1969 New York City mayoral election

← 1965 November 4, 1969 1973 →
Registered	3,026,745
Turnout	2,458,203 81.21% (0.39pp)
Candidate John Lindsay Mario Procaccino John J. Marchi Party Liberal Democratic Republican Alliance Civil Service Conservative Popular vote 1,012,633 831,772 542,411 Percentage 42.4% 34.8% 22.7%
Results by Borough   Procaccino—40–50%   Marchi—60–70%   Lindsay—30–40%   Lindsay—60–70%
Mayor before election John Lindsay Republican ElectedMayor John Lindsay Liberal

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The1969 New York City mayoral election occurred on Tuesday, November 4, 1969, with incumbentLiberal Party MayorJohn Lindsay elected to a second term. Lindsay defeated theDemocratic candidate,New York City ComptrollerMario Procaccino, and theRepublican candidate,state senatorJohn Marchi.

Lindsay received 42.36% of the vote to Procaccino's 34.79%, a Liberal victory margin of 7.57%.^[1] Marchi finished a distant third with 22.69%.

In one of the most unusual primary seasons since theconsolidation of greater New York, the incumbent Lindsay and former mayorRobert F. Wagner Jr. lost their respective Republican and Democratic primaries. Lindsay, defeated narrowly by state senatorJohn J. Marchi ofStaten Island for the Republican nomination, gainedballot access to the general election via the Liberal Party, which hadco-nominated himin 1965. Procaccino won the Democratic primary by less than 33% of the vote against four other candidates: Wagner, Bronx Borough PresidentHerman Badillo, CongressmanJames H. Scheuer, and authorNorman Mailer, who ran on a platformproposing secession from the state of New York. In his criticism of Lindsay, Procaccino coined the term “limousine liberal,” a political epithet for the “repellent hypocrisy of elites” who promoted social reforms and tolerated disorder while remaining untouched by its fallout thanks to their wealth, according to historian Steve Fraser.^[2]

This is one of two mayoral elections where the winning candidate carried a minority of the boroughs, the other being the2001 election. This is also one of two mayoral elections where the winning candidate was not on the Democratic or Republican ballot line, the other being the1950 election.

Incumbent mayor John Lindsay was elected in1965 as a Republican with Liberal Party support. However, Lindsay failed to win a majority of the vote, primarily due to the rise of theConservative Party, which polled over thirteen percent of the vote behind candidateWilliam F. Buckley Jr. Liberal Party support, which typically went to the Democratic Party nominee, was therefore crucial to Lindsay's win.

In summer 1967, New York was one of many American cities rocked by urban riots, with four killed after an off-duty NYPD officer shot and killed a Puerto Rican man, Renaldo Rodriguez, who lunged at him with a knife. In response to the unrest throughout the country, President Lyndon B. Johnson established theNational Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.^[3] Lindsay served on the Commission and used it as an opportunity to publicly campaign for urban renewal, visiting riot-damaged sites accompanied by national and local press, and he was influential in its final report.^[4]

In April 1968, one month after the report was released,rioting broke out in more than 100 American cities following theassassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In New York, however, Lindsay was credited with averting a crisis when he traveled personally to the Black-majority neighborhood ofHarlem to tell residents that he regretted King's death and was working to end urban poverty.^[5] His administration also sponsored the 1969Harlem Cultural Festival, at which Lindsay was introduced as "our blue-eyed soul brother."^[6]

On February 10, 1969, New York City received 15 inches (38 cm) of snow and in one day alone, 14 people died and 68 were injured.^[7] For three days, the city was completely paralyzed; streets, subways, airports, and schools were suspended. Lindsay faced repeated criticism during and after the blizzard that he had prioritized his native borough of Manhattan over the four other boroughs, particularly Queens, which remained unplowed over one week after the storm.^[8] The criticism prompted Lindsay to visit Queens but, after his limousine became trapped inRego Park, he was forced to abandon it in favor of a four-wheel truck and was heckled by local residents.^[9]

Ultimately, 42 people died as a result of the snowstorm, half of them in Queens, and 288 were injured.^[10] Biographer Vincent J. Cannato attributed Lindsay's failed handling of the snowstorm to a hesitation to exceed his budget and potentially, deliberate sabotage by the city's sanitation workers, who held a grudge against Lindsay for his heavy-handed negotiation tactics during their 1968 strike.^[11]

• John Lindsay, incumbent mayor since 1966
• John J. Marchi, state senator from Staten Island

• Vito P. Battista, State Assemblyman from Brooklyn and perennial candidate (ran for Controller; endorsed Marchi)

Marchi claimed victory at 12:40 a.m. in a speech claiming that the primary "mark[ed] the beginning of [a] revitalized Republican Party."

In conceding the results, Lindsay proclaimed that they were "not the voice of the Republicans of this city ... not the voice of the Democrats ... not the voice of New York." He pledged to wage a new campaign against "the twin horsemen of doubt and fear" with a "new coalition" in city politics.

• Herman Badillo,Bronx Borough President
• Norman Mailer, author
• Mario Procaccino,New York City Comptroller
• James H. Scheuer, U.S. Representative from the Bronx
• Robert F. Wagner Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Spain and former mayor of New York City (1954–65)

• Vincent L. Broderick, former New York Police Commissioner and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York^[12]
• Hugh Carey, U.S. Representative from Brooklyn (ran for City Council President; endorsed Wagner)
• Norman Frank, public relations advisor to thePatrolmen's Benevolent Association (endorsed Procaccino)
• Robert A. Low, member of the City Council (ran for City Council President; endorsed Carey)
• John M. Murphy, U.S. Representative from Staten Island
• Paul R. Screvane, former President of the City Council (endorsed Wagner)

• John Lindsay, incumbent mayor since 1966 (Liberal and Independent)
• John J. Marchi, state senator from Staten Island (Republican and Conservative)
• Mario Procaccino, New York City Comptroller (Democratic and Civil Service)
• Rasheed Storey (Communist)

Lindsay was also nominated on an independent ticket, while Procaccino received the Civil Service ballot line, and Marchi received theConservative Party ballot line.

During the campaign, Lindsay made a conscious effort to appeal toJewish New Yorkers through symbolic gestures. In late September, he gave an extraordinary reception toPrime Minister of IsraelGolda Meir in asukkah, emphasizing his support for theState of Israel in theArab–Israeli conflict.^[13]

Turnout dropped to 2.4 million from 2.6 million in 1965. (In the same election, Lindsay's 1965 opponentAbe Beame was easily returned to his old job of Comptroller.)^[14]

1969 New York City mayoral election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Lindsay (incumbent)	872,660	36.50%	25.5
	Independent	John Lindsay (incumbent)	139,973	5.85%
	Total	John Lindsay (incumbent)	1,012,633	42.35%	2.6
	Democratic	Mario Procaccino	774,708	32.40%	6.1
	Civil Service	Mario Procaccino	57,064	2.39%	0.1
	Total	Mario Procaccino	831,772	34.79%	6.2
	Republican	John J. Marchi	329,506	13.78%
	Conservative	John J. Marchi	212,905	8.91%	5.5
	Total	John J. Marchi	542,411	22.69%	N/A
	Communist	Rasheed Storey	4,018	0.17%	N/A
Total votes			2,390,834	100.00%

• By themselves, the straight Democratic and Republican lines added up to less than 50% of the mayoral vote (1,104,214 or 46.2%), but more than the total vote for Lindsay (1,012,633 or 42.4%).
• Procaccino's general election votes on the Democratic line alone (774,708) were slightly fewer than the total votes received by all candidates in the Democratic primary (777,796).
• Lindsay's general election votes on the Liberal line alone (872,660) exceeded Procaccino's total votes on all lines (831,772).

Reflecting the three-way split in the race, three candidates garnered double-digit support citywide, and the five boroughs split between the three candidates. Lindsay scored a major victory inManhattan with 67.1% of the vote, while also winning a narrow plurality inQueens with 36.3% of the vote. Procaccino won pluralities by small margins inBrooklyn and theBronx. Marchi won Staten Island with 62.0% of the vote.

• Cannato, Vincent, J.The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York (2001) pp 389–42excerpt
• Klebanoff, Arthur M. "Is There a Jewish Vote."Commentary 49.1 (1970): 43–47.
• Lizzi, Maria C. "" My Heart Is as Black as Yours": White Backlash, Racial Identity, and Italian American Stereotypes in New York City's 1969 Mayoral Campaign."Journal of American Ethnic History (2008): 43-80.in JSTOR
• Morris, Charles R.The Cost of Good Intentions: New York City and the Liberal Experiment (1980)
• Taffet, Jeffrey F. (2013)."The Snubs and the 'Sukkah': John Lindsay and Jewish Voters in New York City".American Jewish History.97 (4):413–438.doi:10.1353/ajh.2013.0035.

• 1969 in New York City
• Mayoral elections in New York City
• 1969 New York (state) elections
• 1969 United States mayoral elections

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