Sorry, Bill, but you’re no Fiorello
Mayor de Blasio has continually noted his admiration of Mayor LaGuardia. Justifying his sharp criticism of Gov. Cuomo, de Blasio last week said: “My illustrious predecessor Fiorello LaGuardia didn’t bite his tongue. I think he called them as he saw them, and he was the greatest mayor we ever had. And it’s my job to speak truth as I see it.”
De Blasio is smart to emulate LaGuardia, but the current mayor would be wise to carefully parse the particulars of what truly made the Little Flower a great leader.
First, LaGuardia was a crackerjack manager with a superb work ethic. He recruited scores of topnotch administrators and placed them throughout city agencies, separating them from the petty politics of Tammany.
August Heckscher’s book “When LaGuardia Was Mayor” reminds us that while we may remember LaGuardia for reading the funny papers to the children on the radio when there was a newspaper strike, or for rushing to fires or for breaking the artichoke racket, those were mere symbols for a hands-on mayor whose City Hall tenaciously tackled a broad array of urban ills: health, education, welfare, housing, recreation and the arts.
De Blasio would be well served to replicate that nuts-and-bolts administrative skill, remembering that New York has a soft spot for elected officials, regardless of party, who are workaholics.
Second, LaGuardia was as skilled as a political architect as he was a governing engineer. Arthur Mann’s classic “LaGuardia Comes to Power 1933” proves that while LaGuardia built a strong liberal-labor coalition, he also took great pains to lock in the ethnic Italian vote that was far less ideological than the anti-Tammany progressives of the era.
I remember my mentor, the labor leader Alex Rose (who helped found both the American Labor and Liberal parties), a close political ally and adviser to LaGuardia, observing LaGuardia’s mastery at building broad coalitions.
LaGuardia cultivated with equal fervor voters who were liberal and moderate; Jewish, Italian; from small business as well as labor; Democrats and Republicans, and even anti-Tammany bluebloods. A diverse political coalition is as important as diversity in an investment account, enabling a mayor to pull out of the inevitable political downswings.
Third, as Mason B. Williams’ “City of Ambition” proves beyond any doubt, LaGuardia shrewdly cultivated a “home boy” governing advantage with President Franklin Roosevelt, especially on infrastructure projects, to rebuild the city in the wake of the Great Depression. That partnership was forged craftily, as a political alliance. FDR saw in LaGuardia a progressive Republican who could help lock in labor and ethnic support in New York, but ultimately as a beacon for his national coalition.
LaGuardia would probably shake his head disapprovingly at de Blasio’s failure to endorse Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy — and remind de Blasio that he saw in FDR a governing partner, eschewing the cheap theatrics of joining Huey Long’s carping attacks that FDR was not moving fast enough.
And he would likely roll his eyes at de Blasio’s escalating war with Cuomo. When Thomas Dewey, a fellow Republican, was elected governor in LaGuardia’s third term, LaGuardia became a valued gubernatorial ally. De Blasio would be wise to study how the mayor he most admires transformed pragmatic political diplomacy into tangible governing gains for New York City.
Finally, LaGuardia knew how to acknowledge mistakes. Yes, he had a mercurial personal temperament, but as mayor he was famous for honestly conceding, “When I make a mistake, it’s a beaut!” For de Blasio, a great place to prove the capacity for a prudent strategic retreat would be heeding this newspaper’s call, listening to public opinion and dropping his crusade against horse carriages.
I for one am rooting for de Blasio to earn his success by following the true spirit of LaGuardia’s trailblazing path.
What de Blasio
should learn from LaGuardia