SPECTACULAR WIN IN NEW YORK MAYORALTY

Wanganui Chronicle, 9 November 1950, Page 5

SPECTACULAR WIN IN NEW YORK MAYORALTY

Man Who Defied His Party; "I Can't Be Bought, Bossed Or Bribed!"

NEW YORK. Nov. 7 (Reed. 10.20 pm).—ltalian-born Vincent Impellitteri, aged 50, independent Democrat, who defied his own party’s machine, won the election today as New York’s Mayor.

Mr. Impellitteri has been actin g-M ay or since September 1 when Mayor O’Dwyer resigned. A huge police graft scandal was just breaking into the news and Mr Impellitteri seized public imagination by appointing Federal District Attorney Thomas Murphy as Police Commissioner. Mr Murphy had prosecuted Alger Hiss in the perjury trial. Impellitteri ordered Murphy to clean out corrupt police, and the vigour with which Murphy complied made front pages in the New fork newspapers for weeks. Impellitteri sought backing for the mayoralty Of Tammany Hall—Democratic Party headquarters in New j York—but was unsuccessful. He thon . announced that he would run as an l independent Democrat without Tam- ' many’s support. He set the tone of • the campaign t>y claiming that Tam-; many had offered him a State Su- i preme Court judgeship if he would I withdraw from the mayoralty race. | Tammany leaders nominated State Supreme Court Justice Ferdinand Pecora for the mayoralty, and threw! th'* weight of their machine into an 1 effort to defeat Impellitteri, but Impellitteri captured public approval by • his denunciations of party bosses and I his promises to stamp out corruption ; in the city administration. His campaign slogan was: “I can’t be bought, bossed or bribed.” Impellitteri is the son of a cobbler. He served aboard a United States de-1 stroyer in the First World War and later financed his study of law byworking as a hotel bellboy at night. He became an assistant district attorney in Manhattan in 1936. and was • 'ected City Council president in 1946.