Koch Beats Cuomo to Take City Hall

On November 8, 1977, Congressman Ed Koch defeated Mario Cuomo in the general election to become the next mayor of New York City, capping a brutal Democratic primary and runoff that had also knocked out incumbent Abe Beame, Bella Abzug, and Percy Sutton. The campaign ran through the worst summer the city had seen in years: a citywide blackout in mid-July set off looting across the boroughs, and David Berkowitz, the shooter known as Son of Sam, was arrested that August after more than a year of killings. City Hall was also still climbing out of the fiscal crisis that had put New York on the edge of bankruptcy two years earlier. Koch ran as the law and order candidate promising austerity and control, and the runoff against Cuomo turned ugly, with Koch backers accusing Cuomo of anti-Semitism and Cuomo supporters running a homophobic slogan against Koch. Koch won the runoff and then the general election, taking office as a mayor built for a city that wanted someone who sounded certain.