November 2, 1965, 60 years ago: John Vliet Lindsay, a liberal Republican Congressman, is elected Mayor of New York City. He defeats the Democratic nominee, City Comptroller Abraham D. Beame.
A few days short of his 43rd birthday at the time of his election, he had served in World War II, in battles in both the European and the Pacific Theaters of Operations, rising to the rank of 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. In 1958, he was elected to Congress, representing the East Side of Manhattan, the district nicknamed the Perfumed Stockade, and re-elected in 1960, '62 and '64.
He was handsome and well-spoken, and, up to this point, people found him eminently likable. His basic decency allowed him to connect with liberals, moderates and minorities. However, he was elected as a plurality Mayor in a 3-way race. He got the nominations of the Republican and Liberal Parties, and got 45 percent of the vote. Democratic nominee Beame got 41 percent.
William F. Buckley Jr., publisher of National Review magazine and founder of the Conservative Party of the State of New York, got 13 percent, despite the fact that he didn't even live in the City, said he didn't want to. He even said he didn't want the job: He just wanted to make a point that conservatives should have a choice between Democrats and liberal Republicans.
Lindsay would proclaim, "New York is a fun city." and was lampooned as "Mayor Linseed" on the Batman TV series that soon premiered. (The equivalent to Governor Nelson Rockefeller would be "Governor Stonefellow.") But Fun City would not respond well to him: The day of his Inauguration, January 1, 1966, was the day the Transport Workers Union's contract ran out, and the Subway employees went on strike. After 11 days, Lindsay caved in to the union, and his support never recovered.
Seeming to have pandered to civil rights groups and the antiwar movement, and responding too slowly to a blizzard early in 1969, his own party dumped him for re-election that year. But he secured the Liberal Party's nomination in New York State's odd four-party structure, and rode the "miracles" of the Mets and Jets to victory.
But his 2nd term was even more troubling than his 1st, as the City spiraled downward in crime and corruption that, try as he might, he couldn't stop. I've often thought that Lindsay and Rockefeller, also a liberal Republican, should have switched jobs: Rocky could have governed what University of Massachusetts historian Vincent J. Cannato, writing in 2002 about about Lindsay's terms, titled The Ungovernable City; while Lindsay would have been better off in Albany.
But many people thought Lindsay was merely using the Mayoralty as a stepping-stone for the Presidency -- a charge also leveled at Rockefeller. In the end, neither ever came close to it. Indeed, dumped by the Republicans, Lindsay ran in the Democratic Primaries in 1972, and was laughed out of the race. My mother, a City native, likes to say that she knew Lindsay was really a Democrat before he did.
Lindsay did not dare run for a 3rd term in 1973. Having regained the Comptroller's post in 1969, Abe Beame ran for Mayor again, and was elected. But things got even worse, and he wouldn't even get nominated for a 2nd term. Lindsay was ill for a long time, lost his fortune due to his medical bills, and died at age 79 at the end of 2000. Beame died a few days later, at 94, also a tragic figure.
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