De Sapio had a dark side, however, including his association with organized crime figures such as Frank Costello. Furthermore, the New York Times reported in its obituary, “He followed the Tammany custom of selling judicial nominations - though he did cut the fee that would-be judges were required to pay. He steered valuable city contracts for streetlights and parking meters to the Broadway Maintenance Corporation, a company that according to the State Investigation Commission cheated taxpayers out of millions of dollars.”
Regrettably, the selection of New York State Supreme Court judges today, with the continued use of a politically corrupt judicial convention giving today’s county leaders unbridled appointing power, is just as reprehensible as when De Sapio employed the same judicial convention to accomplish his control of the judgeships. It should be ended by a citizens’ revolt at the polls.
De Sapio was first toppled from his district leadership position in 1961 as the result of Bob Wagner’s re-election as mayor on an anti-corruption platform. Wagner put together a campaign team of reform-minded workers and aspirants for party and public office, including many who ran throughout the city against De Sapio and his supporters.
The tactic worked and De Sapio was defeated as district leader by James Lannigan, the candidate of the Village Independent Democrats. De Sapio’s electoral loss rendered him ineligible to continue to hold the position of county leader, which was the true source of his power and influence.
De Sapio tried a comeback in 1963, and I became the district leader candidate of the VID. I was chosen because no one else would run. It was considered dangerous to your health to run against the De Sapio organization, although there never had been a physical attack against candidates in the district.
During the campaign, I told Italians in the South Village, “Carmine left you when he moved uptown.” I was referring to the fact that Carmine had moved from the tenement area to lower Fifth Avenue at 8th Street a few blocks away. It was an effective attack, particularly because I had earned the respect of the South Villagers by representing them against developers who were seeking to evict rent-controlled tenants, gut the buildings and turn them into expensive co-ops. About 9,000 people voted in the election. I won by 41 votes.
De Sapio brought a lawsuit claiming my narrow victory was due to fraud. He alleged in the local weekly, The Villager, something like Koch had opened the graves for votes. I was apoplectic. When I met him on a Gabe Pressman show that week, he extended his hand to shake mine, and I said: “No, you can’t call me a crook on Thursday and shake my hand on Friday. What do you think this is, a football game?”
Later, he said to Gabe Pressman at the interview something like, Gabe, Mr. Koch did something so un-American; he wouldn’t shake hands with me before the show. Gabe asked me in the interview if that was true, and I explained why I had acted as I did. The New York Times reported the incident the next day and I looked like a dolt.
In the special election called by the court in 1964, I defeated De Sapio by 164 votes. In the regular primary election held in 1965, when about 11,000 voted, I won by 525 votes. That was Carmine’s last hurrah.
Years later, I was at a lunch meeting attended by De Sapio, who had just been released from prison, where he served time after being convicted of conspiring to bribe James Marcus, the New York City Water Commissioner in the John Lindsay administration. At the opening of the meeting, I walked over to De Sapio, who was seated with me on the dais, and said for all to hear, “Welcome home, Carmine,” and shook his hand. The audience whooped with joy.
I liked Carmine, and one rarely has a good word for an opponent in an election, particularly a primary, which is like a civil war. He was a brilliant politician and, until repudiated by Bob Wagner, a major figure in Wagner’s election victories. Carmine became secretary of state under Gov. Averell Harriman. He was lionized by the cognoscenti before his defeat in 1961.
In seeking the continuing approval of the good government forces, Carmine ultimately caused his own defeat, when he was at his high in 1961, by adopting a reform measure that ended indirect elections of district leaders when the name of the district leader did not appear on the ballot.
Under the old system, three county committeemen were chosen in each election district who, upon election, would choose the district leader. That avoided the requirement of putting the candidate’s name – Carmine De Sapio – on the ballot. Once his name was placed on the ballot in a direct election, his opposition could rally the citizenry against him. And we successfully did.
I’ve been exceedingly lucky in my political career. I became a member of the City Council (1967-68), a member of Congress (1969-77) and a three-term mayor of New York City (1978-89). In truth, I doubt that I would have been elected to all those public offices had I not defeated Carmine De Sapio for the simple party post of district leader.
For me and my political future, it was essential that I win and be seen as a giant killer. So, in a special way, I owe my 23-year career in party and public office to Carmine De Sapio.
104
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.