Eric Adams is trying to become the first ex-cop to lead New York City since William O’Dwyer, as our Sally Goldenberg has pointed out,
Of course, Adams is hoping that a victory this year will lead to a slightly better outcome.
O’Dwyer was a charismatic son of County Mayo and the older brother of the more famous Paul O’Dwyer, a noted civil rights lawyer and unabashed liberal who served a term as New York City Council President during the fiscal crisis years of the mid-1970s.
The elder O’Dwyer brother worked his way up from steerage, literally, landing on Ellis Island in 1910 and soon joining the New York City Police Department, which had more than a few officers from his native country.
One incident during his years on the beat remained with him until his death, in 1964. While O’Dwyer was on patrol in Brooklyn one night in 1918, a frightened young boy told him that his father was trying to kill his mother. O’Dwyer rushed to the family’s apartment. The father swung around to face O’Dwyer with a pistol in his hand. O’Dwyer opened fire, killing the father.
The episode shook him, and O’Dwyer personally paid for the young boy’s expenses until he was an adult, when O’Dwyer found him a job in the department.
He studied law at night at Fordham Law School and eventually left the department to become a judge and then Brooklyn district attorney, where he made a name for himself for his prosecution of Murder Inc., a group of notorious gangsters. Another ambitious prosecutor across the East River, Thomas Dewey, was performing a similar service, leading to his election as governor in 1942.
O’Dwyer took a leave from his post as DA to join the Army during World War II, rising to become a brigadier general. He could hardly have been a more perfect candidate for mayor in 1945: Immigrant success story; crime-busting prosecutor; war hero. He won in a landslide, succeeding Fiorello LaGuardia, and was re-elected with similar ease in 1949.
But his second term didn’t last long. O’Dwyer, already in less-than-robust health because of heart ailments, quit abruptly in late 1950. Weeks later, prosecutors in Brooklyn announced a probe into a bookie who‘d allegedly paid out bribes to police officers, including several who were close to O’Dwyer. The bookie intimated that some of the money went to O’Dwyer. President Harry Truman named him ambassador to Mexico — O’Dwyer was fluent in Spanish — thus delivering him outside the jurisdiction of the United States. But scandals continued to dog him for years.
No mayor has resigned since O’Dwyer, and his once-uplifting story has been overshadowed by its less-than-inspiring end. He once summed up how the burdens of the mayor’s office could at times overwhelm him.
“You would look out over the city from some place high above it,” he said, “and you would say to yourself, ’Good Jesus, it’s too much for me!’”
IT’S THURSDAY, APRIL 22: Welcome to PM Playbook, an afternoon check-in to spill the day’s tea — as we know it thus far — during one of the busiest seasons in New York politics. It’s the email version of the sweet caffeine that carries your brain from lunch to dinner. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to [email protected] in Albany and [email protected] in NYC or send a shout on Twitter.
“ADVOCATES and lawmakers who backed a measure that would require safety protocols in the workplace to prevent the spread of COVID-19 urged Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday to give it final approval once it reaches his desk. ‘As a nurse, I know how hard this last year has been for those working on the frontlines of the pandemic — worried about their health, the health of those around them and whether their work environment was a safe one,’ said Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, the measure’s sponsor in the state Assembly. ‘We need to ensure that corporations, who have made billions during this pandemic provide adequate protections to their employees and frontline workers.’ The bill, known as the NY Hero Act, would lay down a minimum set of safety standards and protocols for New York workplaces, such as access to personal protective equipment as well as breaks for hand washing.” State of Politics’ Nick Reisman
SCOTT STRINGER picked up the endorsement of the Stonewall Democrats of NYC, a prominent LGBT rights organization. Stringer tweeted that he was honored to receive the nod, the latest in a string of supportive announcements as the current city comptroller presses ahead in recent polls. “We’ve been in the trenches together for decades to advance equality for all New Yorkers — now let’s continue the fight for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers and work to build a city for everyone,” Stringer tweeted today.
— Stringer also picked up a nod from Ruth Messinger, New York City’s first female Democratic nominee for mayor.
— “As the mayoral campaign has come into focus, it’s become more obvious with each passing week that the climate candidate — the guy with the plan, the commitment and the chops to help protect the city from its one existential challenge — is Scott Stringer,” Bill McKibben, one of the country’s best-known environmental advocates, writes in today’s Daily News. Stringer has locked up significant support from the environmental community both for his work in divesting the city’s pension funds from fossil fuels, as well as his detailed climate plan.
DIANNE MORALES and Stringer were co-endorsed today by the Sunrise Movement NYC, which called both “transformative progressive candidates” who have pledged to work to enact a Green New Deal in New York City. At an event in Lower Manhattan, co-political director Grace Cuddihy praised both candidates’ climate proposals and records, citing Morales’ “green jobs, green food and green justice” plan, and Stringer’s record divesting the city’s pension funds from fossil fuels. Stringer said at the press conference, “A lot of people have climate agendas, but you stepped up to say that two candidates have agendas that can get things done, and that’s going to be a big deal in this campaign.” The group also announced its endorsement of Brad Lander in the comptroller’s race. — Janaki Chadha
ANDREW YANG is facing some blowback after comments made during an LGBTQ+ mayoral forum that some are criticizing as out of touch and insensitive. Yang appeared at the Stonewall Democrats of NYC, the city’s largest Demoractic LGBTQ+ political club, saying he’s now getting his education on gay bars, citing Stonewall and nearby Cubbyhole. “Well, first, let me say that if I go to Cubbyhole, I think I’m going to be accompanied by at least one of my two campaign managers, who are both gay,” the Hell’s Kitchen resident said with a laugh. “So there’s like a lot of, you know, familiarity with, with the community, at the head of my campaign leading it.” Yang added that he asked one of his campaign managers and Council Member Carlos Menchaca, who endorsed Yang this week, whether the LGBTQ community liked him — a difficult question for any politician to ask of a group of people who do not vote as a monolith, said Rose Christ, president of SDNYC. “He came across like he was a tourist in New York and said he wanted to visit a gay bar,” she said. — Amanda Eisenberg
ADAMS pushed today to reinstate the NYPD’s disbanded plainclothes anti-crime unit to combat a spike in gun violence across the city. At a press conference near the Park Slope site where a woman was fatally shot this week, Adams also pressed his proposal for random searches at bus terminals to check for guns being smuggled into the city. “A little more than a year ago, most of us felt safe. That level of safety is dissipating and eroding every day,” the Brooklyn borough president said. “Because we ignored the guns in Brownsville, now we’re seeing it spread to every part of the city.” — Erin Durkin
KATHRYN GARCIA also has some strong views on the climate, and it seems the mayor is still listening to his former sanitation commissioner’s advice. Yesterday we wrote how Garcia lambasted her former boss for stalling in the city’s organics recycling program. Today Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he was reinstating voluntary organics recycling pick-up, our Danielle Muoio and Madina Touré report. Was that good enough for Garcia? No, it was not. “The mayor’s ‘compost comeback’ plan to restore the program on an opt-in basis via enrollment doesn’t go far enough. Worse, it is going to turn composting into a ‘luxury’ that is available only for those New Yorkers with the resources to organize community support and submit bureaucratic paperwork,” she said in a statement. “Curbside organics should be universal — plain and simple.”
— De Blasio, who has been in better spirits than we’ve seen in some time, did a little comedy routine this morning where he talked to an organics recycling bin. Politics aside, it was arguably funnier than that time Clint Eastwood talked to a chair.
SHAUN DONOVAN was approved for $1.5 million in public matching funds today. The disbursement comes a week after the Campaign Finance Board withheld the money while investigating potential coordination between the former Obama Cabinet member’s mayoral campaign and a political action committee funded by $2 million from his father. Campaign finance rules prohibit coordination between PACs and campaigns, and in this case a complaint had been filed that prompted the CFB to withhold Donovan’s public money last week. The grievance was dismissed Thursday, allowing Donovan to get his matching funds while New Start NYC continues to flood the election with outside money from Donovan’s father. While disclosure requirements will show who is behind outside spending, the rise of these types of groups — there is also a pro-Ray McGuire PAC and at least three PACs supporting Yang — is part of a trend of monied interests operating under federal rules and doing an end-run around campaign finance reforms in New York City. “In this election cycle, several single-candidate super PACs have been established, particularly in connection with the race for mayor, and a significant level of contributions and expenditures is occurring to and by these PACs,” CFB Chair Frederick Schaffer said. “This development poses a particular challenge to the goals of the city’s system of public campaign financing.” Schaffer said that the board will consider amending its rules regarding coordination to potentially rein in the activity of these groups after this year’s elections.
— Donovan would create a specialized team to tackle Asian hate crimes if elected, the Daily News reports. It’s one of a litany of detailed plans Team Donovan has issued to make its case that the former Bloomberg and Obama official is the man with a plan. (Or, rather, the man with about 70 plans).
POLITICO will be co-hosting three NYC debates in June with NBC 4 New York/WNBC and Telemundo 47/WNJU in the races for mayor and comptroller. Moderators include City Hall Bureau Chief Sally Goldenberg, WNBC political reporter Melissa Russo, WNBC news anchor David Ushery and WNJU morning news anchor Allan Villafana. More info here.
Environment: Climate Works for All has a report out today showing “$200 million invested this year in those areas of climate infrastructure projects … will help create thousands of climate jobs in the near term, while putting New York City on a path to becoming a leader in climate policy in the post-pandemic world. The recommended $200 million would be a significant down payment toward building the green infrastructure of the future.”
Health: State lawmakers want mental health placed on equal footing with physical health in New York — and are seeking a constitutional amendment to do so. Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, Sen. John Mannion and Assemblywoman Didi Barrett on Wednesday proposed a constitutional amendment that would seek to raise the profile of mental health needs in New York. While a minor change of a handful of words, the amendment has the potential to boost mental health care services and programs in the state. Language for mental health care in New York has not been updated to the constitution in more than 80 years. — State of Politics’ Nick Reisman
Energy: Cuomo was joined for the second time in a week by a top Senate Democrat to celebrate accomplishments by his administration — this time the construction of a wastewater pipe that will restore the quality of the Western Bays on Long Island. State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, who represents a portion of Nassau County and has long supported a solution to the problem of wastewater with high levels of nitrogen being dumped into the bay, joined Cuomo at the outdoor, closed-to-press event at the Bay Park Water Reclamation Facility in East Rockaway. — Marie J. French
— Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro says the county is on the rebound as the pandemic appears to be easing.
— Homecare workers did not get a minimum wage pay bump in this year’s budget, and Democrats are already regrouping for next year.
— Two more victims have come forward in a sexual abuse scandal in a Monroe County school.
— Employees at Kaleida Health in Western New York say the system is eliminating midwives.
— Mind the detour: A portion of the Northway will be closed to traffic this weekend.
— Soldiers at Fort Drum recently underwent combat training using live ammunition.
