To Be Mayor of New York: Ethnic Politics in the City

This densely detailed account of the New York mayoralty moves chronologically from 1881 to 1989, focusing on the ethnic role in elections, not the governance of the city. McNickle, a pension fund consultant who has worked for the New York City Human Resources Administration, describes how shifting alliances of Irish, Jewish and Italian New Yorkers dominated the city's politics until the late '50s. As the political machine crumbled, blacks and Puerto Ricans added new elements to the mix. While John Lindsay managed to build a liberal coalition of blacks, Hispanics and Jews in 1969, it was shattered by rising black-Jewish conflict. A new middle-class Catholic-Jewish coalition elected Abraham Beame and Edward Koch in the 1970s. McNickle cites the support of minorities, especially Hispanics, in the 1989 election of David Dinkins, the city's first black mayor. Only in a final chapter does McNickle offer analytical reflection; in it he suggests, arguably, that the absence of campaign issues helps explain the strength of ethnic voting patterns. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)