Why was I
so interested in politics ?All of us who grew
up in post-war Berlin had been taught a high
degree of civic responsibility in school, and it
was a lesson that had stuck deeply with me, At
age 26 I decided I would try my hand at politics,
so that 40 years later I wouldn't end up
bemoaning the fact that there was this great
unfulfilled passion.
Ed
Koch in 1972, with an inscription in the
upper left corner thanking
me for "my help in so many
ways"
|
|
I walked into Ed
Koch's office, who was then a Congressman
with lots of fresh ideas (later Mayor of
New York City). I worked as a volunteer
for Ed for a while and was eventually put
on his staff. From Ed I learned the ins
and outs of New York politics: how New
York City was divided into small
fiefdoms, dominated by political clubs.
At Ed's suggestion I joined the
(Greenwich) Village Independent Democrats
(VID), at the time one of the legendary
political reform institutions in American
politics. |
|
|
|
|
|
At
VID I learned the inner workings of the
"system": I learned how to run
campaigns, how a political organization
functions, and about the ongoing fight between
the old regular Tammany Hall organization and the
new Democratic reform movement, of which VID was
the standard bearer.
In 1973 I helped start an insurgent political
club, modeled after VID, on the east side of
Manhattan called "Gramercy-Stuyvesant
Independent Democrats." For the next 7 years
I spent most of my waking hours helping to build
the club into a viable political organization. We
were lucky: we turned out to be the straw that
broke the dominance of the old regular
organization on local politics.
My chief interest became the reform of the
judicial selection process. In New York most of
the judges are elected, and since most voters
don't vote for judges, the selection of judges
was made in the smoke-filled back room of the
local clubs. It used to be pure patronage on the
basis "this year it's your club's turn for a
judgeship." Judicial selection was the
murkiest water of New York politics.
A number of people in the reform movement had
worked on this issue; I joined them, and after
many battles that took years we pushed through a
system of reforms which now requires that in
order to become a Democratic candidate for a
judgeship (which in New York City is tantamount
to election) the candidate has to be approved by
a Judicial Screening Committee made up by
representatives of law schools, Bar Associations,
community groups, etc. It had a huge impact on
the quality of the judiciary in Manhattan, and
the system has since been imitated in many other
jurisdictions.
By now I'm almost retired from politics, and
most of my other activist
friends are also; some of them became judges.
We're older, and a little more tired. Spending an
evening fighting over Robert's Rules of Order
doesn't hold the same thrill that it once did.
My "career" in politics was a
wonderful period of my life: full of excitement,
disappointments (lost elections) and moments of
pure ecstasy (winning a race where you knew
you were on the side of the angels).
