From the Big Apple, Fruitless Bids at Higher Office

NYC Mayor Robert Wagner tried to become vice president, and later senator, in the same year, but he failed in both efforts.

An old NYC balanced ticket — with unintended consequences.

Blutarsky's political career was enhanced by the movie Animal House.

Nineteen years ago today, Richards is named the keynote speaker for the Democratic National Convention.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to leave the Republican Party and become "unaffiliated" sparked quite a bit of excitement — which fed into the speculation that he might run for president (see last week's column). But many seem to have forgotten the track record of NYC mayors who have attempted to gain higher office in the past.

As Don Ritchie, the associate Senate historian, points out, "Since the creation of Greater New York in 1898 (when the boroughs merged), no mayor of the city has ever been elected to higher office – governor, senator or president – and not for lack of trying."

Of course, not every mayor has had a half-billion dollars at his disposal to make the effort. Certainly Rudy Giuliani, a former mayor seeking the Republican presidential nomination, doesn't have that kind of pocket change. But it is worth noting the "0-for" record of the mayors who tried to move up.

Ed Koch (D) – mayor 1978-89

Koch was the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic nomination for governor in 1982. But his chances took a nosedive when an interview he conducted with Playboy magazine in December of '81 – before he decided to run for governor – appeared on the newsstands shortly after he announced his gubernatorial bid. In it, he discounted the thought of running for governor, calling it a "terrible position, and besides, it requires living in Albany, which is small-town life at its worst." As for life outside the city, Koch said, "Have you ever lived in the suburbs? It's sterile. It's wasting your life." What about rural America? "A joke," Koch said. The interview got wide play when he launched his run for governor. And his opponent in the primary, Mario Cuomo – who had lost to Koch in a bitter 1977 Democratic mayoral primary, runoff, and general election – was delighted. He defeated Koch 52 percent-48 percent.

John Lindsay (R, then D) – mayor 1966-73

Lindsay, like Koch, was a liberal congressman from Manhattan before becoming mayor. He was touted as a potential vice-presidential pick in 1968 (in fact, Lindsay was the one who nominated Spiro Agnew at the convention). But Lindsay proved to be vastly unpopular with Republican voters, and he lost the GOP primary for re-nomination in 1969; still, he managed to win a second term running as a Liberal in a general election where two conservatives split the anti-Lindsay vote. In 1971, Lindsay switched to the Democratic Party, where he mounted an improbable bid for his new party's presidential nomination. He focused much of his effort on the Florida primary, but finished a weak fifth there, with just 6.5 percent of the vote. (I remember lying on a South Florida beach and watching a plane fly overhead with a trailing banner that read, "Forest Hills Says Beware of Lindsay.") That was about it for Lindsay's White House hopes. He didn't seek a third term in 1973. In 1980, he sought the Dem nomination for the Senate seat of Republican incumbent Jacob Javits. But Lindsay ended up in third place in the primary, with 16 percent.

Robert Wagner (D) – mayor 1954-65

A first-term mayor in 1956, Wagner had hoped to become Adlai Stevenson's running mate that year. When Stevenson threw open the choice to the convention, Wagner tried to woo the delegates into selecting him. He finished fourth on the first ballot, behind Sens. Estes Kefauver (the eventual VP nominee), John Kennedy and Al Gore Sr. With that path gone, Wagner had another opportunity to move up: Sen. Herbert Lehman (D), 78 years old, announced his retirement on Aug. 21 of that year. Nine days later, Wagner announced his candidacy and quickly became the choice of the party. In November, however, Wagner lost to the Republican nominee, state Attorney General Jacob Javits, 53 percent-47 percent.

William Gaynor (D) – mayor 1910-13

A crusader against political corruption, Gaynor had hoped to use the mayoralty as a springboard to higher office – perhaps governor, maybe even president. But on Aug. 9, 1910, just seven months into his term, he was shot in an assassination attempt. Gaynor survived, but the bullet remained lodged in his throat; he died three years later.

Meanwhile, the questions about Bloomberg continue:

Q: An independent candidacy by Mayor Bloomberg, resulting in the possibility of a deadlocked Electoral College, raises some important questions. I know that, in the event of a deadlocked Electoral College, the House votes by state delegation for the new president. But will it be the lame-duck House elected in 2006, or the one newly elected in 2008? The current lineup of state delegations in the House is 26 Democratic, 21 Republican and three tied. But what if the House cannot get 26 votes for any candidate? Can you win with less than a majority of the delegations? And what if it ends in a tie? – Ryan Mascarenhas, Shreveport, La.)

A: So many questions, so little time.

First, if no presidential candidate received the required 270 electoral votes, and the election were sent to the House, it would be the House elected in 2008 – the 111th Congress – that would decide the winner. And second, to win, a candidate must get a majority of the state delegations. If after the first balloting in the House no candidate gets the 26 votes, they simply vote again, and again, making deals, offering incentives, until a winner is chosen. Assuming a vice president is chosen by the Senate (where each senator again gets one vote), the vice president-elect will serve until the House selects the president.

Back to Bloomberg: I made an error in the last column, where I said that the mayor opposes the war in Iraq. Not so, writes Jerry Skurnik of New York City. Bloomberg "has never come close to saying he opposes the war. He has said very little about it other than saying it's a bad situation."

And one more bite of the Big Apple, this from Doug Brin of Manhattan:

"This is in response to your delightful piece on vintage New York City mayoral tickets that included one Jew, one Italian and one Irishman (see May 24 column). The late Stanley Reiben, a lawyer who helped defend 'the Scottsboro boys' and latest served as chief aide to N.Y. Assembly Speaker Stanley Steingut, told me of the following:

"When Democratic bosses were putting together a slate in 1945 that already included William O'Dwyer for mayor and Lazarus Joseph for comptroller, an assistant was directed to look through a directory of local judges and 'pick out whichever one has the most Italian-sounding name of the bunch.' The selectee, Vincent Impellitteri, a very obscure man at the time, filled that bill, with the added assurance that as city council president, he'd 'only be a stand-in, never mayor.' But five years later, O'Dwyer resigned under a cloud of corruption, was appointed ambassador to Mexico by President Truman, and 'Impy' was mayor of New York."

In other political news …

NEW WYOMING SENATOR: Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, has chosen state Sen. John Barrasso (R) to succeed Craig Thomas, a three-term Republican who died on June 4. State law mandates that the governor name a successor from the same party as the departed senator. First, the GOP had to submit a list of three names, and Barrasso was the final pick. A four-year state senator, Barrasso ran for the Senate in 1996 but lost to now-incumbent Mike Enzi in the Republican primary. Barrasso says he plans to run in next year's special election for the final four years of Thomas' term. Democrats considering entering the Senate race include Gary Trauner, who almost beat Rep. Barbara Cubin (R) last year; Paul Hickey, who lost to Freudenthal in the 2002 gubernatorial primary; and state Sen. Mike Massie, among others.

RICHARDSON LIKELY TO TAKE CALIFORNIA 37th SEAT: Laura Richardson (D), a member of the state Assembly from Long Beach, finished first in Tuesday's special congressional election and is the odds-on favorite to succeed Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, a Democrat who died on April 22. Richardson got 38 percent of the vote, to 31 percent for state Sen. Jenny Oropeza and 9 percent for Valerie McDonald, the late congresswoman's daughter. Richardson, like Millender-McDonald, is African-American. She now has to go through the motions of a runoff on Aug. 21 with the leading Republican candidate. But the district is overwhelmingly Democratic, and Richardson is the likely winner.

GEORGIA 10th CD UPDATE: It's looking like an all-GOP affair in the July 17 runoff to fill the seat of the late Rep. Charlie Norwood (R). The top two finishers in the June 19 primary appear to be former state Sen. Jim Whitehead, the clear leader, and physician Paul Broun. At last count, Broun edged out Democrat James Marlow by 187 votes to make it into the runoff; overseas ballots have yet to be counted.

EMBEDDED JOURNALISM: One of my long-standing pet peeves: when journalists contribute to political campaigns. I recommend checking out the superb investigative piece by MSNBC's Bill Dedman.

WE'RE ON THE AIR: If cluttering your e-mail inbox with this column wasn't bad enough, you should know that Talk of the Nation, NPR's live call-in program, features the "Political Junkie" segment every Wednesday at 2:40 p.m. Eastern time for 20 minutes. And if your local NPR station doesn't carry TOTN, you can still hear it on the Web. This week: Sen. Dick Lugar takes on the war.

IT'S ALL POLITICS: That's the name of our weekly political podcast. It's a combination of brilliant analysis and sophisticated humor, hosted each week by NPR's Ron Elving and myself, as the following e-mails will attest.

Rob Sheehan of Melbourne, Australia, writes, "A congratulatory note on 'It's All Politics.' We tend to get very straight-laced coverage of U.S. politics in Australia. So it's with glee that I download your program because it's both serious and lighthearted. I listen as I take my evening walk around Melbourne's suburban streets, and it's nice to have a bit of a laugh with you guys as I do so — worrying though that is, on occasion, to other strollers. So keep it up. Top stuff."

John Evans from Bucharest, Romania, adds, "Great podcast this week – the transitions (Obama to Clinton, Remember the Maine to McCain) and outtakes, especially, were hilarious!"

And to show that even some people from the U.S. listen to the podcast, Daniel Lippman of Great Barrington, Mass., writes, "I laughed so hard at the end of last week's podcast. Your laughter is infectious!!"

And Glenn Schmid of Phoenix, Ariz., offers this suggestion: "After trying very hard not to giggle my way through this week's podcast, I believe a 'PG' rating needs to be applied to 'It's All Politics.' Not for the content; that's fine (even enlightening, occasionally). No, you and Mr. Elving clearly require more Parental Guidance."

One part of last week's edition may have been a bit mystifying to many listeners, including Ray Betzner of Thorndale, Pa. Ray says the podcast is the "weekly highlight on my regional rail ride into Philadelphia on Friday mornings," but he wondered about the "Neidermeyer dead!" reference in last week's episode. "OK," he writes. "I know the reference is from Animal House. But what's the relationship to Michael Bloomberg, and why did it turn up in your podcast? Inquiring minds want to know."

This may take some explaining.

To those of you who may not have heard last week's edition — it's an especially good one — the conversation revolved around Bloomberg's denial that he is running for president. Podcast producer Evie Stone played a clip of the mayor identifying the circumstances in which he would run, in which Bloomberg said, "If everybody in the world was dead and I was the only one alive yet, sure, yeah." Ron Elving then offered the observation that "dead" would be the only circumstance in which he would vote for me for president. I responded with, "Neidermeyer?" And Ron chirped in, "Dead!" (It's a quote from the movie.)

I'm about half way through this story.

Ron is long of the opinion –- an opinion I share — that many of life's questions can be answered or explained with references to the 1978 movie National Lampoon's Animal House. In our many conversations about politics, Ron will often throw out a line from the movie that will put everything into perspective. ("Over? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?") So when Ron was talking about "dead," Neidermeyer's name came to my mind, and hence the conversation that appeared in the podcast. Now you know. I hope that's clear.

In any event, it just so happens I have a husband named Dean Wormer.

******* Don't Forget: If you are sending in a question to be used in this column, please don't forget to include your city and state. *********

This Day in Campaign History: Texas state Treasurer Ann Richards is named the keynote speaker for the Democratic National Convention (June 27, 1988). Sixteen days later, she will offer a speech that will ridicule the Republican nominee, Vice President George H.W. Bush. "Poor George," Richards said. "He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

Got a question? Ask Ken Rudin: politicaljunkie@npr.org