Mario Angelo Procaccino (September 5, 1912 – December 20, 1995) was an Italian-American lawyer, comptroller, and candidate for Mayor of New York City.

Life and career

Procaccino was born in

Bisaccia Bisaccia is an Italian town and comune, population 4,382, situated in the province of Avellino. It borders the communes of Andretta, Aquilonia, Calitri, Guardia Lombardi, Lacedonia, Scampitella Scampitella (Irpino: ) is a town and ''comune'' ...

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. When he was nine years old, his family immigrated to the

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. He graduated from

DeWitt Clinton High School , motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished , image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg , seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG , seal_size = 124px , ...

in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

in 1931. Despite family poverty, he attended City College of New York and Fordham Law School, becoming a lawyer later in the 1930s. In the early 1940s, Mayor

Fiorello La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...

heard him address a war-bond rally in Italian, and seeing how excited the crowd was, told him he should be in politics and arranged for an appointment to a $3,500-a-year post with the city's legal department. When La Guardia's administration ended, Procaccino became a party worker for

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

and was eventually given a minor judgeship. In 1965, the New York Democrats supported Procaccino, a candidate from the

of Italian ethnicity, for comptroller, along with a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

ish mayoral candidate, Abe Beame of

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, and an

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from

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, Frank O'Connor, for city council president. Procaccino and O'Connor were elected, but Beame was defeated by the

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and Liberal Party of New York joint nominee, John V. Lindsay, a member of the

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and a then ally of fellow New York liberal Republicans

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Nelson A. Rockefeller and

United States Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

Jacob K. Javits. In 1969 Procaccino won the Democratic primary for mayor with 32.8 percent of the vote in a five-man contest, having defeated, among others, former Mayor Robert Wagner, Jr.,

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

Norman Mailer, and Bronx Borough President

Herman Badillo Herman Badillo (pronounced ''bah-DEE-yoh''; August 21, 1929 – December 3, 2014) was an American politician who served as borough president of The Bronx and United States Representative, and ran for Mayor of New York City. He was the first Pu ...

, who later defected to the

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. After briefly having a large lead in the general election race (a poll in June showed him leading

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

nominee Lindsay by fourteen points) the mostly

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Democrat soon lost public support, probably because he was unable to supplement his

law and order In modern politics, law and order is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws a ...

campaign rhetoric. His campaign was, according to journalist Richard Reeves, "the worst political campaign in American history." According to Reeves, Procaccino "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory," and made some notable verbal gaffes while on the campaign trail. When speaking before an African-American audience, Procaccino made a gaffe by saying, "My heart is as black as yours." He also said that his running mate, Frank O'Connor, "grows on you like a cancer." Not helping matters any was the common permutation of his surname in the Hispanic community as Pro-Cochinos—in favor of pigs, a common nickname for police at the time. Procaccino lost the mayoralty to Lindsay in a three-way race. The vote was very divided, with Lindsay (Liberal) winning 42 percent, Procaccino (Democrat) 36 percent, and John Marchi (Republican), a member of the New York State Senate, 22 percent. Procaccino narrowly carried the Bronx and

, with Lindsay taking

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and

, and Marchi took his native Staten Island. Following the election, Procaccino worked as Tax Commissioner for Governor Rockefeller and later returned to private practice. His campaign had several lasting effects on national and New York politics. One was his coining of the term "''

limousine liberal Limousine liberal and latte liberal are pejorative U.S. political terms used to illustrate hypocritical behavior by political liberals of upper class or upper middle class status. The label stems primarily from unwillingness of ''limousine liber ...

''" to characterize John Lindsay, which has become a part of the American political lexicon. The second effect was a change of New York City's election law. As a result of Procaccino's slender plurality in the Democratic primary, the law was changed so that if no candidate carries at least 40 percent of the vote, a runoff election must be held. Procaccino was living outside the city, in Harrison, New York,

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, at the time of his death, but died in the Bronx, where he had lived most of his life.

References

Sources

* Lizzi, Maria C. (18 September 2008). "'My Heart Is as Black as Yours': White Backlash, Racial Identity, and Italian American Stereotypes in New York City's 1969 Mayoral Campaign". Journal of American Ethnic History 27 (3). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Procaccino, Mario New York City Comptrollers New York (state) Democrats 1912 births 1995 deaths Italian emigrants to the United States People from Avellino New York (state) lawyers Politicians from the Bronx DeWitt Clinton High School alumni City College of New York alumni Fordham University School of Law alumni 20th-century American lawyers American lawyers and judges of Italian descent