The New York City mayoral election of 1977 occurred on Tuesday, November 8, 1977. U.S. Representative Ed Koch defeated Secretary of State Mario Cuomo in both the Democratic Party primary and the general election, with Cuomo running on the Liberal Party ticket.
In the Democratic primary on September 8, incumbentmayorAbraham Beame was challenged by five other Democrats, including RepresentativeEd Koch, New York Secretary of StateMario Cuomo, and feminist activist and former Representative Bella Abzug. In the initial primary, Koch won a narrow victory over the field despite carrying none of New York's five boroughs and only 19.8% of the popular vote. Because no candidate received over forty percent of the vote, a runoff vote was held between Koch and Cuomo, who had already won the Liberal Party nomination. Koch defeated Cuomo by winning narrow victories in every borough but Staten Island.
In the general election, which Cuomo decided to contest on the Liberal ticket, Koch was again victorious, coming within a few hundred votes of an outright majority. Republican Roy M. Goodman and Conservative Barry Farber finished a distant third and fourth, respectively.
Background
In October 1975, with the city on the verge of bankruptcy, Mayor Beame asked the federal government for a bailout. PresidentGerald Ford refused, leading to the memorable New York Daily News headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead". As a result, Mayor Beame laid off many police officers and other city employees, which was followed by an increase in crime. (The next month, Ford relented in part, signing the New York City Seasonal Financing Act of 1975, which extended $2.3 billion in federal loans to the city for three years.[1])
A 982-page report from the Securities and Exchange Commission blamed Beame's mismanagement for the city's financial mess, which his opponents seized on as an electoral issue.[2] Beame's struggles with the economy and crime, which had led to a decrease in the population of New York City, encouraged several Democrats to challenge him.
Liberal Party convention
The Liberal Party convention was held on May 19, 1977. Cuomo defeated Abzug for the nomination.
Ed Koch, a Jewish politician from Greenwich Village, began his career as "just a plain liberal,"[4] but shifted rightward, towards being a "liberal with sanity".[5]
Campaign
Koch ran to the right of the other candidates, on a "law and order" platform. A major blackout affected New York City from July 13, 1977 to July 14, 1977. The blackout was localized to New York City and the immediate surroundings, and resulted in citywide looting. According to historian Jonathan Mahler, the blackout and the subsequent rioting helped catapult Koch and his message of restoring public safety to front-runner status.[6] Mayor Beame accused Con Edison, the power provider for New York City, of "gross negligence". Koch criticized Beame for losing control of the streets and failing to ask Governor Carey to call in the National Guard.[7][8]
As no candidate obtained the needed 40%, a runoff election was scheduled. The runoff election was held on September 19, 1977 between the top two vote getters, Koch and Cuomo.
Though Koch won the runoff convincingly, Cuomo remained in the race as the Liberal Party nominee.
Though Governor Carey had persuaded Cuomo to run for mayor in the first place, he threw his support to Koch and urged Cuomo to stand down for the sake of party unity. Cuomo refused.
While Koch had a reputation as a crusading reformer, that summer he quietly promised plum city jobs to the political powerbrokers in the boroughs in exchange for their support.[2] Cuomo ran on banning the death penalty, which backfired with New Yorkers during a time of high crime rates. Cuomo then went negative with ads that likened Koch to unpopular former mayor John Lindsay. His supporters used the inflammatory slogan "Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo".[2] Meanwhile, Koch backers accused Cuomo of anti-Semitism and pelted Cuomo campaign cars with eggs.[2]
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