Something Better

Although local pollsters and pundits had long since written his political obituaries, New York City's Republican Mayoralty Candidate Louis Lefkowitz refused to play dead. Last week, with the Nov. 7 election against Democratic Incumbent Robert Wagner drawing near, Lefkowitz tirelessly continued to stump the city's five boroughs, pleaded his case before doctors and flower merchants, garment makers and university professors.

To housewives, Lefkowitz argued that the city had grown filthier under Wagner than ever before: "In the time Mayor Wagner has been in office, you have probably had to wash your curtains once a month--a total of 96 times--to keep them only reasonably clean." At a home rally, Lefkowitz asked: "Would any of you dream of hiring a man for four more years when he's been a flop for eight?" Time and again, Lefkowitz accused Wagner of indifference to New York's crime rate. Cried he: "The decent people of this community are sick and tired of being human footballs for the hoodlums, punks, sex degenerates and drug addicts who terrorize our streets and parks at night."

In New York City, with its 3-to-1 Democratic registration, Lefkowitz remained an underdog against Wagner. But his campaign got a boost from the New York Times* which, having backed Wagner in the Democratic primary in September, now found that "Lefkowitz offers the prospect of something better than Wagner, maybe much better--a possibility of great improvements against the near certainty of continued mediocrity."

*Other endorsements so far: the Herald Tribune for Lefkowitz, the Post for Wagner.

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