1977 New York City mayoral election

New York City mayoral election, 1977

November 8, 1977

Candidate Ed Koch Mario Cuomo Party Democratic Liberal Popular vote 717,376 587,913 Percentage 50.0% 41.0%

Results by Borough   Koch—60–70%   Koch—50–60%   Koch—40–50%   Cuomo—40–50%   Cuomo—60–70%

Mayor before election Abraham Beame Democratic Elected mayor Ed Koch Democratic

The New York City mayoral election of 1977 occurred on Tuesday, November 8, 1977.

Incumbent mayor Abraham Beame, a Democrat, was challenged by five other Democrats, including Representative Ed Koch, New York Secretary of State Mario Cuomo, and feminist activist and former Representative Bella Abzug for the Democratic nomination. Koch won the initial vote in the Democratic primary as well as a runoff vote held between him and Cuomo. In the general election, Koch beat Cuomo, who ran on the Liberal Party ticket, and Roy M. Goodman, who ran on the Republican ticket.

Candidates

Democratic

Beame's struggles with the economy and crime, which had led to a decrease in the population of New York City, encouraged several Democrats to challenge him.

Abzug represented parts of Manhattan and the Bronx in the U.S. House. In 1975, she left her seat to run for the U.S. Senate but was narrowly defeated in the Democratic primary by Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Cuomo, a liberal from Queens, had been appointed Secretary of State by Governor Hugh Carey in 1976, after losing the election for lieutenant governor in 1974.

Ed Koch, a Jewish politician from Greenwich Village, began his career as "just a plain liberal," but shifted rightward, towards being a "liberal with sanity".

Longtime city political figure Edward N. Costikyan led a significant campaign early in the race, but by mid-May he decided to withdraw and gave his endorsement to Koch.

Other major candidates running were Rep. Herman Badillo of the Bronx, Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, and civic watchdog Joel Harnett.

Republican

Roy Goodman served in the State Senate. Barry Farber, a conservative radio talk show host, also ran.

Primaries

Liberal party

The Liberal Party convention was held on May 19, 1977. Cuomo defeated Abzug for the nomination.

Results

New York City Liberal Party Convention, May 19, 1977

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mario Cuomo	238	95.20
	Liberal	Abstention	7	2.80
	Liberal	Bella Abzug	5	2.00
Majority			231	92.40

Source: OurCampaigns.com

Republican primary

The Republican primary was held on September 8, 1977. Goodman defeated Farber.

Results

New York City Republican Mayoral Primary, September 8, 1977

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Roy M. Goodman	44,667	56.22
	Republican	Barry Farber	34,782	43.78
Majority			9,885	12.44

Source: OurCampaigns.com

Democratic primary

The Democratic primary was held on September 8, 1977.

Koch ran to the right of the other candidates, on a "law and order" platform. According to historian Jonathan Mahler, the blackout that happened in July of that year, and the subsequent rioting, helped catapult Koch and his message of restoring public safety to front-runner status.

Bailout

In October 1975, with the city on the verge of bankruptcy, Mayor Beame asked the federal government for a bailout. President Gerald Ford refused, leading to the memorable New York Daily News headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead". As a result, Mayor Beame laid off many police officers and other city employees, which was followed by an increase in crime. (The next month, Ford relented in part, signing the New York City Seasonal Financing Act of 1975, which extended $2.3 billion in federal loans to the city for three years.)

A 982-page report from the Securities and Exchange Commission blamed Beame's mismanagement for the city's financial mess, which his opponents seized on as an electoral issue.

Blackout

A major blackout affected New York City from July 13, 1977 to July 14, 1977. The blackout was localized to New York City and the immediate surroundings, and resulted in citywide looting.

Mayor Beame accused Con Edison, the power provider for New York City, of "gross negligence". Koch criticized Beame for losing control of the streets and failing to ask Governor Carey to call in the National Guard.

Endorsements

• Abzug – Local 1199, 10,000 hospital workers; Marine Engineers Benevolent Association, Shirley MacLaine, Marlo Thomas
• Badillo – WCBS Radio, the West Brooklyn Independent Democrats, several Hispanic labor organizations, Chita Rivera, Raul Julia
• Beame – Central Labor Council, ILGWU, UFT, TWU, John DeLury, Bert Powers, Stanley Steingut, Donald Manes
• Cuomo – Governor Carey, Mario Biaggi, The New York Times, The Liberal Party, Village Voice, former Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr., 26 labor organizations
• Harnett – Don Pippin of "A Chorus Line," Phil Newman, business
• Koch – Stephen J. Solarz, New York Post, New York Daily News, Citizens Union, Bess Myerson
• Sutton – Representative Charles Rangel, Amsterdam News, New York Voice, Ellen Sulzberger Straus, Nicholas Katzenbach, Allied Health Services Union, New York Ministerial Alliance, Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater New York and Vicinity

Polling

Poll Source	Dates Administered	Beame	Abzug	Cuomo	Koch	Sutton	Badillo
New York Times/CBS News	August 23, 1977	17%	17%	14%	12%	9%	7%

Results

New York City Democratic Mayoral Primary, September 8, 1977

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Edward I. Koch	180,248	19.81
	Democratic	Mario Cuomo	170,488	18.74
	Democratic	Abraham D. Beame (incumbent)	163,610	17.98
	Democratic	Bella Abzug	150,719	16.56
	Democratic	Percy Sutton	131,197	14.42
	Democratic	Herman Badillo	99,808	10.97
	Democratic	Joel Harnett	13,927	1.53
Majority			9,760	1.07

Source: OurCampaigns.com

Democratic runoff campaign

As no candidate obtained the needed 50%, a runoff election was scheduled. The Democratic Party runoff election was held on September 19, 1977 between the top two vote getters, Koch and Cuomo.

Results

New York City Democratic Mayoral Runoff Primary, September 19, 1977

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Edward I. Koch	431,849	54.94
	Democratic	Mario Cuomo	354,222	45.06
Majority			77,627	9.88

Source: OurCampaigns.com

Democratic primary results by borough

1977 Democratic Primary Runoff
		Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total
	Edward I. Koch	115,251	69,612	131,271	107,033	9,835	433,002
	Mario M. Cuomo	61,570	55,355	112,587	105,522	19,799	354,833

1977 Democratic Primary
		Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total
	Edward I. Koch	50,806	23,453	49,470	52,002	5,812	181,544
	Mario M. Cuomo	25,331	23,028	54,845	56,698	10,430	170,332
	Abraham D. Beame	23,758	25,747	63,304	44,607	7,337	164,753
	Bella Abzug	56,045	20,435	37,236	33,883	4,314	151,913
	Percy Sutton	35,012	24,801	42,903	28,525	1,399	132,640
	Herman Badillo	27,193	35,007	28,909	9,051	876	101,036

General election

Though Koch won the runoff convincingly, Cuomo remained in the race as the Liberal Party nominee.

Though Governor Carey had persuaded Cuomo to run for mayor in the first place, he threw his support to Koch and urged Cuomo to stand down for the sake of party unity. Cuomo refused.

While Koch had a reputation as a crusading reformer, that summer he quietly promised plum city jobs to the political powerbrokers in the boroughs in exchange for their support. Cuomo ran on banning the death penalty, which backfired with New Yorkers, who were sick of crime. Cuomo then went negative with ads that likened Koch to unpopular former mayor John Lindsay. His supporters used the inflammatory slogan "Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo". Meanwhile, Koch backers accused Cuomo of anti-Semitism and pelted Cuomo campaign cars with eggs.

Polling

Poll Source	Dates Administered	Koch (D)	Cuomo (L)	Farber (C)	Goodman (R)
New York Post	November 1–3, 1977	49.5%	35.4%	3.6%	3.4%

Results

New York City Mayoral Election, November 8, 1977

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Edward I. Koch	717,376	49.99
	Liberal	Mario Cuomo	587,913	40.97
	Republican	Roy M. Goodman	58,606	4.08
	Conservative	Barry Farber	57,437	4.00
	Communist	Kenneth F. Newcombe	5,300	0.37
	Socialist Workers	Catarino Garza	3,294	0.23
	United Taxpayers Party	Vito P. Battista	2,119	0.15
	Independence	Louis P. Wein	1,127	0.08
	Libertarian	William Lawry	1,068	0.07
	U.S. Labor	Elijah C. Boyd	873	0.06
Majority			129,463	9.02
Turnout			1,435,113

Source: OurCampaigns.com

Results by borough

General Election
		Manhattan	The Bronx	Brooklyn	Queens	Staten Island	Total
Democratic	Edward I. Koch	184,842	116,436	204,934	191,894	19,270	717,376
Liberal – Neighborhood Government	Mario M. Cuomo	77,531	87,421	173,321	208,748	40,932	587,913
Republican	Roy M. Goodman	19,321	6,102	11,491	18,460	3,229	58,606
Conservative	Barry M. Farber	9,070	7,624	16,576	20,453	3,714	57,437
others		4,281	1,731	3,752	3,256	761	13,781
							1,435,113

Other vote was: Kenneth F. Newcombe – Communist – 5,300; Catarino Garza – Socialist Workers – 3,294; Vito Battista – United Taxpayers Party – 2,119; Louis Wein – Independent – 1,127; William Lawry – Free Libertarian – 1,068; Elijah Boyd – Labor – 873. Cuomo's total vote included 522,942 Liberal and 64,971 Neighborhood Government.