The Unmaking of a Mayor

by William F. Buckley Jr.

Book Overview

John V. Lindsay was elected mayor of New York City in 1965. But that year's mayoral campaign will forever be known as the Buckley campaign. "As a candidate," Joseph Alsop conceded, "Buckley was... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594038473
• ISBN13: 9781594038471
• Release Date: October 2015
• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Length: 488 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An Irreverent Look at Politics from the Inside

I read this paperback in 1969 when the news was still fairly fresh. I was becoming more and more interested in the political process and thought that this would be an interesting perspective. It was indeed. William F. Buckley Jr., who was well-known on the national scene, accepted the nomination of the Conservative Party for the office of Mayor of New York. He was running against liberal candidates from both the Republican and Democratic Parties (John Lindsey and Abe Beame respectively). From the start, Buckley used his platform for promoting the policies of Conservatives. He may have taken his ideas seriously but he never took himself seriously. I'll always remember his response to a reporter's question, "What is the first thing you'll do if elected?" Buckley deadpanned, "Demand a recount". There were ups and downs (although not necessarily in the polls). I remember a sort of controversy over Buckley's idea for bike paths in NYC. In the end Buckley lost (by a landslide!) but we all won with his official recount of the campaign in "The Unmaking of a Mayor".

How much different the 60s & 70s might have been

When it became clear that Lindsay would be the nominee of both the Republican and Liberal Parties, and furthermore, thanks to incumbent Robert Wagner's scandal ridden term, that Lindsay would likely win, Buckley began to write pieces asserting that it was important that someone who actually represented Republican views enter the race, simply to guarantee that there would be an honest debate on the issues. When leaders of the recently formed Conservative Party approached Buckley and asked him to take on the race, he agreed, on the understanding that he would not campaign full time and would continue to fulfill his obligations to the several jobs he held. He made his reasons for running clear in his announcement speech: The two-party system presupposes an adversary relationship between the two parties. That there is no such relationship in New York Mr. Lindsay makes especially clear when he proposes as running mates members of the Liberal and Democratic Parties. Mr. Lindsay's Republican Party is a sort of personal accessory, unbound to the national party's candidates, unconcerned with the views of the Republican leadership in Congress, indifferent to the historic role of the Republican Party as standing in opposition to those trends of our time that are championed by the collectivist elements of the Democratic Party. Mr. Lindsay, described by The New York Times as being "as liberal as a man can be," qualifies for the support of the Liberal Party and the Republican Party only if one supposes that there are no substantial differences between the Republican Party and the Liberal Party. That there should be is my contention.It was clearly understood by all concerned that he would basically play the role of a gadfly in the race. Indeed, any doubts that he reckoned how little chance he had of being elected were cleared up at his first press conference, when to the consternation of staff and Party officials he gave the following answers to questions: Q: Do you think you have any chance of winning? WFB: No Q: How many votes do you expect to get, conservatively speaking? WFB: Conservatively speaking, one.In the campaign that followed, Buckley, freed from the restraints that bind a politician who thinks he may win, proceeded to run one of the most ideological, honest and entertaining campaigns that anyone had ever seen. He quickly became a media phenomenon, although they were almost uniformly hostile to him and his views, they loved covering him. And when the cities newspapers went on strike the race came to center around television and Buckley was able to totally outclass his opponents, Lindsay and Abe Beam.Besides his natural facility with the fairly new medium, Buckley's political platform turned out to be more popular than anyone expected. Indeed, his proposals were twenty or thirty years ahead of their time, including Education reform, Welfare reform, beefed up law enforcement, tax cuts, balanced budge

Buckley is always interesting! even if you differ with him

I remember his running for New York City Major. I read this book in college. He know he was not going to be elected. But Buckley put The Conservative Party on the map in that campaign. And in 1968 his brother, James Buckly, was elected to the office of US Senator from New York State-- on the conservative party line. James Buckley was a very significant Senator.

Favorable analysis of Buckley's account of his campaign.

This true story is written from a somewhat sardonic viewpoint, given the fact that its author, conservative journalist William F. Buckley, had no intention of winning, or even actively campaigning in, the race he had entered. The year of this tale is 1965, with the election in November. However, the real story begins in the 1933 New York City Mayoral election. Republicans in New York had been dormant ever since Al Smith's glory days of the 1920's, and they were unsure of how to operate. In 1933, however, the party's nominee won a commanding victory in the general election, definitely something curious for a city where, amongst registered voters, Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 3-to-1. Buckley explains that a certain political faction backed the 1933 GOP nominee, Fiorello LaGuardia, and these were not your usual Republicans. Rather, a centrist coalition of good-government seekers (or "goo-goos") choose to stand by LaGuardia rather than his Democratic opponent, a top lieutenant of the notorious incumbent Jimmy Walker. After Walker's resignation in 1932, the normally victorious Democratic Party had a tarnished image and a corrupt machine, and subsequently the GOP was almost guaranteed the Mayor's Office if it choose the right man. By the end of LaGuardia's reign, the Democrats were ready to take over once more. Thus, Buckley asserts, the only way for the Republican Party to win a city-wide office in the Big Apple was by nominating a non-traditional Republican at a time when the Democratic Party was under intense scrutiny. Such was the case again in 1965, when this story takes place. Mayor Robert Wagner had chosen not to run for re-election, and voters were extremely flabbergasted at the ethical shortcomings of his tenure at City Hall. Thus, voters were carefully watching the Democratic Primary to see if the victor was a crony of Wagner or a political independent. Republicans had already nominated U.S. Representative John V. Lindsay as their mayoral candidate, much to the chagrin of conservative Republicans. In1964, Lindsay publicly denounced Republican Presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, a staunch conservative. Additionally, he had accumulated the notorious distinction of being the most liberal Republican, voting with President Lyndon Johnson's position over 80% of the time. Thus, he was seen as a Republican in name only by conservatives, but he was perfectly suited for the Mayoral "nomination" of the goo-goo crowd. Subsequently, many prominent Democrats supported Lindsay. Though a few die-hards waited for the Democratic Primary, it was clear that a bipartisan coalition of left-of-center politicians had practically elected Lindsay long before the election. Furthermore, the New York State Liberal Party gave Lindsay its nomination, and this was the culmination of conservative unrest and disdain towards Republican politics in New York. In 1962, Kieran O'Doherty and Dan Mahoney, two young lawyer