The Wrong Bush

One chilly day in November 2008, former mayor Ed Koch was opening his mail.  Among the letters was an invitation to a Hanukkah reception at the White House.  This was the cover of the card:

Courtesy: The White House

Notice the Christmas tree?  George W. Bush, the President who had started a tradition of separate Christmas and Hanukkah parties at the White House, had sent a picture of the wrong bush.  

We don’t know whether Koch, perhaps the most prominently Jewish mayor in American history, was offended.  We do know that a few days later, on November 28, he RSVP’d his regrets to the Bushes.  He would not be attending.  

A couple of days later he received another card from the White House:

Courtesy: The White House

The menorah on the new card wasn’t just a pretty picture.  It was an image of the menorah given by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to President Truman for his early recognition of the State of Israel in 1948.

Inside was a smaller card that read: 

Courtesy: The White House

That was a nice way of putting it.

By then, the New York Post had reported: “Let Santa Light the Menorah” and “Merry Hanukkah from the White House!”  CNN posted “First White House Chrismukkah cards accidentally sent” on their political ticker blog.  And the White House admitted to reporters that staff had failed to print separate cards for the different holiday events.

The Hanukkah Invitation Gaffe of 2008 can go down in history as one of the lesser known bloopers of the Bush Administration.  Ridicule might have been more aggressive, but holiday invitations are traditionally the domain of the First Lady.  “Mrs. Bush is apologetic,” her press secretary told reporters. “It is something that just slipped through the cracks.”  We’ve all been there.

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The cards shown here are from the Edward I. Koch Collection at the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives.  You can view a further sampling of family holiday cards from our collection sent by Mayor LaGuardia, Presidents Bush and Obama, and a holiday photo of the Clintons with Borough President Claire Schulman, among others on our Flickr site.

You might also enjoy our wonderful video collection, some of which is available on our YouTube site.  To get a deeper sense of our collections come to our user-friendly website for finding aids and computerized indexes. As always, we welcome you to follow us on Twitter and FaceBook, and if you like, like us there.  

The digital editions of original documents included here are for research purposes only.  You are, of course, welcome to come to our archives and view the documents yourself.  Researchers wishing to visit the archive in person please contact Douglas Di Carlo, our Archivist in advance of your visit. 

Nelson Mandela and New York City

COUNCIL SPEAKER PETER F. VALLONE AND MAYOR DAVID DINKINS (BACK TO CAMERA) WELCOME NELSON MANDELA, JUNE 20, 1990. MANDELA MADE A 12-DAY TOUR OF THE U.S. AFTER BEING FREED FROM 27 YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA. 

Steven A. Levine 

Coordinator for Educational Programs

As we sadly observe the passing of Nelson Mandela, I thought it an appropriate time to look at his connection to New York City through some of the Archives’ documents. The documents show that in the 1980s and early 1990s, when the brutal apartheid government continued to imprison Mandela and his comrades on Robben Island; New York City, in response to activism from anti-racist and labor organizations, took strong stands against the apartheid government of South Africa. 

In 1984 New York City passed economic sanctions against South Africa and the banks and companies that did business with it, and named the corner of 42^nd St and Second Avenue, in front of the South African U.N. mission “Nelson and Winnie Mandela Corner.”  When Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison in 1990, he was given a hero’s welcome, highlighted by a ticker tape parade, an ecumenical service at Riverside Church, and a huge rally at Yankee Stadium, an inspiring moment I was fortunate enough to attend. 

Even after South Africa released Mandela in 1990, the City Council continued to support local sanctions and the need to “impress upon the Congress of the United States the need to continue economic and political sanctions against the government of South Africa until freedom and equality are established for all.”

I hope you will take the time to look at the documents.  If you are interested in learning more about Nelson Mandela’s visit to NYC or about its connection to the South African freedom struggle, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

LaGuardia and Wagner Archives on the NY Times Learning Network

Steven A. Levine

Coordinator for Educational Programs

Last spring the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives and the LaGuardia Honors Program's Friends of Koch collaborated to create a video on Mayor Ed Koch's Ten Year Housing Plan and how it revitalized entire neighborhoods throughout New York City.  That video is the basis for a lesson on the New York Times Learning Network developed by Tara Hickman and me called "Reader Idea | Researching Political History to Understand How a Community Problem Was Solved"

Please take a look at it and if you use it in your class, please let us know your experiences.

Alair Townsend Debates Ed Koch: "She had the better book!"

Steven A. Levine
Coordinator for Educational Programs

As we approach tomorrow night's mayoral debate at the CUNY Graduate Center, I thought it was a good time to look at how other candidates prepared for a debate by watching a video of Deputy Mayor Alair Townsend describe her experiences as Mayor Ed Koch's practice debate partner in 1985.

 

To prepare for his debate against City Council President Carol Bellamy, his Democratic Primary opponent, Ed Koch chose Townsend. Townsend claimed she was chosen because she had glasses and high cheek bones like Bellamy, but it is also clear she was a more than worthy debate opponent.  When his campaign adviser David Garth told Koch that Townsend had beat him after the first mock debate, Ed Koch responded by saying, "She had the better [debate] book!"  Watch Alair Townsend describe the debate, her preparation and the debate book in this interview with the La Guardia and Wagner Archives' Tara Jean Hickman.

Ed Koch Runs for a 4th Term: 1989 Campaign Commercials

Steven A. Levine
Coordinator for Educational Programs

In 1989 Ed Koch attempted what no other mayor had achieved: election to a fourth term. Koch's commercials were similar to those in 1985: regular New Yorkers saying he wasn't perfect, but was doing a good job. After 12 years as mayor and burdened by a scandal-tainted third term and a perception that he was racially divisive, many New Yorkers were looking for change. 

Most voters who rejected Koch turned to Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins, an African-American, who promised conciliation in contrast to the tumultuous Koch. Building on Rev. Jesse Jackson's success in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary, Dinkins won a majority in the 1989 Democratic mayoral primary and narrowly defeated Rudy Giuliani in the general election. Ed Koch had failed in his quest for an unprecedented fourth term, but when later asked if he would run again he humorously replied, "The people have spoken ... And they must be punished."

Ed Koch for Mayor 1985 Campaign Commercials

Steven A. Levine

Coordinator for Educational Programs

 

When Ed Koch ran for a third term as mayor in 1985, he won handily against a divided opposition, but what is striking to me was the lack of polish in his commercials.  The endorsements by the "regular people" seem unrehearsed and Mayor Koch does not even appear in them.  The commercials seem to emphasize that whatever the critics might say, the people still supported Koch.  They raise the question of whether the supporters were given lines to read or were they expressing their support sincerely?  With the exception of actor Vincent Gardenia's endorsement, they seem more coarsely produced than those of today.  Media wizard David Garth effectively demonstrated Koch's support by the common man and woman.  The election results that year confirmed this perception. Take a few minutes to watch the video to see what you think.

Primaries Past and Present: Ed Koch 1981 Campaign Commercials

Steven A. Levine

Coordinator for Educational Programs

New Yorkers are waiting on lines today to vote in the Democratic and Republican primaries and they are again using the aging Shoup lever voting machines to cast their ballots.  Given our use of these old, but trustworthy machines, it seemed a good moment to go back in time to 1981 to watch Ed Koch’s campaign commercials

Thirty two years ago, Mayor Koch was up for reelection.  During his first term, he had won congressional approval for loan guarantees, brought the city back to solvency, begun to restore city services and balanced the budget a year ahead of schedule.  His main opponent in the Democratic primary was the liberal State Assembly member Frank Barbaro, who attacked Koch for reducing city services and cutting taxes for the wealthy.  Koch easily defeated Barbaro and also won the Republican primary, making him the only mayoral candidate to win the nominations of both major parties.  He then went on to win the general election in a landslide defeating Barbaro, who ran as an independent and the candidates of the Liberal, Conservative and Right to Life parties.

Elections have consequences and I hope you will take the time to participate in your party’s primary and in the November general election.  Mayor Koch would certainly have wanted you to.

1977 Ed Koch Campaign Commercials

Steven A. Levine
Coordinator for Educational Programs

With the New York City mayoral primaries a week away, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the 1977 mayoral election and how Ed Koch’s campaign commercials helped lead him to victory.  This was a bleak year for New York City, which was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and could not borrow money on its own credit.  Thousands of police officers, firefighters, teachers, CUNY faculty and other municipal workers had been laid off.   A blackout had led to mass looting in many neighborhoods, Son of Sam was wreaking his terror upon the city, and crime in general was on the rise. 

As the election season began, Congressman Koch was polling at the bottom of a large group of Democratic candidates that included Mayor Abe Beame, former Congresswoman Bella Abzug, N.Y. Secretary of State Mario Cuomo, Congressman Herman Badillo, and Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton.  Running as a “liberal with sanity,” Koch endorsed the death penalty, attacked the municipal unions and their leaders, and  “poverty pimps.”  Koch ended his advertisements, crafted by campaign manager David Garth with the tagline, “After eight years of charisma [John Lindsay] and four years of the clubhouse [Abe Beame], why not try competence.” 

With his conservative message, Koch catapulted to second place in the primary.  He then defeated Mario Cuomo in the runoff and the general election, when Cuomo ran as the candidate of the Liberal Party.  In a city where crime appeared out of control, municipal unions were striking, and the fiscal outlook was bleak, Koch had sensed that a more conservative candidate would appeal to a large portion of the electorate.  His election was a watershed and ushered in years of austerity and a more limited view of what government could or should do.

The dominant issues in this year’s Democratic primary are very different as the Bloomberg era comes to a close.  Crime is at a historic low, but the stop and frisk policies of the NYPD have come under fierce criticism.  The shimmering towers that have risen in Manhattan and on the waterfronts of Queens and Brooklyn are symbols of both increasing prosperity and the rising inequality of New York City.  Whether these themes augur a new watershed for New York’s politics remains to be seen until after primary day and beyond when future historians analyze the campaign advertisements of 2013.

P.S.  To learn more about voting in New York City, check out the Archives’ curriculum, “City Government and You:  Voting Rights and Citizenship.”

VIDEO: NYC Gay Rights Bill Passes, 1986

Steven A. Levine

Coordinator for Educational Programs

Rhode Island’s Legislature passed a marriage equality law yesterday, making it the tenth state to do so with Delaware, Minnesota and Illinois likely to follow soon. But this victory did not come out of a vacuum.  Watch the Archives latest video, NYC Gay Rights Bill Passed, 1986 and hear Mayor Koch explain how the law was passed and Council Members Wendell Foster and Noach Dear explaining their votes for and against respectively.  

A quarter century ago, marriage equality seemed an impossibility.  In New York City, where the Stonewall Inn was the birthplace of the gay rights movement in 1969, a gay rights bill had languished in the City Council for a dozen years without a vote.  Finally, in 1986 the Council voted to protect the civil rights of people based on sexual orientation after a fierce and contentious debate with strong opposition from the Catholic Church and other religious and social conservatives. The video gives perspective on how far we have traveled on the road towards equality. 

Mayor Ed Koch on Gun Control

Steven A. Levine

Coordinator for Educational Programs

I have watched with great sadness and anger the recent epidemic of gun violence in the United States, most notably in Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, and today at the Empire State Building. While the motives for these despicable acts of violence have varied, one common denominator has been the prevalence of semi-automatic weapons.

Sadly, this is not a new issue. Twenty-three years ago, Mayor Ed Koch gave a speech calling for federal and city semi-automatic assault weapons bans after five children were murdered in a California schoolyard by a killer with an AK-47. He told his audience that “It’s true that ‘Guns don’t kill people, people do.’ But it’s also true that killers and armed criminals can create large numbers of victims by using a semi-automatic assault rifle.” (Click here to read the speech.) The Archives’ City Council Collection also has a resolution in 1991 calling on the State Legislature “to prohibit the unlicensed possession of semiautomatic assault weapons,” showing that this remained an important issue. (Click here)

The Archives has a wealth of material about issues of gun control and gun violence, including the Bernhard Goetz shootings of 1984. If you would like to learn more about these issues or use documents in your classroom, please feel free to contact me.