1965 election Incumbent mayor John Lindsay was elected in
1965 as a Republican with Liberal Party support. However, Lindsay failed to win a majority of the vote, primarily due to the rise of the
Conservative Party, which polled over thirteen percent of the vote behind candidate
William F. Buckley Jr. Liberal Party support, which typically went to the Democratic Party nominee, was therefore crucial to Lindsay's win.
Race relations In summer 1967, New York was one of many American cities rocked by urban riots, with four killed after an off-duty NYPD officer shot and killed a Puerto Rican man, Renaldo Rodriguez, who lunged at him with a knife. In response to the unrest throughout the country, President Lyndon B. Johnson established the
National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Lindsay served on the Commission and used it as an opportunity to publicly campaign for urban renewal, visiting riot-damaged sites accompanied by national and local press, and he was influential in its final report. In April 1968, one month after the report was released,
rioting broke out in more than 100 American cities following the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In New York, however, Lindsay was credited with averting a crisis when he traveled personally to the Black-majority neighborhood of
Harlem to tell residents that he regretted King's death and was working to end urban poverty. His administration also sponsored the 1969
Harlem Cultural Festival, at which Lindsay was introduced as "our blue-eyed soul brother."
Blizzard of 1969 On February 10, 1969, New York City received 15 inches (38 cm) of snow and in one day alone, 14 people died and 68 were injured. For three days, the city was completely paralyzed; streets, subways, airports, and schools were suspended. Lindsay faced repeated criticism during and after the blizzard that he had prioritized his native borough of Manhattan over the four other boroughs, particularly Queens, which remained unplowed over one week after the storm. The criticism prompted Lindsay to visit Queens but, after his limousine became trapped in
Rego Park, he was forced to abandon it in favor of a four-wheel truck and was heckled by local residents. Ultimately, 42 people died as a result of the snowstorm, half of them in Queens, and 288 were injured. Biographer Vincent J. Cannato attributed Lindsay's failed handling of the snowstorm to a hesitation to exceed his budget and potentially, deliberate sabotage by the city's sanitation workers, who held a grudge against Lindsay for his heavy-handed negotiation tactics during their 1968 strike. == Republican primary ==