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SEPTEMBER 1955            51

leader of Tammany Hall.  (For a history of Tammany Hall - the Society of St. Tammany - and its relation to politics and the New York County Democratic Committee since its organization after the American Revolution see the Encyclopaedia Britannica.) 

In De Sapio's first important elections, those of November 1950, he is credited with engineering the coalition with the Republicans and Liberals that unseated Representative Vito Marcantonio in the U.S. Congress. For the mayoralty post in New York City, however, De Sapio backed Ferdinand Pecora instead of Vincent R. Impellitteri, who won on an independent ticket. In 1950 De Sapio was almost defeated in the Hall for another term as commissioner of elections, and later, petitions were circulated against him as Tammany leader. 

Following testimony of underworld figures in March 1951 before the U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce (headed by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee) that they knew De Sapio, the Tammany leader denied the allegation that Frank Costello was the "real boss" of the Hall. He pointed out that it was inevitable for him to meet men of the underworld, but he emphasized: "The main thing is that they have never influenced me" (New York Post, January 28, 1955). 

Soon after he became leader, De Sapio took steps to change the reputation of Tammany Hall to that of a modern political organization, "geared to the times and interested in 'political service.'" De Sapio named the first Puerto Rican district leader, Anthony Mendez, and backed Hulan Jack, Manhattan's first Negro borough president. The Tammany Hall leader also helped to get Judge Harold A. Stevens on the Court of General Sessions, highest judicial post held by a Negro in New York State at that time (in 1955 Harriman appointed Stevens a State Supreme Court Justice; he is the first Negro in New York's history to hold that position). Under De Sapio's leadership, four young "liberals" - among them a former official of the League of Women Voters - have been elected district leaders and seated on the executive committee. De Sapio, who has lectured on politics at New York University, Manhattan College, and Fordham University, is the first Tammany leader to be so honored. 

When the 1953 mayoralty election came up, De Sapio and Edward J. Flynn, Bronx County Democratic party leader, were the only two county leaders to support Robert F. Wagner (see C.B., 1954). De Sapio took a postcard poll of 41,000 registered Democrats who voted four-to-one against Impellitteri for mayoral candidate. A month before Wagner won the September primary, Flynn died and De Sapio became his political heir. On November 3, 1953 Wagner won the election for Mayor of the City of New York by a plurality of 360,078 over his Republican opponent, Harold Riegelman. 

[[image: photo of man in glasses]]
[[caption: CARMINE G. DE SAPIO]]
[[photo credit: Wide World]] 

In May 1955 the New York County Democratic Committee adopted a series of by-laws, advocated by De Sapio for several years, dealing with election reforms. The new by-laws are designed to transfer power from party leaders to rank and file members by providing for the direct election of district leaders by enrolled voters; abolishing the extra "synthetic" vote given certain members of the executive committee; placing the election of women co-leaders in each district on an independent basis; and defining district boundaries before the primaries (New York Times, May 24, 1955). Other steps taken by De Sapio to reform Tammany are: reduction of the number of county committeemen from an unwieldy 11,762 to 3,471 in 1953 (prior to the state law's deadline); the establishment of rent-control clinics; support of permanent personal registration; and a twenty-six-point program pledging support of legislation cleaning up waterfront conditions disclosed by the State Crime Commission. 

In February 1954 the Democratic State Committee elected De Sapio a Democratic National Committeeman to succeed Edward J. Flynn. His position as a major power in Democratic politics was "unquestionably established" when W. Averell Harriman, the man De Sapio backed for Governor of New York State, was elected in November 1954. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., had strong upstate support for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, but De Sapio, after taking a state-wide preference poll of 150,000 registered Democrats, decided that Harriman had more "experience as an administrator." 

Soon after Harriman was elected, De Sapio resigned his $12,000-a-year job as commissioner of elections to accept Harriman's appointment as Secretary of State at a salary of $17,000 a year, plus a tax-free $3,000 expense allowance. The New York County Democratic Committee elected De Sapio as county chairman on December 14, 1954, a position distinct from the one he holds as county leader.  

Because New York State has ninety-six delegate votes at national party conventions,