Ed Koch

I’ll miss New York Mayor Ed Koch the way I miss some of my more endearing if sometimes backward Jewish relatives(my feisty, bigoted  and sometimes obnoxious grandmother, whenever she’d see Ed Koch on television would exclaim, with warmth and sarcasm, “there’s Beauty!”). 

Mayor Koch certainly could be a beauty, not for his looks, in my opinion but for his charm. I loved to see him on national television, both defending and promoting New York City. He helped rescue New York City from not just bankruptcy but from demoralization and embarrassment. He made one proud again to be a New Yorker, even if, in the end, he did not resolve all the city’s problems.

Being a great Martin Luther King fan, I was a bit uncomfortable with Koch’s rocky relationship with African Americans., especially his harsh words for Jesse Jackson, whose presidential ambitions I supported in 1984. 

I also didn’t like, although I would one day grudgingly admire, his nervy support of Republican politicians like Ronald Reagan, Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush. Being  a socialist, I could not stand his endorsements of these people, regardless of their ardent support for Israel. Sometimes it seemed like he was putting his knee-jerk support for Israel ahead of Democratic Party principles, but as a Jew, I had to like his determined commitment to protecting Jewish interests.

I was no fan of the mayor’s support for the seemingly politically expedient support for death penalty either.

But I liked the mayor’s energy, spunk and upbeat presence and would later come to appreciate his willingness to engage in political payback in order to stop people from using him or others as punching bags.

I also find something both humorous and  admirable in his winning elections despite the fact that his personal life was a complete mystery. 

I worked on the mayor’s final campaign—the year he was defeated by David Dinkins in the Democratic Primary. It was a calculated, Kochian move on my part: I wanted to be around Koch and hi successful team of operators to see how they managed to win elections, so I sort of ignored sympathies for the Dinkins campaign, which I ultimately supported in the general election.

As a reward for my campaign work, the Koch campaign invited me to Gracie Mansion, where I heard Koch speak and had the opportunity to shake his hand and tell him that he had done a fine job as mayor.

Later on I would read Koch’s fascinating  three political books and a Village Voice writer’s harsh account of his mayoralty, yet still, my curiosity about Koch was never satisfied. I truly enjoyed watching his post mayoral career as a television commentator and judge on The People’s Court. He had a certain brilliance about him, even though he could be so earthy, crude and crass in his views and style.

The bottom line is that I’ll miss Ed Koch and I have always been tempted to emulate his unique combination of feistiness and clownishness in my own political dealings. God bless Mayor Koch and may he rest in peace.

Craig R. Bayer 2/1/13