Incumbent mayor John Lindsay was elected in 1965 as a Republican with Liberal Party support. However, Lindsay failed to win a majority of the vote, primarily due to the rise of the Conservative Party, which polled over thirteen percent of the vote behind candidate William F. Buckley Jr. Liberal Party support, which typically went to the Democratic Party nominee, was therefore crucial to Lindsay's win.
Race relations
In summer 1967, New York was one of many American cities rocked by urban riots, with four killed after an off-duty NYPD officer shot and killed a Puerto Rican man, Renaldo Rodriguez, who lunged at him with a knife. In response to the unrest throughout the country, President Lyndon B. Johnson established the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.[2] Lindsay served on the Commission and used it as an opportunity to publicly campaign for urban renewal, visiting riot-damaged sites accompanied by national and local press, and he was influential in its final report.[3]
In April 1968, one month after the report was released, rioting broke out in more than 100 American cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In New York, however, Lindsay was credited with averting a crisis when he traveled personally to the Black-majority neighborhood of Harlem to tell residents that he regretted King's death and was working to end urban poverty.[4] His administration also sponsored the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, at which Lindsay was introduced as "our blue-eyed soul brother."[5]
On February 10, 1969, New York City received 15 inches (38 cm) of snow and in one day alone, 14 people died and 68 were injured.[6] For three days, the city was completely paralyzed; streets, subways, airports, and schools were suspended. Lindsay faced repeated criticism during and after the blizzard that he had prioritized his native borough of Manhattan over the four other boroughs, particularly Queens, which remained unplowed over one week after the storm.[7] The criticism prompted Lindsay to visit Queens but, after his limousine became trapped in Rego Park, he was forced to abandon it in favor of a four-wheel truck and was heckled by local residents.[8]
Ultimately, 42 people died as a result of the snowstorm, half of them in Queens, and 288 were injured.[9] Biographer Vincent J. Cannato attributed Lindsay's failed handling of the snowstorm to a hesitation to exceed his budget and potentially, deliberate sabotage by the city's sanitation workers, who held a grudge against Lindsay for his heavy-handed negotiation tactics during their 1968 strike.[10]
Vito P. Battista, State Assemblyman from Brooklyn and perennial candidate (ran for Controller; endorsed Marchi)
Results
Marchi claimed victory at 12:40 a.m. in a speech claiming that the primary "mark[ed] the beginning of [a] revitalized Republican Party."
In conceding the results, Lindsay proclaimed that they were "not the voice of the Republicans of this city ... not the voice of the Democrats ... not the voice of New York." He pledged to wage a new campaign against "the twin horsemen of doubt and fear" with a "new coalition" in city politics.
John Lindsay, incumbent mayor since 1966 (Liberal and Independent)
John J. Marchi, state senator from Staten Island (Republican and Conservative)
Mario Procaccino, New York City Comptroller (Democratic and Civil Service)
Rasheed Storey (Communist)
Lindsay was also nominated on an independent ticket, while Procaccino received the Civil Service ballot line, and Marchi received the Conservative Party ballot line.
Turnout dropped to 2.4 million from 2.6 million in 1965. (In the same election, Lindsay's 1965 opponent Abe Beame was easily returned to his old job of Comptroller.)[13]
By themselves, the straight Democratic and Republican lines added up to less than 50% of the mayoral vote (1,104,214 or 46.2%), but more than the total vote for Lindsay (1,012,633 or 42.4%).
Procaccino's general election votes on the Democratic line alone (774,708) were slightly fewer than the total votes received by all candidates in the Democratic primary (777,796).
Lindsay's general election votes on the Liberal line alone (872,660) exceeded Procaccino's total votes on all lines (831,772).
Results by borough
Reflecting the three-way split in the race, three candidates garnered double-digit support citywide, and the five boroughs split between the three candidates. Lindsay scored a mayor victory in Manhattan with 67.1% of the vote, while also winning a narrow plurality in Queens with 36.3% of the vote. Procaccino won pluralities by small margins in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Marchi won Staten Island with 62.0% of the vote.
Cannato, Vincent, J. The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York (2001) pp 389–42 excerpt
Klebanoff, Arthur M. "Is There a Jewish Vote." Commentary 49.1 (1970): 43–47.
Lizzi, Maria C. "" My Heart Is as Black as Yours": White Backlash, Racial Identity, and Italian American Stereotypes in New York City's 1969 Mayoral Campaign." Journal of American Ethnic History (2008): 43-80. in JSTOR
Morris, Charles R. The Cost of Good Intentions: New York City and the Liberal Experiment (1980)
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