If Ed Koch hadn’t been all the things that made him the quintessential and popular New York City mayor — pushy, brash, arrogant and, yes, contemptuous of life upstate and in the suburbs — he undoubtedly would have become governor 30 years ago and maybe even the nation’s first Jewish president.
Koch, after all, had everything going for him in early 1982 when he rocked New York’s political world by seeking his party’s nomination to succeed Gov. Hugh Carey — immense popularity after leading the city through a crippling transit strike and a near fiscal collapse, strong financial backing from the city’s business leaders and the support of the Democratic Party establishment.
Lurking in the background, however, was the fact that just months earlier Koch had displayed his New York City chauvinism in an extensive interview with Playboy magazine, the contents of which hadn’t as yet been made public.
It was nearly 31 years ago to the day, in February 1982, that then-Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo, who had nervously learned just days earlier that Koch would be challenging him for the nomination for governor, noted in his dairy, “A reporter called to say Koch had done an interview with Playboy some time ago that will appear in the April issue. Koch apparently said some embarrassing things.’’
“Embarrassing’’ turned out to be a gigantic understatement.
It was a devastating interview, that included such politically toxic quips as: “Have you ever lived in the suburbs? I haven’t, but I’ve talked to people who have and it’s sterile. It’s nothing. It’s wasting your life.’’
Living upstate, according to Koch, involved “wasting time in a pickup truck when you have to drive 20 miles to buy a gingham dress or a Sears Roebuck suit,’’ and rural life in general, “I’m telling you, it’s a joke.’’
Koch, convinced to challenge Cuomo by his political guru, David Garth — who had his eye on a future run by the mayor for president — entered the race the heavy favorite, but after the Playboy issue hit shelves, his fortunes slid badly, right through his defeat in the September primary.
Cuomo won the contest largely on the strength of a massive anti-Koch turnout upstate, generated by his cutting words in Playboy, and marginally anti-Koch sentiments in the suburbs, the combination of which offset Koch’s strength in the city.
Had Playboy never happened, Koch would have easily won the primary — even Cuomo himself conceded — and would certainly have gone on to defeat the little-known Republican candidate, Lewis Lehrman.
Could a Gov. Koch have become President Koch? With a good record under his belt there’s every reason to believe he could have at least been a stronger candidate than the hapless Walter Mondale and Mike Dukakis eventually turned out to be.
There are two ironies connected to Koch’s New York City-centric blunder.
In 1994, much the same fate as befell Koch struck Gov. Mario Cuomo, who lost his race for a fourth term on the strength of a huge turnout of upstate voters convinced that Cuomo’s liberal policies were more hurtful to them than Koch’s rhetoric had ever been.
And just this week Gov. Andrew Cuomo saw his sky-high approval rating take a nose-dive because of a strongly negative reaction from upstate voters upset with his tough new gun law, as well as the rushed process that led to its adoption.
As Ed Koch learned three decades ago, New York politicians, especially those from New York City, face political peril if they don’t recognize how diverse a state this is.