Thursday, January 14, 2010
Outlier politics: Michael Bloomberg, Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, Barry Farber
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
In statistics, an "outlier" is a data point or sample that lies outside of the expected range of possibilities. In politics, the most positive development of the 00’s was the Presidential campaign of 2008, where not one but two "outlier" candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, rose to a never expected apex: a presidential primary between a black man and a woman. Good for America, defying our own expectations in this wonderful way.
In NYC politics, our own "outlier" Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, used a jaw-dropping $102 million to get the City Council to override the term limits law (for his benefit and their own) and then to made good on this bid by winning re-election. Why, at 67, does he want yet another term, to deal with a $4.1 dollar city deficit (in a $60 billion budget), a 10 percent unemployment rate, a heavy load of home foreclosures, protested budget cuts in school, park, child care support and payroll areas, and a push for a comprehensive immigration policy? Clearly the man is a total Action Jackson, with a mission to save us, and the self-confidence of aprophet, either a Robert Moses or maybe the biblical Moses. Well, there will be pain in the short term, but I’ll bet on him to keep us afloat, as he is not afraid to try new things.
These unusual political times reminded me of the unsuccessful "outlier" Mayoral candidates of our more innocent and fun political days, Mailer, Buckley and Farber.
Starting chronologically, William F. Buckley Jr., author of Man and God at Yale had used his great charisma and moneyed background to start a successful Conservative journal, National Review, which grew to be respected even by the anti-Communist Liberals at The New Leader (some to turn neocon later). Buckley decided to run in 1965 on the new "Conservative" line. He gained 341K votes, a reputable 14%, behind John V. Lindsay and Abraham D. Beame. Point made, he left elected politics to his brother James L. Buckley, NY's only Conservative Senator , 1971-79 (more anon).
Early in 1969, much encouraged, five Democrats entered the pre-Primary campaign, including eminent author Norman Mailer, with journalist Jimmy Breslin as City Council President-to-be. Mailer was the mover, with Gloria Steinem and Peter Maas of New York Magazine, and Jack Newfield from Village Voice, plus some Eugene McCarthy losers from the Chicago massacre that passed for the 1968 Democratic Presidential primary, as the collaborators in what many local literati thought would be a hoax. There was an on-the-fly program conjured by Mailer, with separating NYC as 51st state, shift of political power to localities, a collaboration of the Left and Right to get the rascals out (usually expressed with eloquent profanity), and general cleanup as the main points. Mailer, the Harvard man, carried the upbeat fantasy, and Breslin spoke for Brooklyn and his cop-firemen-poor people highschool graduating class, and together they had an act that played well in colleges, old folks homes and some Dem clubs on candidates’ nights. Around May Mailer had to declare candidacy, and organize seriously, to get the 5,000 signatures on petitions, and collect some donations, for staff pay. Alas, money was tight, and Mailer, with a movie contract, paid a staff of six, laying out $175 to $50 per week each. But voter recognition was not easy to get, and some 9,000 signatures brought Mailer 41,136 votes, second-worst in a field of Comptroller Mario Procaccino, Robert F. Wagner (a comeback), Bronx Borough President Herman Badillo , Mailer and Congressman James H. Scheuer, while Breslin’ 75,480, beat then Assemblyman Charles Rangel by a few. John J. Marchi beat Lindsay in the Republican primary, but Lindsay won, running as a Liberal.
Working with the Murray Hill Reform Democratic Club which liked Badillo, known as the “tallest Puerto-Rican in the world,” I would occasionally drop in on the Mailers and collect their position papers as literary souvenirs, although they did not have the insane poignancy of the Mailer-Breslin repertoire. Fortunately, some of it is preserved in Managing Mailer (1970), by the late Village Voice reporter Joe Flaherty, their amiable campaign manager, who was rumored to have taken the job for book material, but became a convert.
In 1973 Abraham J. Beame became Mayor (we the Murrays backed Badillo), against a poor field of Marchi, Albert H. Blumenthal and Mario Biaggi, and two years later ran into the biggest fiscal crisis ever and relinquished governance to the Municipal Assistance Corporation and an emergency financial control board. The Daily News headline “Ford to New York: Drop Dead” reflected Republican Washington’s attitude. Consequently, in 1977 Beame had six democratic contenders in the primary (we the Murrays backed our Congressman Edward I. Koch against Badillo, Bella Abzug, Percy Sutton, Mario Cuomo and Beame). On the Conservative/Republican side, all-night talk show host Barry Farber, who speaks 15 to 30 languages, with the charming Southern intonation reserved for his English, bucked the perennial Congressman Roy Goodman, with a program of fiscal control and law and order. His campaign advisor, Charles W. Wiley, added the necessary strident tone to the campaign, and Barry won over 30,000 votes, nearly 40% of the Republican tally. Koch won, and we the Murrays closed shop (another story).
In statistics, an "outlier" is a data point or sample that lies outside of the expected range of possibilities. In politics, the most positive development of the 00’s was the Presidential campaign of 2008, where not one but two "outlier" candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, rose to a never expected apex: a presidential primary between a black man and a woman. Good for America, defying our own expectations in this wonderful way.
In NYC politics, our own "outlier" Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, used a jaw-dropping $102 million to get the City Council to override the term limits law (for his benefit and their own) and then to made good on this bid by winning re-election. Why, at 67, does he want yet another term, to deal with a $4.1 dollar city deficit (in a $60 billion budget), a 10 percent unemployment rate, a heavy load of home foreclosures, protested budget cuts in school, park, child care support and payroll areas, and a push for a comprehensive immigration policy? Clearly the man is a total Action Jackson, with a mission to save us, and the self-confidence of aprophet, either a Robert Moses or maybe the biblical Moses. Well, there will be pain in the short term, but I’ll bet on him to keep us afloat, as he is not afraid to try new things.
These unusual political times reminded me of the unsuccessful "outlier" Mayoral candidates of our more innocent and fun political days, Mailer, Buckley and Farber.
Starting chronologically, William F. Buckley Jr., author of Man and God at Yale had used his great charisma and moneyed background to start a successful Conservative journal, National Review, which grew to be respected even by the anti-Communist Liberals at The New Leader (some to turn neocon later). Buckley decided to run in 1965 on the new "Conservative" line. He gained 341K votes, a reputable 14%, behind John V. Lindsay and Abraham D. Beame. Point made, he left elected politics to his brother James L. Buckley, NY's only Conservative Senator , 1971-79 (more anon).
Early in 1969, much encouraged, five Democrats entered the pre-Primary campaign, including eminent author Norman Mailer, with journalist Jimmy Breslin as City Council President-to-be. Mailer was the mover, with Gloria Steinem and Peter Maas of New York Magazine, and Jack Newfield from Village Voice, plus some Eugene McCarthy losers from the Chicago massacre that passed for the 1968 Democratic Presidential primary, as the collaborators in what many local literati thought would be a hoax. There was an on-the-fly program conjured by Mailer, with separating NYC as 51st state, shift of political power to localities, a collaboration of the Left and Right to get the rascals out (usually expressed with eloquent profanity), and general cleanup as the main points. Mailer, the Harvard man, carried the upbeat fantasy, and Breslin spoke for Brooklyn and his cop-firemen-poor people highschool graduating class, and together they had an act that played well in colleges, old folks homes and some Dem clubs on candidates’ nights. Around May Mailer had to declare candidacy, and organize seriously, to get the 5,000 signatures on petitions, and collect some donations, for staff pay. Alas, money was tight, and Mailer, with a movie contract, paid a staff of six, laying out $175 to $50 per week each. But voter recognition was not easy to get, and some 9,000 signatures brought Mailer 41,136 votes, second-worst in a field of Comptroller Mario Procaccino, Robert F. Wagner (a comeback), Bronx Borough President Herman Badillo , Mailer and Congressman James H. Scheuer, while Breslin’ 75,480, beat then Assemblyman Charles Rangel by a few. John J. Marchi beat Lindsay in the Republican primary, but Lindsay won, running as a Liberal.
Working with the Murray Hill Reform Democratic Club which liked Badillo, known as the “tallest Puerto-Rican in the world,” I would occasionally drop in on the Mailers and collect their position papers as literary souvenirs, although they did not have the insane poignancy of the Mailer-Breslin repertoire. Fortunately, some of it is preserved in Managing Mailer (1970), by the late Village Voice reporter Joe Flaherty, their amiable campaign manager, who was rumored to have taken the job for book material, but became a convert.
In 1973 Abraham J. Beame became Mayor (we the Murrays backed Badillo), against a poor field of Marchi, Albert H. Blumenthal and Mario Biaggi, and two years later ran into the biggest fiscal crisis ever and relinquished governance to the Municipal Assistance Corporation and an emergency financial control board. The Daily News headline “Ford to New York: Drop Dead” reflected Republican Washington’s attitude. Consequently, in 1977 Beame had six democratic contenders in the primary (we the Murrays backed our Congressman Edward I. Koch against Badillo, Bella Abzug, Percy Sutton, Mario Cuomo and Beame). On the Conservative/Republican side, all-night talk show host Barry Farber, who speaks 15 to 30 languages, with the charming Southern intonation reserved for his English, bucked the perennial Congressman Roy Goodman, with a program of fiscal control and law and order. His campaign advisor, Charles W. Wiley, added the necessary strident tone to the campaign, and Barry won over 30,000 votes, nearly 40% of the Republican tally. Koch won, and we the Murrays closed shop (another story).
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 2:33 AM 
