Word: rizzo
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...Frank Rizzo was Philadelphia's police commissioner. He is now the Democratic nominee for mayor of Philadelphia. He won the nomination last. Tuesday over Congressman William Green, a 33-year-old liberal, and Hardy Williams, a black lawyer and State Representative. His victory was overwhelming, too. Rizzo received 176.621 votes to 127.902 for Green and 45,026 for Williams. Five other candidates, three of whom withdrew too late to be removed from the ballot, together received about 11,000 votes...
...Rizzo's victory is as important as it is unfortunate. He ran a campaign based entirely on a very tough interpretation of the law-and-order issue. He is known throughout the country for being tough on blacks, students and radicals. Indeed, until the last week, he based his entire campaign on that one issue, refusing to answer the questions from voters, reporters, or newspapers on other issues. He declined to answer a set of questions posed to him by one of the city's newspapers, and the paper ran a blank column on its front page next...
...other issue on which Rizzo capitalized was Green's campaign. During the last week or so, Green brought in outside liberals to support his candidacy. Such Congressmen as Father Drinan and Abner Mikva came, as did Senator John Tunney of California. Allard Lowenstein and Ramsey Clark endorsed Green. So did Ted Kennedy. ("The Green family and the Kennedy family have always been very close," Teddy said in TV spots.) But Rizzo told the voters that he didn't need outside help, and that they didn't either...
Green also received the endorsement and active support of Pennsylvania's Democratic Governor, Milton Shapp. Apparently this didn't help Green much either. Shapp has been pushing a very unpopular tax plan, and his identification with Green gave voters an opportunity to vote against Shapp through Green. Rizzo attacked the tax plan, thus strengthening his position with those voters...
Green's campaign was very well organized and very professional. His manager was John Martila, the man who masterminded Father Drinan's successful campaign. He attacked Rizzo on the law-and-order issue, nothing that last year, while Rizzo was police commissioner, crime rose in Philadelphia by 243 per cent, equal to four times the national average for cities over 250,000. He also attacked Rizzo's claim that the drug problem is no worse now than it was ten years ago, and he questioned Rizzo's view that organized crime is not involved in the drug trade...