The New York City mayoral election of 1933 took place on November 7, 1933, in New York City. Incumbent Democratic Mayor John P. O'Brien, who was elected in a special election after the resignation of Mayor Jimmy Walker, faced Republican Congressman and 1929 mayoral candidate Fiorello La Guardia, and former acting mayor and President of the New York City Board of Aldermen Joseph V. McKee, who became acting mayor after Walker's resignation until the special election, and ran on the Recovery Party line. This was the first time since 1901 that Republicans won a mayoral election in New York City. This is also the worst performance by a Democratic candidate in a New York City mayoral election.

Background Incumbent Democratic Mayor Jimmy Walker, who was a member of Tammany Hall, won reelection in the 1929 election against Republican nominee Fiorello La Guardia. Walker resigned on September 1, 1932, following investigations into corruption by the Hofstadter Committee under the leadership of Samuel Seabury. Joseph V. McKee succeeded Walker as mayor, but his opponents successfully sued for a 1932 special election, in which Tammany-backed John P. O'Brien was elected.

The City Fusion Party was formed in opposition to Tammany Hall following O'Brien's victory, inspired by the Charter Party of Cincinnati, which defeated Rudolph K. Hynicka's political machine in the 1920s, and grew out of William Jay Schieffelin's Committee of One Thousand. The Fusion Conference Committee, a group of reformers and Republicans, was formed to select a candidate to oppose Tammany Hall in the mayoral election. The main leaders of the committee were former governor Charles Seymour Whitman, J. Barstow Smull, Joseph M. Price, and Maurice P. Davidson.

There were 2,324,389 registered voters in New York City in 1933, with 435,966 of them being Republicans. Herbert Hoover failed to win New York City in the 1928 and 1932 presidential elections.

Democratic nomination Candidates Jerome G. Ambro, Assemblyman from Bushwick Loring M. Black Jr., U.S. Representative from Brooklyn Axel T. Fredlund (also running as American) John P. O'Brien, incumbent mayor since 1932 Campaign Mayor O'Brien ran for re-election with the support of Tammany Hall and the Brooklyn party machine, led by John F. Curry and John H. McCooey respectively. He was opposed by two insurgent candidates, U.S. Representative Loring M. Black Jr. and Assemblyman Jerome G. Ambro.

In the waning days of the campaign, there were calls for O'Brien to withdraw from the race. In an interview at City Hall, O'Brien emphatically denied that he would withdraw and predicted his own re-election. Both insurgent candidates predicted they would win the primary, which party organization men characterized as absurd, predicting a large plurality for O'Brien.

Results

City Fusion nomination Candidates Fiorello La Guardia, U.S. Representative from East Harlem (Republican)

Withdrawn John F. O'Ryan, World War I veteran, founder of the American Legion, and airline executive (Republican)

Declined Raymond V. Ingersoll, former Brooklyn Parks Commissioner (Democratic; ran for Brooklyn Borough President) John C. Knox, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Independent) Joseph V. McKee, former President of the Board of Alderman and acting mayor (Democratic; drafted to run as independent) George Vincent McLaughlin, former New York City Police Commissioner (Democratic) Robert Moses, chairman of the New York State Council of Parks, commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and former Secretary of State of New York (Republican) Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr., NBC executive and former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections (Independent) Samuel Seabury, former New York Court of Appeals judge and lead investigator of the Hofstadter Committee (Democratic) Clarence J. Shearn, former New York Supreme Court justice (Independent) Al Smith, former Governor of New York and 1928 Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States (Democratic) Nathan Straus Jr., former State Senator from Midtown Manhattan (Democratic)

Campaign Although many members were Republicans, the committee sought to give its support to an independent Democrat, due to four-to-one advantage in voter registration in favor of the Democratic Party in the city.

Samuel Seabury, whose investigations led to the resignation of Mayor Walker, declined to be a candidate for mayor, as he felt that he would be accused of conducting the investigation for political ambition. A draft movement sought to bring Al Smith into the election as the head of a coalition, but he declined to run on May 15. The committee then considered Raymond Ingersoll, John C. Knox, George Vincent McLaughlin, Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr., Clarence J. Shearn, and Straus for the nomination, but Straus declined, stating that he was afraid of increasing antisemitism if both the governor of New York (Herbert H. Lehman) and the mayor of New York City were Jewish.

Having failed to recruit a Democratic candidate, the committee narrowed its choices to Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Moses, and John F. O'Ryan. The committee voted to give its nomination to Moses on July 26, without telling Seabury, who was opposed to Moses and supported La Guardia. However, Moses called Price to decline the nomination as Moses failed to gain Smith's endorsement.

Whitman, who was also the chair of the Republican mayoral nominating committee and opponent of La Guardia, suggested O'Ryan, and Joseph M. Price stated that "If it's La Guardia or bust, I prefer bust!". The committee voted to give O'Ryan the nomination, and he accepted. However, Seabury opposed Whitman, who had defeated him in the 1916 gubernatorial election, and O'Ryan, stating that he was inexperienced in politics. Seabury formed a competing committee with Charles Culp Burlingham, Roy W. Howard, and George Z. Medalie to replace the Fusion Conference Committee. To avoid a split, W. Kingsland Macy asked for O'Ryan to withdraw, and O'Ryan agreed to do so if he failed to receive a "convincing unanimity" from the Republican mayoralty committee. La Guardia likewise stated that he would support O'Ryan if the latter received the nomination.

When a majority of the Republican mayoralty committee voted to support La Guardia on August 4, he secured the City Fusion nomination as well.

Republican nomination Candidates Fiorello La Guardia, U.S. Representative from East Harlem

Withdrawn John F. O'Ryan, World War I veteran, founder of the American Legion, and airline executive

Declined Samuel Seabury, former Court of Appeals judge and lead investigator of the Hofstadter Committee (Democratic)

Campaign The Republican mayoralty committee met on August 3. Whitman introduced a resolution to endorse O'Ryan, but it was filibustered by Ed Corsi, Stanley M. Isaacs, Vito Marcantonio, and Charles H. Tuttle. Seabury was offered the nomination, but he declined it. The majority of the committee initially supported O'Ryan, but a majority later supported La Guardia and O'Ryan released his supporters. La Guardia was given the nominations of the Republican and City Fusion parties after midnight on August 4. William Chadbourne served as La Guardia's campaign manager.

General election Background Samuel S. Koenig, the leader of the Republican Party in Manhattan and a political machine, was defeated in the September primaries and replaced by Chase Mellen, a reformist who supported La Guardia. Three of the eight Tammany Hall district leaders lost reelection in their primaries.

Candidates Henry Klein (Five Cent Fare and Taxpayers') Fiorello La Guardia, U.S. Representative from East Harlem (Republican and City Fusion) Joseph McKee, former President of the New York Board of Aldermen and acting Mayor (Recovery) Robert Minor (Communist) John P. O'Brien, incumbent mayor since 1932 (Democratic and Jefferson) Charles Solomon, former Assemblyman (Socialist) Disqualified Axel T. Fredlund (American)

La Guardia's ticket was selected for ethnic and political considerations. W. Arthur Cunningham, the candidate for New York City Comptroller, was a reformer and a Catholic. Bernard S. Deutsch, the candidate for President of the Board of Aldermen, was the chair of the City Fusion Party in the Bronx and president of the American Jewish Congress. Jacob Gould Schurman Jr., the candidate for New York County District Attorney, was the son of Jacob Gould Schurman, who had served as the president of Cornell University and in United States foreign affairs. It was the first time in the history of New York City that the four highest positions had Italian, Irish, Jewish, and WASP candidates on the same ticket.

The Law Preservation Party did not nominate a candidate for mayor.

Campaign

Polling conducted by The Literary Digest showed La Guardia defeating O'Brien by a margin of four-to-one. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent James Farley and Edward J. Flynn to convince McKee to run in the election as O'Brien was predicted to easily lose to La Guardia. Roosevelt's attempts were leaked on September 23, and La Guardia unsuccessfully appealed to McKee not to run. McKee announced that he would run for mayor on the ballot line of the Recovery Party on September 30, with Harry M. Durning as his campaign manager.

McKee's late entry into the race placed him at a serious disadvantage, and the Recovery Party was unable to nominate a full slate of candidates or lead a voter registration campaign. Although he had a large fundraising advantage of two-to-one over La Guardia and the support of a broader circulation of newspapers, La Guardia had made up ground from his 1929 campaign, due to financial support from figures such as John D. Rockefeller Jr. Unlike 1929, La Guardia ended the campaign with more money than he had spent.

Ed Corsi, Leonard Covello, and Vito Marcantonio were tasked by the La Guardia campaign with outreach to the Italian community. The F.H. La Guardia Club was formed and grew to almost one thousand members and the Honest Ballot Association, while officially non-partisan, was led by supporters of the Fusion campaign, had 20,000 of its members march on election day to prevent voter intimidation. By election day, La Guardia's campaign had increased the total number of registered voters from around 1,500,000 to 2,324,389.