Bill Green, Former Congressman, 72
Hyfler/Rosner
By DOUGLAS MARTIN NYTimes
Bill Green, a United States representative from Manhattan who served for
seven terms and was dedicated to the liberal Republican tradition of Gov.
Nelson A. Rockefeller and Senator Jacob K. Javits, died on Monday* at New
York-Presbyterian Hospital. He was 72.
*Oct 14, 2002
The cause was liver cancer, his daughter Catherine Green said.
Mr. Green achieved the delicate balancing act of pleasing both his fellow
party members as they grew more conservative and the liberal voters on the
East Side of Manhattan who kept re-electing him until 1992. *
*(Never pleased me. I always voted against him)
In a letter to him in 1983, President Ronald Reagan thanked him for his
support when "you could give it."
Mr. Green's political success was directly related to his ability to get
money for New York, particularly for housing programs. In 1983, The New York
Times quoted Mr. Green as saying that he was "aggressive on behalf of the
city in getting dough."
He was also a meticulous student of issues, poring over The Federal
Register, which gives the minutiae of regulations. In 1992, The Almanac of
American Politics suggested that Republicans tolerated his support of civil
rights for gays and other liberal causes because "they understand that this
is the only kind of Republican who could hold this district."
Mr. Green represented the Upper East Side district once known as the Silk
Stocking District, and his political fortunes reflected its changing
district lines. Over the years, it was gradually redrawn to take in more
poor and middle-class neighborhoods. In 1992, heavily Democratic swaths of
Queens and Brooklyn were added late in the campaign, contributing to his
loss to Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democratic city councilwoman.
An earlier, geographically smaller district had elected John V. Lindsay, a
Republican, to the first of four terms in 1958; he went on to become mayor.
In 1968, Edward I. Koch, another future mayor, claimed it for the Democrats.
Mr. Green won a special election in 1978 to fill the seat left vacant when
Mr. Koch became mayor. Mr. Green ran on his liberal voting record as a state
assemblyman and as a strong proponent of social positions favored by
liberals. He defeated Bella S. Abzug, a former representative who was
running as a candidate of the Democratic and Liberal Parties, 51 to 49
percent, outspending her more than two to one.
An heir to the Grand Union supermarket fortune, Mr. Green continued to spend
lavishly on his campaigns even as he argued for stricter limits on campaign
spending. In what was one of the most expensive Congressional campaigns at
the time, he defeated Carter Burden, a Democratic former city councilman and
heir to the Vanderbilt and Whitney fortunes, in the general election of 1978
to retain his newly won seat.
In an interview with The New York Post, Mr. Green was quoted as calling the
high spending by both sides appalling; Mr. Burden called it "ridiculously
astronomic."
Sedgwick William Green was born in Manhattan on Oct. 16, 1929. He graduated
from Horace Mann School, Harvard and Harvard Law School, where he edited the
law review.
After Army service in the Judge Advocate General's Corps and a stint as a
law clerk to a federal judge, he went into private practice, dealing mostly
with securities and corporate law. Then he was a lawyer for the Joint
Legislative Committee on Housing and Urban Development.
He won a seat in the State Assembly in 1965, beating his Democratic-Liberal
opponent two to one in a predominantly Democratic district. In 1968, he ran
for Congress, but lost the Republican nomination to Whitney North Seymour
Jr., who in turn lost to Mr. Koch.
In 1970, he was appointed regional administrator of the federal Department
of Housing and Urban Development, serving until 1977, when the Carter
administration took office.
After his defeat in 1992, Mr. Green served on many corporate and
philanthropic boards and on the City Campaign Finance Board. He sought his
party's nomination for governor in 1994, but dropped out after finishing
last in four-way balloting at the Republican State Convention.
In addition to his daughter Catherine, of Washington, he is survived by his
wife, the former Patricia Freiberg; his son Louis, of San Francisco, and his
sister Cynthia Green Colin of Manhattan.
Brad Ferguson
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> Bill Green, Former Congressman, Dies at 72
> By DOUGLAS MARTIN NYTimes
>
>
> Bill Green, a United States representative from Manhattan who served for
> seven terms and was dedicated to the liberal Republican tradition of Gov.
> Nelson A. Rockefeller and Senator Jacob K. Javits, died on Monday* at New
> York-Presbyterian Hospital. He was 72.
>
> *Oct 14, 2002
>
> The cause was liver cancer, his daughter Catherine Green said.
>
> Mr. Green achieved the delicate balancing act of pleasing both his fellow
> party members as they grew more conservative and the liberal voters on the
> East Side of Manhattan who kept re-electing him until 1992. *
>
> *(Never pleased me. I always voted against him)
I knew him and liked him. One of my first journalism jobs was covering
him. I always voted for him, except once.
> Mr. Green's political success was directly related to his ability to get
> money for New York, particularly for housing programs. In 1983, The New York
> Times quoted Mr. Green as saying that he was "aggressive on behalf of the
> city in getting dough."
Green had run the local HUD district during the Nixon administration.
He knew housing.
> He was also a meticulous student of issues, poring over The Federal
> Register, which gives the minutiae of regulations. In 1992, The Almanac of
> American Politics suggested that Republicans tolerated his support of civil
> rights for gays and other liberal causes because "they understand that this
> is the only kind of Republican who could hold this district."
Well, duh. They also knew that Green wasn't going anywhere inside the
party with that stuff.
Green had been on the outs with Republican boss Vince Albano because
Green had dared to run against Albano's candidate, Whitney North
Seymour, for the party's nomination to Congress in 1968. Green lost,
and he wandered in the desert for a decade because of that.
> Mr. Green represented the Upper East Side district once known as the Silk
> Stocking District, and his political fortunes reflected its changing
> district lines. Over the years, it was gradually redrawn to take in more
> poor and middle-class neighborhoods. In 1992, heavily Democratic swaths of
> Queens and Brooklyn were added late in the campaign, contributing to his
> loss to Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democratic city councilwoman.
That turned out to be important. Clinton's fix-the-Reagan-deficit
budget passed by only one vote in the House.
> Mr. Green won a special election in 1978 to fill the seat left vacant when
> Mr. Koch became mayor. Mr. Green ran on his liberal voting record as a state
> assemblyman and as a strong proponent of social positions favored by
> liberals. He defeated Bella S. Abzug, a former representative who was
> running as a candidate of the Democratic and Liberal Parties, 51 to 49
> percent, outspending her more than two to one.
The hell! The Liberal Party was founded by Alex Rose as a
non-Communist alternative to the clutch of wacko political parties that
occupy the slots on the right-hand side of the voting machine. Rose
*hated* Abzug; in the 1940s, she'd been a Communist at Columbia
University, where she was known as "Red Bella."
They had absolutely no use for each other. Rose hated Abzug so much
that he ran right-wing radio talk show host Barry Farber against her
for Congress in 1970.
Abzug lost the 1978 special because her backer, regular Democratic boss
Jerry Finkelstein (father of Andrew Stein) strongarmed the organization
into accepting Abzug at its candidate. I was at the convention where
Abzug stole the nomination from Carter Burden, and there was blood in
the aisles. After that, no one wanted to work for her. Green spent
money because he was virtually unknown in the district; his Assembly
days were more than a decade behind him. Kepe in mind, too, that the
campaign was only about three weeks long.
I know that if Abzug had not stolen the nomination from Burden, the
Democrats would have won the special election. It was close enough as
it was -- maybe a thousand votes.
> An heir to the Grand Union supermarket fortune, Mr. Green continued to spend
> lavishly on his campaigns even as he argued for stricter limits on campaign
> spending. In what was one of the most expensive Congressional campaigns at
> the time, he defeated Carter Burden, a Democratic former city councilman and
> heir to the Vanderbilt and Whitney fortunes, in the general election of 1978
> to retain his newly won seat.
I worked for Burden in that one; I was his deputy press secretary. The
campaign was hugely expensive, but one reason is that they usually
count the expenses of the primary as well. Burden faced a knock-down,
drag-out fight for the nomination from Allard Lowenstein, UN
ambassador, friend of Eleanor Roosevelt and ca. 1960 radical. Burden
had to sell his stake in the Village Voice to pay for it all. I know
that, at the end of the campaign (in which Burden lost to Green by
6,000 votes), Burden was broke. I know that he hadn't even paid his
apartment's Con Edison bill in months, because I saw the bill myself.
This was a guy who lived on Sutton Place.
After he beat Carter Burden (who never ran for anything again), Green's
opponents tended to be unknowns, or mopes they brought in from out of
town. That was because the local Democratic organization had torn
itself apart when Bella Abzug was foisted upon it as its candidate for
the special election to replace Ed Koch in Congress. It didn't recover
for at least ten years.
God, it's been a long time and a rough ride: Everybody who ran in that
1978 election is on topic.
MadCow57
> Stocking District<<
John Lindsay's old district.
Erik L.
>the Silk
>> Stocking District<<
>John Lindsay's old district.
He won the seat vacated by Eddie Koch when he was elected mayor.
The 2002 American League East Division Champion New York Yankees
Erik L.
Hyfler/Rosner
"Brad Ferguson" <thir...@frXOXed.net> wrote in message
news:161020021423093017%thir...@frXOXed.net...
To clarify a bit, Bella Abzug was a graduate of Hunter College. She went to
Columbia for law school, one of the few women in the class. My mother was
in her class at Hunter.
Louis Epstein
: An heir to the Grand Union supermarket fortune, Mr. Green continued to spend
: lavishly on his campaigns even as he argued for stricter limits on campaign
: spending. In what was one of the most expensive Congressional campaigns at
: the time, he defeated Carter Burden, a Democratic former city councilman and
: heir to the Vanderbilt and Whitney fortunes, in the general election of 1978
: to retain his newly won seat.
What is Burden's Vanderbilt descent?
Presumably through Gertrude.
I note that the Grand Union supermarket chain died recently.
-=-=-
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