Mario Procaccino | |
|---|---|
 Procaccino, 1970-1980 | |
| New York City Comptroller | |
| In office January 1, 1966 – December 31, 1969 | |
| Mayor | John Lindsay |
| Preceded by | Abraham Beame |
| Succeeded by | Abraham Beame |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mario Angelo Procaccino (1912-09-05)September 5, 1912 Bisaccia, Avellino, Italy |
| Died | December 20, 1995(1995-12-20) (aged 83) Bronx, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
Mario Angelo Procaccino (September 5, 1912 – December 20, 1995) was an Italian-Americanlawyer,comptroller, and candidate forMayor of New York City.[1]
Procaccino was born inBisaccia,Italy. When he was nine years old, his family immigrated to theUnited States. He graduated fromDeWitt Clinton High School in theBronx in 1931. Despite family poverty, he attendedCity College of New York andFordham Law School, becoming a lawyer later in the 1930s. In the early 1940s, MayorFiorello La Guardia heard him address awar-bond rally in Italian, and seeing how excited the crowd was, told him he should be in politics and arranged for an appointment to a $3,500-a-year post with the city's legal department.[1] When La Guardia's administration ended, Procaccino became a party worker forTammany Hall and was eventually given a minor judgeship. In 1965, the New YorkDemocrats supported Procaccino, a candidate from theBronx of Italian ethnicity, for comptroller, along with aJewish mayoral candidate,Abe Beame ofBrooklyn, and anIrish-American fromQueens,Frank O'Connor, for city council president. Procaccino and O'Connor were elected, but Beame was defeated by theRepublican andLiberal Party of New York joint nominee,John V. Lindsay, a member of theUnited States House of Representatives and a then ally of fellow New York liberal RepublicansGovernorNelson A. Rockefeller andUnited States SenatorJacob K. Javits.
In 1969 Procaccino won the Democratic primary for mayor with 32.8 percent of the vote in a five-man contest, having defeated, among others, former MayorRobert Wagner, Jr.,liberalnovelistNorman Mailer, and Bronx Borough PresidentHerman Badillo, who later defected to theGOP. After briefly having a large lead in the general election race (a poll in June showed him leadingLiberal Party nomineeLindsay by fourteen points) the mostlyconservative Democrat soon lost public support, probably because he was unable to supplement hislaw and order campaign rhetoric. His campaign was, according to journalistRichard Reeves, "the worst political campaign in American history." According to Reeves, Procaccino "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory," and made some notable verbal gaffes while on the campaign trail. When speaking before an African-American audience, Procaccino made a gaffe by saying, "My heart is as black as yours." He also said that his running mate, Frank O'Connor, "grows on you like a cancer."[1]Not helping matters any was the common permutation of his surname in the Hispanic community as Pro-Cochinos—in favor of pigs, a common nickname for police at the time. He also struggled with other ethnic communities, and often ran ads proclaiming himself as a voice of "Law and Order", comments which were often seen as dog-whistles by African American groups, leading them to often vote for Lindsay in much greater numbers than any Democratic ticket had struggled with before. He also split the conservative vote with his second opponent who defeated Lindsay in the Republican primary,John J. Marchi.[2]
Procaccino lost the mayoralty to Lindsay in athree-way race. The vote was very divided, with Lindsay (Liberal) winning 42 percent, Procaccino (Democrat) 36 percent, andJohn Marchi (Republican), a member of theNew York State Senate, 22 percent. Procaccino narrowly carried the Bronx andBrooklyn, with Lindsay takingManhattan andQueens, and Marchi took his nativeStaten Island. Following the election, Procaccino worked as Tax Commissioner for Governor Rockefeller and later returned to private practice.[1]
His campaign had several lasting effects on national and New York politics. One was his coining of the term "limousine liberal" to characterize John Lindsay, which has become a part of the American political lexicon. The second effect was a change of New York City's election law. As a result of Procaccino's slender plurality in the Democratic primary, the law was changed so that if no candidate carries at least 40 percent of the vote, arunoff election must be held.[1]
Procaccino was living outside the city, inHarrison, New York,Westchester County, at the time of his death, but died in the Bronx, where he had lived most of his life.[1]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | New York City Comptroller 1966–1969 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic Nominee for Mayor of New York City 1969 | Succeeded by |
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