NY Observer > Fiorello LaGuardia

Mercurio's Landslide Benchmarks

Observer Staff — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 04:26:00 -0500

Political Consultant Joe Mercurio emailed around a bit of research on past blowouts in Mayoral elections. Turns out John Purroy Mitchell is the man to beat, if you forgive him for running before women got the vote.

Mercurio writes:

For Mayor Mike Bloomberg to set the record for biggest modern Republican win in a New York City mayor race, he has to beat the Rudy Giuliani v Ruth Messinger contest in 1997, when Mayor Giuliani (R-L) received 783,815 and Messinger (D) 549,335 for a spread of 234,480 votes, 17.3% out of 1,353,770 votes cast. (Note: most mayor elections have more than the two main contenders.)

To top that election, you have to go all the way back to 1937 when Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia (R), in his second race, romped Jeremiah T. Mahoney (D) 1,344,630 to 890,756 for a huge 453,874 vote spread, fully 19.7% out of 2,300,220 votes cast. (Note: LaGuardia received more votes than Giuliani and Messinger combined; and the spread was just under the total turnout for this year's Democratic Primary.)

If you go back to the 1913 election, there is a larger spread in percent, but the city had a much smaller voting population. Democrat John Purroy Mitchel won on the Fusion line with 358,217 votes to 233,919 for Edward E. McCall on the Democratic line. A spread of 124,298 votes, 19.8% out of 627,127 votes cast. (Note: women did not get the vote until 1920, and the city's population in the 1910 census was only 4,766,883 people.)

Since women had the vote, the lowest turnout in a mayoral General Election was Edward I. Koch's (D) third term win against Carol Bellamy (L) and Diane McGrath (R) with 1,106,762 votes cast; and the highest turnout was John V. Lindsay's (R-L) defeat of Abraham D. Beame (D) (later elected mayor in 1973) with 2,652,451 votes cast.

NOTE: This version includes a correction to the Beame reference.

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The People's Coffee-Table Book

Observer Staff — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:41:00 -0400

Just in time for election day, Rizzoli is publishing the "first-ever tribute to Gracie Mansion."

Ironically, Mayor Bloomberg--who famously chose to reside in his five-story, Beaux Arts townhouse on 72nd Street instead of at the mayoral mansion--wrote the book's foreword. Indeed, the 206-year old mansion has a rich history beyond housing the city's mayors; that practice only began in 1942 with Fiorello LaGuardia.

Since Mr. Bloomberg dubbed it the "People's House," Gracie Mansion has served as a prime spot for visiting dignitaries, summer barbecues, and numerous receptions. In this picture, he's squeezing buns at the August 3rd People's Barbecue. Wait--sorry. That was an invite-only reception for movie and television stars (including Victoria Gotti and Susan Lucci).

With expanded access to family quarters, tourism shot up almost percent in the past year. Tourists can now gawk at the beautifully restored interior or search for Donna Hanover's exercise machine that woke Rudy up early in the morning.

However, The Real Estate imagines that if someone else is given the chance to occupy the mansion come November, those upstairs bedrooms will be sealed off once again. - Michael Calderone

Our Finest Hour

NYO Staff — Sun, 23 Sep 2001 20:00:00 -0400

Until now, New Yorkers didn't realize what it takes to be Mayor of this great city. read more »