Judge Mario A. Procaccino

In 1970, Douglas met with losing 1969 New York Mayoral candidate, Judge Mario A. Procaccino, at his downtown office.

The Interview

In 1969 Procaccino won the Democratic primary for mayor with 32.8 percent of the vote in a five-man contest. After briefly having a large lead in the general election race (a poll of June showed him leading Liberal Party nominee Lindsay by fourteen points) the mostly conservative Democrat soon lost public support, probably because he was unable to supplement his "law and order" campaign rhetoric. 

Procaccino thought little of Independent Lindsay (who won the election); felt welfare, in NYC, was too easy to get, and keep; favored educational opportunity, but was against "open enrollment." He saw Nixon as good on Vietnam de-escalation.

His campaign was, according to journalist Richard Reeves, "the worst political campaign in American history." According to Reeves, Procaccino "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory," and made some notable verbal gaffes while on the campaign trail. When speaking before an African-American audience, Procaccino made a gaffe by saying, "My heart is as black as yours'" he would also say that his running mate, Francis X. Smith, "grows on you like a cancer."