NYC mayoral election echoes 1965 and 1969 races

In the summer of 1965 and 1969, New York City had a young mayoral candidate who captured the attention of a nation. Once elected, John Lindsay almost ruined New York City.  Sixty years later, another candidate may do the same.

Mr. Lindsay, before that, a representative, was one of the most, if not the most, liberal Republicans in Congress.  He was the only Republican congressman to vote against a bill to impound obscene mail and one of only two representatives to vote against intercepting mail from the Communist bloc.

In 1965, a three-way race for mayor pitted Lindsay, the Republican, against Democrat Abraham Beam and Conservative William F. Buckley. Immediately after assuming Gracie Mansion, Mr. Lindsay was met with a transit strike, where he failed to take hard action against the public unions. This set the tone for the rest of his administration, where he did strange things such as putting Abbie Hoffman on the City payroll. Crime skyrocketed and relations with the NYC Jewish community soured.

By 1969, Mr. Lindsay was so radicalized that he lost the Republican nomination for mayor but was re-elected in a three-way election (Lindsay ran as the Liberal Party candidate while a somewhat Conservative Democrat and a Republican ran against him, splitting the vote). (RELATED: Mamdani’s Socialist Group Backs ‘Death To Imperialism’ Summit Praising North Korea)

Mr. Lindsay was, like Zohran Mamdani, someone who openly pitted different neighborhoods and races of New York against each other.  While John Lindsay bravely walked the streets of Harlem after the assassination of Martin Luther King and, in doing so, prevented riots on the scale of Newark or Watts, he did not do much else for racial harmony.

His slow response in plowing snow in Queens did not win him any admirers either, and Lindsay nearly destroyed the City University of New York (CUNY) system by initiating an open admissions policy.

Lindsay genuinely believed what he believed, but he was a leftist ideologue of great ambition, unlike the “liberal with sanity” Mayor Ed Koch, whose favorite thing in life was being mayor of New York. Lindsay was much more of an ideologue than Koch. During Lindsay’s second term, the finances of New York City depleted due to the drastic increase in government employees, welfare, and other initiatives, resulting in the City almost going bankrupt soon after Mr. Lindsay left office on Dec. 31, 1973.

Sadly, John Lindsay himself ended up in near poverty after a failed political comeback in 1980 for the U.S. Senate. In the mid-1990’s it took the intervention of then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to give Lindsay a couple of part-time city positions that provided a small salary and health benefits, with the hopes of giving Mr. Lindsay a pension.

Mr. Lindsay ended up dying away from New York City and is still considered one of the worst (if not the worst) mayors in the history of Gotham.

Mr. Mamdani may be elected mayor, but he will never obtain higher office. More importantly, the City will suffer greatly.  In that sense, Mr. Mamdani may very well eclipse John Lindsay.

Mr. Mamdani’s chances for victory are greater than Mr. Lindsay’s 1969 re-election campaign, as his opposition in leftist-dominated New York is made up of the current Mayor Eric Adams (a former Democrat), Andrew Cuomo (a Democrat running as an independent), and Curtis Sliwa (a Republican).  The make-up of the New York City electorate makes it difficult for even a single anti-Mamdani candidate to win against him. In a case of a four-way race, it is nearly impossible.

Unless candidates start swallowing their pride and dropping out in favor of each other, it is going to be a repeat of 1965 and, especially, 1969, with another long four years for the City of New York until the 2029 election. Sadly, long after 2029, the damage inflicted by Zohran Mamdani will, like John Lindsay’s, be felt for generations.

*Views expressed in this article are those of the author and not any government agency.

 Larry Provost is a Columnist and Commentator in Washington, D.C. A 26-year Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, he holds a Master of Divinity from Liberty University, an M.P.S. in legislative affairs from The George Washington University, and an M.A. in Defense and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Latest posts by Larry Provost (see all)

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.