Yes, I would have liked his insights on the New York primaries and how he thought about Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk County.
From some dated personal experience I could fill that void my very self. I was the youngest member of the Suffolk County Democratic Committee in its history at the time I was appointed to fill a vacancy.
They'd hit up Garbage Carters for campaign contributions. Suffolk County was far more Republican than it was now, and the Mob saved most of its money for those more likely to win.
Which troublemakers are you talking about?
The problem with Democrats in Suffolk County in the Early 1970s was that Democrats that got elected were often the sort of folks that kept themselves aloof from the party. There was Congressman Otis Pike (D-Riverhead) who became chair of a committee that investigated abuses by the CIA. (Lord, do we need him now!) He later became a syndicated columnist. There were occasionally Town officials that were elected when prominent Republicans were caught doing dirty land deals (zoning scandals). The problem was that some of the few Democrats elected by those means were offered Judicial nominations if they switched to the GOP. After that, Gov. Rocklefeller (and, later on, Gov. Wilson) would appoint the replacement (naturally, a Republican).
At age 19 (in 1976), my friends and I launched primary challenges to other Democratic committee members for control of one area of my town. The particular area chair was the NY State Chairperson for George Wallace's 1976 campaign in NY (I kid you not!); this was the focus of our primary campaigns, ridding the party of Wallace supporters. We lost by 1 district, but the new Area Chair was at least a good guy and a real Democrat. (The outgoing chair was someone who regularly supported Republicans and was part of a "Democratic Club" that was little more than a real estate venture.)
A lot of this nonsense stopped when Suffolk County Democratic Chairman Dominic Baranello became State Chairman. This meant more patronage jobs for Suffolk Democrats (who, after 1975, had a Democratic Governor) and more party discipline. Many party leaders before 1973 took dives for crumbs from Republicans, but after 1973, when Democrats began to win, the goal became to elect more Democratic officials. Baranello was a strong County and State chair, but things began to go South in 1979 when Carter tanked.
I moved to Florida after the 1982 elections. I had hoped for a number of cushy patronage appointments, but a bad thing happened. Ed Koch lost the primary for Governor. This was bad because Baranello was ALL IN for Koch, and he twisted arms for Koch. Koch was considered the fave, and he had "the organization" behind him, but he kept making gaffes and was upset by Mario Cuomo in the primary. To those of you who see Cuomo as "the establishment", Cuomo was the underdog, non-establishment candidate in 1982, and his primary victory knocked Baranello down a number of notches. (Obviously, he was out as State Chair.)
What DID happen with Cuomo's victory (which I didn't stay around to see) was that the outsiders in the party became insiders. The current Suffolk County Elections Commissioner was an outsider prior to 1982. A Town Chair that I will not mention was an outsider that went inside after that. I followed events after I left and I can tell you that many of the rebels of the 1970s became the insiders of the 1990s and onward.
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