John Lindsay

New York City Mayors, Other Mayors And The Presidency

Ronald Leave a comment

New York City has had Mayors who have sought the Presidency, but never has a NYC Mayor reached the White House.

With the announcement by present NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio of him becoming number 23 to run for the White House, this is a good time to look back at failed runs for the White House by NYC Mayors, and the history of other Mayors who have run for President.

DeWitt Clinton was the Federalist nominee for President in 1812 against President James Madison, but lost.

John Lindsay switched from the Republican to Democratic Party in 1972, but lost early in the process and withdrew his candidacy by April.

Rudy Giuliani was leading in polls in 2007 as a potential Republican nominee, but flopped badly and withdrew in January 2008.

Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, then an Independent, then a Democrat, considered announcing in 2016 and 2020, but decided not to at the present time, due to Joe Biden entering the race with similar views.

Additionally, a future President ran for Mayor of NYC in 1886 as a Republican, and ended up third, and yet went on to the White House, and that was Theodore Roosevelt.

Additionally, we have former Buffalo, New York Mayor and New York Governor Grover Cleveland who went on to the Presidency in 1884.

Other Mayors who ran for the Presidency include:

Hubert Humphrey of Minneapolis, Minnesota, who went on to the Senate and Vice Presidency, but lost the Presidential election of 1968 to Richard Nixon.

Sam Yorty of Los Angeles, who ran for the Democratic nomination unsuccessfully in 1972.

Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland, Ohio, who also served in Congress, and was a Democratic candidate unsuccessfully in 2004 and 2008.

Martin O’Malley of Baltimore, Maryland, who also served as Maryland Governor, and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 2016.

Additionally, two Presidents who succeeded after the death of the incumbent President, had served as Mayors of small cities–Andrew Johnson as Greeneville, Tennessee Mayor; and Calvin Coolidge as Northampton, Massachusetts Mayor, and was successful in winning his own term as President in 1924.

And now, of course, we have four former Mayors running in the Democratic Presidential competition:

Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey

Julian Castro of San Antonio, Texas

John Hickenlooper of Denver, Colorado

Bernie Sanders of Burlington, Vermont

We also have three sitting Mayors now running for the Democratic nomination:

Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana

Bill de Blasio of New York City

Wayne Messam of Miramar, Florida

Imagine A Three Way Presidential Race Of Three New Yorkers, And Possibly Two Of Them Of Reform Judaism Religion!

Ronald 24 Comments

The scenario now exists that the Presidential Election Of 2016 could involve THREE New York residents competing against each other, an idea which seemed impossible to happen even with one candidate since the time of Thomas E. Dewey’s loss to Harry Truman in 1948.

We saw Nelson Rockefeller fail three times in the 1960s to be the GOP Presidential nominee; we saw Robert Kennedy’s tragic campaign come to an end in 1968 by assassination; we saw John Lindsay attempt a Presidential run in 1972 and fail badly; we saw Mario Cuomo flirt with the idea in 1992 and decide not to run; we saw Rudy Guiliani flop badly in 2008; we saw George Pataki also flirt with the idea of running, and when he finally did in 2015, totally flop; and of course, we saw Hillary Clinton fail to stop Barack Obama in 2008.

At the most, it looked like Hillary Clinton would run, as she has again in 2016, and would have a good chance to be the first New Yorker to run for President and actually be the nominee since 1948, but the idea that THREE candidates would all be from New York is amazing, considering the rise of the Sun Belt since World War II, and the slow decline of New York into political oblivion, although still even now the fourth largest state.

But now we have Clinton; we have Bernie Sanders, who is a Vermont Senator, but grew up in Brooklyn, and left for Vermont in 1968, but is still a New Yorker in the way he speaks; we have Donald Trump who is certainly a New Yorker through and through; and we have former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, originally from Boston, but a long time New Yorker, and Mayor from 2002-2014.

So the possibility of three New Yorkers running is very much alive, and if Sanders is the Democratic nominee and Bloomberg, alarmed by Sanders’ candidacy as well as Trump as a possible Republican nominee, does actually run on a third party or independent ticket, we would have two Reform Jews running along with Presbyterian Trump!

Bill De Blasio, The Clintons, And The Shift To The Left In The Democratic Party

Ronald Leave a comment

The inauguration of New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, sworn in on a Bible used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, with the oath being given by former President Bill Clinton, with Hillary Clinton also present, was a ceremony full of symbolism.

De Blasio, a Mayor in the tradition of Fiorello La Guardia and John Lindsay; a true liberal and progressive in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society; a Clinton Administration Housing and Urban Development official; the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign in 2000; the head of an interracial family; and a man fully involved in the struggle of the poor in New York City, and fighting for the wealthy to pay more taxes for universal pre K education (as he said $943 a year or a small coffee cost every day)—this is a man to admire, to cheer, to be willing to go to bat for in any struggle that will occur over the next four years as he works to end the “Tale of Two Cities”, which allows the greed of Wall Street while a large percentage of the city cannot survive on a living wage!

Bill Clinton made the connection between Bill De Blasio and himself and his wife, and in so doing, made a clear shift to the left from the centrism Democratic image he cultivated during his eight year Presidency.

And that makes it very clear that Hillary Clinton has decided to run for President, and is embracing the leftward trend represented by Bill De Blasio, and is making clear to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, and others on the populist left, that she is not willing to cede any turf on the Democratic Party to any of her rivals on the left, or to Joe Biden, Martin O’Malley, Mark Warner or anyone else thinking of running for President.

Bill De Blasio Would Be First NYC Progressive Mayor Since John Lindsay And Fiorello La Guardia!

Ronald 2 Comments

NYC Public Advocate Bill De Blasio has surged to the lead in polls for the Democratic primary for NYC Mayor, over Anthony Weiner, Bill Thompson, and Christine Quinn, and it is clear that he would be the best hope for a progressive mayor, who would work to end economic inequality, and promote education and health care, and seek to limit Wall Street power, so evident under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Mayor with a mixed record.

And the fact that he has been against “Stop and Frisk”, the policy just declared unconstitutional by a federal judge, the only candidate to be against it all along, helps De Blasio, who is married to an African American woman, and has a 15 year old son, who, with his African American appearance and age, would be a prime candidate for being stopped by the police, based on racial profiling.

New York City has not had a true progressive Mayor since John Lindsay (1966-1973), who had many shortcomings, and really, the last truly progressive mayor and success as Mayor goes back to Fiorello La Guardia (1934-1945).