Meade Esposito

Amadeo Henry "Meade" Esposito (1907 – September 3, 1993) was an American politician who was a Brooklyn Democratic leader and political boss. Esposito served as chairman of the Kings County Democratic Committee from 1969 to 1984. As a leader, he was known as a political fixer, and honored loyalty, running a citywide patronage system involving gratuity exchanges that ultimately resulted in multiple municipal corruption scandals.

Following the election of Ed Koch to the mayoralty in 1977 (an outcome facilitated by Esposito's support, which was obscured by mutual agreement due to Koch's political origins in the postwar, Manhattan-based "Reform Democrat" movement), Esposito emerged as New York City's paramount political leader and ''de facto'' shadow mayor, with a multiracial sphere of influence that encompassed such disparate figures as Bronx political leaders Stanley M. Friedman, Stanley Simon and Ramon S. Velez; Brooklyn Assemblymen Stanley Fink (who also served as Speaker of the New York State Assembly at the peak of Esposito's influence) and Anthony J. Genovesi; Queens Borough President Donald Manes; Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden; Brooklyn Representatives Shirley Chisholm, Leo C. Zeferetti and Fred Richmond; conservative fixer Roy Cohn; real estate developers Fred and Donald Trump (the latter would ultimately serve as the 45th President of the United States from 2017 to 2021); and American Mafia leaders Anthony Scotto and Paul Vario. Critics called him a "medieval king holding court with his barons by sections of the press".

Although he ensconced himself in the tradition of urban "Regular Democrat" machine politics, Esposito personally identified as a political liberal in marked contrast to many of his successors, frequently speaking of his admiration for George McGovern (whom he supported at great political risk in the 1972 United States presidential election) and Eleanor Roosevelt. He also was a vociferous supporter of New York City's first (and ultimately unsuccessful) LGBT rights bill. As the apex of his power coincided with historic population declines in New York stemming from decades-long white flight, Esposito moved beyond his white ethnic base in southeastern Brooklyn to collaborate with leaders of nascent African American and Hispanic and Latino American communities throughout the borough, such as City Councilman Samuel D. Wright and his successor, Enoch H. Williams.

By the early 1980s, several Brooklyn-based elected officials with national ambitions—most notably Kings County District Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, liberal internationalist Representative Steve Solarz and future Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer—had either directly repudiated or distanced themselves from Esposito's influence, although Jack Newfield and Wayne Barrett reported that Schumer met publicly with Esposito for lunch on at least one occasion. Moreover, some observers have asserted that Esposito's authority was functionally attenuated by the enduring influence of a key coterie of conservative Democrats in the borough, including former New York Supreme Court administrative director James V. Mangano (who was blocked from ascending to the chairmanship of the County Committee by Esposito in 1969), rival district leader Anthony Caracciolo (whose expansive territory included such transitional southwestern neighborhoods as Park Slope, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace and Kensington) and New York City Council Majority Leader Thomas J. Cuite. As early as 1976, the unanticipated election of alleged Mangano-Caracciolo proxy Bernard M. Bloom as Kings County Surrogate (charged with overseeing lucrative probate and estate proceedings) may have deprived the Esposito-Steingut machine of a key patronage tranche as retribution for the 1969 "coup", although late clubhouse political figure James Harrison Cohen asserted in his 2019 memoir that Esposito personally "tapped" Bloom to serve in the role.

In 1983, investigations into his activities mounted; this, along with a thwarted leadership challenge from erstwhile protege Genovesi (who Esposito believed had been "openly salivating" for his departure) would prompt his retirement in January 1984. Three years later, he was convicted of giving an illegal gratuity in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, having given Bronx Representative Mario Biaggi a spa vacation in Florida. As a result of this and related scandals (including Manes' suicide and Friedman's conviction on federal corruption charges) amid the political emergence of reform-minded rivals David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani, the Esposito machine effectively collapsed. During this period, several fledgling African American politicians also withdrew their support, precipitating the 1990 election of Clarence Norman Jr. as county chairman of what had momentarily descended into a "largely vestigial structure".

Esposito was respected and feared for his street-style management, intimidation tactics and criminal connections. He became known for running politics similar to a junket.

Early life

Amadeo "Meade" Esposito was born in the subsection of Ocean Hill, Brooklyn (alternatively characterized as part of Bedford-Stuyvesant or Brownsville) in 1907. He was the son of Giuseppe and Felicia Esposito. His grandfather came to America from Italy in 1885. His father followed his grandfather in 1900 and arrived in America at the age of 18. Giuseppe became a saloon owner. Meade lived with his two sisters above the saloon and claimed to have started working as a child.

Esposito grew up in Brownsville (then a predominately Jewish neighborhood with smaller Irish and Italian populations) and received his nickname "Meade" during elementary school. He briefly attended Park Slope's Manual Training High School, now known as the John Jay Educational Campus, but dropped out at the age of 14. He married at the age of 18 and became a father by 19.

Politics

After dropping out of school, Esposito found employment at an insurance business (a field he would return to throughout his career) operated by Jim Powers, a former United States Marshal and local Democratic leader. There, Esposito met Hyman Schorenstein, another Brooklyn Democratic leader who went on to secure the presidential nomination for Al Smith at the party's 1928 Democratic National Convention. Although Schorenstein was illiterate, his blunt, transactional management style would profoundly influence Esposito. At the age of 18, Esposito "got a couple of dozen of the guys together" and started the Progressive Democratic Club on Fulton Street.

During the Great Depression, he primarily worked as a beer salesman and bail bondsman. He met many of his future connections through the latter business. Esposito cultivated ethnic and community ties that encouraged more Italian Americans to move into politics. He launched the political career of prominent Brownsville-based haberdasher Abe Stark (who served as New York City Council President from 1954 to 1961 and Borough President of Brooklyn from 1962 to 1970) and assisted in electing longtime New York State Assembly member Alfred Lama, best known for co-founding the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program.

Amid redlining and white flight-driven demographic shifts in Ocean Hill-Brownsville and adjacent East New York throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Esposito's predominantly Italian and Jewish base gradually migrated to southeastern Brooklyn's semi-suburban belt of Canarsie, Flatlands and Mill Basin, culminating in the formation of the gerrymandered 39th Assembly District to represent these constituencies in 1972. As early as 1958, Esposito ran for Democratic district leader in Canarsie on a ticket with co‐leader candidate Shirley Weiner. Although they lost by 200 votes, Esposito was ultimately elected to the post in 1960 after being endorsed by Eleanor Roosevelt and Herbert H. Lehman. During this period, his influence continued to grow in tandem with the Canarsie-based Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club, which served as his primary political emplacement for the remainder of his career.

Throughout the 1960s, Esposito began to personally select many judges and politicians in Brooklyn. From 1960 to 1970, he also served as assistant vice president of the Kings Lafayette Bank "despite no apparent experience" in the profession. Jack Newfield would later report that Esposito sought the position to distance himself from his bondsman career to better ensure his political ascension, while "the single biggest depositor in the bank" during his incumbency "was the nthony_Scotto-affiliated_International_Longshoremen's_Association.html" ;"title="International Longshoremen's Association">nthony Scotto-affiliated International Longshoremen's Association">International Longshoremen's Association">nthony Scotto-affiliated International Longshoremen's Association which many law enforcement agencies believe is Mafia-dominated [...] It is suspected that the ILA used its influence to get Esposito the job."

Although Esposito attained his longtime goal of becoming chairman of the Kings County Democratic Committee in 1969 as part of a byzantine power-sharing agreement with "sometimes friend and often business partner" Stanley Steingut (who sought to consolidate his control of the New York State Assembly's Democratic caucus in preparation for assuming the speakership), the Jefferson Club's influence was initially overshadowed by the enduring dominance of Steingut's East Flatbush-based Madison Club, a predominantly Jewish political clearinghouse for such figures as future New York City Mayor Abe Beame, venerable jurist Nat Sobel and members of the Trump family. After Beame lost the mayoralty in 1977, the balance of power in municipal politics gradually shifted to Esposito, with the sudden death of Steingut organization éminence grise and key Esposito ally Beadie Markowitz in early 1978 all but assuring the then-Speaker's decisive defeat by primary challenger Murray Weinstein (later succeeded by his daughter, Helene Weinstein).

In the summer of 1979, Esposito was tried for allegedly violating a state law barring New York county political leaders from engaging in business dealings with race tracks. Citing the rules of the Kings County Democratic Committee, New York Supreme Court Justice Alvin Klein ruled that Esposito had not violated the law since he was formally identified as chairman of the Committee's executive subcommittee. According to Ken Auletta, Esposito had previously characterized himself as county leader in a 1976 interview with ''The New York Times''.

Esposito elicited a variety of perceptions from his peers. While Robert F. Wagner Jr. called him a "new breed of party leader", Herman Badillo, a critic of Esposito, called him "an old-line boss". During his tenure as county leader, his connections to known Mafia members and associates had become common knowledge. He grew up alongside many of these figures, who continued to retain him during his years as a bail bondsman. In 1972, during a federal investigation into the Lucchese crime family, Esposito's name was frequently mentioned in a bugged junkyard trailer used as an office by Paul Vario.

Politicians traded favors and gifts with Esposito for political influence and positions, a process that greatly accelerated after he became New York City's preeminent political boss in 1978. By 1983, investigations into his increasingly conspicuous activities were growing. Despite claiming he would never retire, Esposito left his position as leader of the Kings County Democratic Committee in January 1984, unexpectedly leaving the position to incumbent Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden amid internal conflict with former protege "Fat Tony" Genovesi.

Nevertheless, Esposito continued to retain significant surreptitious influence in New York City politics after his retirement. In the fall of 1985, during an FBI investigation into the Genovese crime family, Esposito was heard speaking with lifelong friend Federico "Fritzy" Giovanelli, a caporegime in the organization. This led to a direct wiretap of Esposito's phone.

Later in 1985, Esposito was recorded speaking with Mario Biaggi, claiming to have "made" 42 judges in Brooklyn. Biaggi was charged in 1987 with taking an unlawful gratuity, having accepted a free $3,200 vacation in Florida from Esposito. Prosecutors said it was in exchange for using his influence to help a ship-repair company that was a major client of Esposito's insurance agency. The defense said it was given out of friendship, and no favors were done in return. While Biaggi was acquitted of both bribery and conspiracy, he was convicted of accepting an illegal gratuity and obstruction of justice, sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, and fined $500,000. Esposito received a suspended sentence. Esposito was put on probation, sentenced to community service and fined $500,000.

In 1989, Esposito faced additional charges of bribery and tax fraud; however a federal judge determined Esposito was too sick and elderly to maintain a proper defense.

Personal life

Esposito was known for his "blunt, warm and earthy" nature. He frequently smoked cigars and kept a baseball bat under his desk to symbolically enforce power. Donald Trump, whose family's real estate business frequently interlocked with elements of the Brooklyn Democratic machine, respected Esposito and his management style. Esposito had a daughter, Phyllis.

Before relocating to the North Shore of Nassau County in his final years, Esposito resided at 2600 National Drive in Mill Basin.

While serving as county leader, Esposito frequently held important meetings in the basement of his mother's Canarsie house to evade potential wiretaps at his Downtown Brooklyn office and Mill Basin home. The elder Esposito usually prepared homemade meatballs for her guests.

Death

In the early 1990s, Esposito developed bladder and lung cancer. He died of a blood infection at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset on September 3, 1993.

References

Further reading

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Esposito, Meade
New York (state) Democrats
Politicians from Brooklyn
American political bosses from New York (state)
American people of Italian descent
Politicians of Italian descent
1907 births
1993 deaths
20th-century American politicians