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![]() Borough results Low: 40–50% 50–60% Shepard: 40–50% | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections in New York City |
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An election for Mayor of New York City was held in November 1901.
Incumbent mayor Robert A. Van Wyck was not a candidate for re-election to a second term in office. Republicans would not win a mayoral election in New York City again until 1933.
In the 1897 mayoral election, held in connection with the consolidation of the five boroughs of Greater New York, Robert Anderson Van Wyck was elected to a four-year term in office with the support of Tammany Hall. Van Wyck was initially quite popular as the result of his reversal of various reversals of reforms instituted by his reformist predecessor, William Lafayette Strong.
The Van Wyck administration was brought down in 1900 following a proposed doubling in the price of ice by the American Ice Company from 30 cents per hundred pounds to 60 cents. Before the invention of commercial refrigeration, ice was the only preservative available for food, milk, and necessary medicines; therefore, the proposed increase had potentially fatal implications.
In response to public outcry, a public investigation revealed that American Ice had secured a monopoly over the product through Tammany Hall maneuvering and that Van Wyck had been gifted over $680,000 ($20,478,719 in 2023) in company stock. The scandal destroyed Van Wyck's reputation and dramatically worsened the public standing of Tammany Hall, although a state investigation initiated by Governor Theodore Roosevelt later absolved Van Wyck of personal wrongdoing.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
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Republican | Seth Low | 296,813 | 51.2% | |
Democratic | Edward M. Shepard | 265,177 | 45.8% | |
Social Democratic | Ben Hanford | 9,834 | 1.7% | |
Socialist Labor | Benjamin F. Keinard | 6,213 | 1.1% | |
Prohibition | Alfred L. Manierre | 1,264 | 0.2% | |
Total votes | 579,301 | 100.00% | ||
Republican gain from Democratic |
1901 | Party | The Bronx and Manhattan | Brooklyn | Queens | Richmond [Staten Is.] | Total | % |
Seth Low | Fusion | 162,298 | 114,625 | 13,118 | 6,772 | 296,813 | 51.2% |
49.1% | 55.0% | 47.4% | 51.9% | ||||
Edward M. Shepard | Democratic | 156,631 | 88,858 | 13,679 | 6,009 | 265,177 | 45.8% |
47.4% | 42.7% | 49.4% | 46.1% | ||||
Benjamin Hanford | Social Democratic | 6,409 | 2,692 | 613 | 120 | 9,834 | 1.7% |
Benjamin F. Keinard | Socialist Labor | 4,323 | 1,638 | 181 | 71 | 6,213 | 1.1% |
Alfred L. Manierre | Prohibition | 617 | 501 | 74 | 72 | 1,264 | 0.2% |
TOTAL | 330,278 | 208,314 | 27,665 | 13,044 | 579,301 |