Pleasing to Few

If there is any possible way for a Democrat to lose an election in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City, then bumbling Mayor Robert Wagner, 51, is just the fellow to find it. Last week, announcing his decision to run for a third term, Wagner got off to a predictably stumbling start.

Wagner's announcement came after three months of hemming and hawing about his own candidacy and his choice of running mates. The mayor had been under heavy pressure from dissident camps about his ticket. Democratic reformers led by Eleanor Roosevelt and Herbert Lehman wanted Wagner to dump both City Council President Abe Stark and Controller Lawrence Gerosa as incompetent. New York's Liberal Party--a powerful third force in New York politics--also demanded that Stark and Gerosa be left off the ticket. But Wagner was under equally strong pressure from regular party leaders to keep the two.

Typically, the mayor tried to please everybody--and ended up pleasing hardly anyone. Sweating profusely at a floodlit conference (where the mayor's frantic brow-mopping provided photographers with readymade man-in-agony pictures), Wagner announced his choices. He dumped Gerosa, picked able Deputy Mayor Paul R. Screvane, 46, to run as city council president, downrated Brooklyn Haberdasher Stark to controller. The move took Stark out of the line of succession should the mayor resign for a federal appointment. Cried Brooklyn Boss Joseph T. Sharkey, white-faced with anger: "I think the Jewish people in this town might feel they were trying to get rid of Abe and make it impossible for a Jew to become mayor."

Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1 in New York, and Wagner is still favored to beat a Republican ticket headed by State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz. But the election is not until Nov. 7 --and that gives Bumbling Bob ample time to boot it.

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