Carter 156–191; Cannato 75–119).

As the 1969 election approached, Lindsay appeared to be in serious trouble. The Democrats, however, remained badly divided. Lindsay lost the Republican nomination but retained the Liberal Party endorsement and campaigned vigorously to recover Jewish support. He acknowledged past mistakes and pledged to improve. Jewish voters, unable to bring themselves to support a non-liberal candidate, returned to Lindsay as the only liberal in the race. Combined with continued support from Blacks and Puerto Ricans, it was enough to return him to City Hall (McNickle 218–236; Cannato 389–442).

Conclusion

Politics in New York City is fundamentally about building and maintaining coalitions. After World War II, Irish dominance began to fade. Jewish voters became the single most important group in the city, but the Irish, Italians, Blacks, and Hispanics have all maintained meaningful access to power. In the post-machine era, politicians have had to find ways to appeal to at least several of these groups to win and govern effectively. Based on the past half-century of New York City politics, this imperative is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

Works Cited

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Kirtzman, Andrew. Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City. William Morrow, 2000.

McNickle, Chris. To Be Mayor of New York: Ethnic Politics in the City. Columbia University Press, 1993.

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