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'''New York City: the 51st State''' was the platform of the [[Norman Mailer]]–[[Jimmy Breslin]] candidacy in the [[1969 New York City mayoral election|1969 New York City Democratic Mayoral Primary election]]. Mailer, a novelist, journalist, and filmmaker, and Breslin, an author and at the time a New York City newspaper columnist, proposed that the [[Boroughs of New York City|five New York City boroughs]] should [[Secession in New York|secede from New York State]], and become the [[51st state]] of the U.S.
Mailer topped the ticket as candidate for [[Mayor of New York City|Mayor]]; his running mate, Breslin, sought the office of City Council President. Their platform featured placing city governmental control in the hands of the neighborhoods, and offered unique and creative – if impractical and even logistically impossible – solutions to air pollution, traffic congestion, [[school overcrowding]], and crime.
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[[File:51st_State_Campaign_Buttons.jpg|370px|thumb|left|Mailer–Breslin campaign buttons, 1969]]
Mailer’s vociferous candidacy ("New York Gets an Imagination – or It Dies!") convinced opinionated Queens newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin to abandon his own mayoral quest and join the higher profile Mailer as his City Council President running mate.<ref name="queenstribune2003">[http://www.queenstribune.com/archives/nfparchive/2003/021303/notforpub.html Queens Tribune Online, Not For Publication]. Queenstribune.com (2001-09-12). Retrieved on September 6, 2011.</ref> In a ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' interview published four days before the primary, Mailer called himself a "left conservative" – left because he believed the city's problems demanded radical answers, conservative because he had little faith in [[centralized government]]. Mailer said that, if he were to win the primary and be elected in November, "a small miracle would have happened. At that moment the city would have declared that it had lost faith in the old ways of solving political problems and that it wished to embark on a new conception of politics."<ref name="autogenerated1969">[https://web.archive.org/web/20071112202823/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942073,00.html New York: Mailer for Mayor] ''Time'', Friday, June 13, 1969</ref>
Giving authority to local residents united by history, interests, or ethnicity, would create "some real power to the neighborhoods ... such as power with their local boards of education, power to decide about the style and quality and number of the police force they want and are willing to pay for, power over the Department of Sanitation, power over their parks."<ref name="autogenerated1969"/>
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* Statehood – New York City would be split off from the rest of New York State, and achieve independent statehood as the 51st State of the U.S. The campaign sought to free the city from the control of "upstate legislators who don't care about the city but control our schools, police, housing, and money." For a new state to be carved out of one already in existence requires the approval of both the old state legislature and the U.S. Congress. New states have been created from the territory of older states before: in 1792, Kentucky was formed from part of Virginia, and [[West Virginia]] broke away from Virginia and became a state in 1863. Mailer proposed that the first step, following his election, should be a citywide referendum on the question of statehood for the city.
* Taxes – In 1969, New York City taxpayers paid the state and federal governments $14 billion ($
* Transportation – All private cars would be banned from Manhattan Island. Buses and taxicabs would be permitted, with the number of cabs increased. Parking lots would be built outside Manhattan at strategic locations. A monorail, built around the circumference of Manhattan, would service these lots, stopping also at rail stations and water ferry terminals. A free bus and [[Dollar van|jitney]] service would operate in [[Midtown Manhattan|Midtown]], the city's most congested area. Publicly owned bicycles would be available to all at no cost.
* Pollution – The elimination of private cars from Manhattan Island would reduce pollution there by 60%. All vehicles and incinerators in the city would be required to have pollution control devices. Sweet Sundays (''q.v.'') would give the city breathing room once a month.
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[[Image:51st State Power Button.jpg|left|thumb|The campaign's "Power to the Neighborhood" concept placed authority for local governance in the hands of neighborhood residents.]]
[[Image:Norman Mailer
Perhaps the most significant outcome of the Mailer-Breslin campaign was that they did not finish last. That dubious honor belonged to [[James H. Scheuer]], who finished 1,878 votes behind Mailer. Mailer garnered over 10,000 more votes than Scheuer in Manhattan, and also outpolled him on Staten Island.
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|name=[[Mario Procaccino]]
|manhattan=26,804
|bronx=<u>'''50,465'''</u>
|brooklyn=<u>'''87,650'''</u>
|queens=<u>'''79,002'''</u>
|staten=<u>'''11,628'''</u>
|total=<u>255,529</u>
|}}
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|name=''{{right|percentage}}''
|manhattan=''16%''
|bronx=<u>''34%''</u>
|brooklyn=<u>''36%''</u>
|queens=<u>''40%''</u>
|staten=<u>''52%''</u>
|total=<u>''33%''</u>
|}}
{{NY Election candidate|
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|party=
|name=[[Herman Badillo]]
|manhattan=<u>'''74,809'''</u>
|bronx=48,841
|brooklyn=52,866
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|party=
|name=''{{right|percentage}}''
|manhattan=<u>''45%''</u>
|bronx=''33%''
|brooklyn=''22%''
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* {{cite book |last=Dearborn |first=Mary V. |date=1999 |title=Mailer: A Biography |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=0395736552 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/mailerbiography00mary }}
* {{cite book |last=Flaherty |first=Joe |date=1971 |title=Managing Mailer |location=New York |publisher=Berkley |oclc=3232597 }}
* {{cite book |last=Lennon |first=J. Michael |date=2013 |title=Norman Mailer: A Double Life |location=New York |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn= 978-1439150214 |oclc=873006264 |author-link=J. Michael Lennon }}
* {{cite book |last=Manso |first=Peter |date=2008 |title=Mailer: His Life and Times |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781416562863 |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Washington Square Press |isbn=9781416562863 |oclc=209700769 }}
{{Refend}}
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[[Category:Democratic Party (United States) campaigns]]
[[Category:Government of New York City]]
[[Category:Proposed states and territories of the United States]]
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