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The New York Municipal Election
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Extract
One of the most persistent legends in American politics is that municipal machines cannot be defeated. Yet time and again they have been split from the inside, successfully overthrown by opposition organizations, and overwhelmed by the joint action of rival political, civic, and protest groups. On many occasions the political machine of New York City has been checked, chastened, and disrupted. On November 7, the allied forces of Fusion administered a crushing defeat to the Tammany and Bronx factions of the Democratic machine in New York City. At the same time, the organized non-partisan masses in Philadelphia administered to the Republican machine there its first defeat in fifty years; while in Pittsburgh the Mellon machine succumbed to attack from the same elements. In scores of other cities the citizens rose in arms against the machines.
- Type
- American Government and Politics
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1933
References
1 The writer would define an “organization” as a group of partisans united by the customary social, psychological, and economic forces. Only when an “organization” controls the government of its jurisdiction is it a “machine,” and then only if it uses the agencies of government for its own ends rather than for those of the people.
2 An incident of the primaries was the elimination of Samuel S. Koenig from the leadership of the New York county organization. His place was assumed by Chase Mellen, and new leaders were installed in certain districts. A reunited and reinvigorated Republican party met in convention and pledged its support to LaGuardia and Fusion. Thenceforth it moved into the background and loyally championed the Fusion cause.
3 See the writer's analyses of voting trends and potentials in the New York Herald-Tribune, September 3 and October 29, 1933.
4 See complete statements in the New York Times, November 5, 1933, and the New York Evening Post, November 4, 1933.
5 See the candidate's statements in the New York Times, October 15, November 12, 1932.
6 Such stratagems, misnamed “issues,” as appeals to nationality, class, and religious prejudices entered this campaign as they have entered all others in New York City for one hundred and fifty years. The tickets of all parties were constructed with the aim of attracting the Jewish, Catholic, and Italian votes. Tammany prepared a charge of “anti-Semitism” to hurl at McKee in the closing hours of the campaign. LaGuardia anticipated this attack and used it himself; McKee bungled his answer and lost thousands of votes thereby. Meanwhile, he had himself attempted to array the “classes” of decent, honest, and substantial citizens against the “masses” who were arrayed with the irrepressible LaGuardia, an expedient generally unfortunate in urban politics and certainly doomed to failure in time of economic depression.
7 Pecora (Recovery candidate, Italian) was opposed because the Italians recognized his candidacy as a thrust at LaGuardia.
8 He has promised to effect economies, but the heaviest charge of all is interest, even under the new bankers' agreement.