New York state election, 1954

The 1954 New York state election was held on November 2, 1954, to elect the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the State Comptroller, the Attorney General, the Chief Judge and three associate judges of the New York Court of Appeals, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.

Background

This was the first election in which the voters were required to cast a single joint vote for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, following the amendment to the State Constitution in 1953.

Chief Judge Edmund H. Lewis would reach the constitutional age limit of 70 years at the end of the year. He was elected in 1953, and John Van Voorhis was re-appointed on January 1, 1954, to the seat vacated by Lewis, to fill the vacancy temporarily.

Albert Conway and Charles S. Desmond had been elected to the Court of Appeals in 1940, thus their 14-year terms would expire at the end of the year.

Nominations

The Socialist Workers nominated David L. Weiss (b. ca. 1914), electronics worker, for Governor; Dorothy Haines, of Buffalo, for Lieutenant Governor; Harold Robins, of New York City, for Comptroller; and Catherine Gratta (b. ca. 1922), machine inspector, of Brooklyn, for Attorney General.^[1]

The American Labor Party nominated John T. McManus for Governor; actress Karen Morley for Lieutenant Governor; Ralph Powe, lawyer, for Comptroller (the only Negro running for a statewide elective office this year); and George W. Fish, lawyer, of Brooklyn, for Attorney General.^[2]

The Socialist Labor Party filed a petition to nominate candidates as the Industrial Government Party on September 30. The ticket had only three names: Nathan Karp for Governor; Stephen Emery for Lieutenant Governor; and John Emanuel for Comptroller.^[3]

Result

Almost the whole Democratic/Liberal ticket was elected, only Republican Jacob K. Javits managed to be elected Attorney General.

The incumbents Van Voorhis and Desmond were re-elected.

The American Labor Party lost its automatic ballot access and disbanded shortly afterwards.

1954 state election results

Office	Democratic ticket		Republican ticket		Liberal ticket		American Labor ticket		Socialist Workers ticket		Industrial Government ticket
Governor	W. Averell Harriman	2,560,738	Irving M. Ives	2,549,613	W. Averell Harriman		John T. McManus	46,886	David L. Weiss	2,617	Nathan Karp[4]	1,720
Lieutenant Governor	George B. DeLuca		J. Raymond McGovern		George B. DeLuca		Karen Morley		Dorothy Haines		Stephen Emery[5]
Comptroller	Arthur Levitt	2,260,193	Frank Del Vecchio[6]	2,490,184	Arthur Levitt	255,481	Ralph Powe		Harold Robins		John Emanuel
Attorney General	Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.	2,430,959	Jacob K. Javits	2,603,858	Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr.		George W. Fish		Catherine Gratta
Chief Judge	Albert Conway		Albert Conway		Albert Conway
Judge of the Court of Appeals	Charles S. Desmond		Charles S. Desmond		Charles S. Desmond
Judge of the Court of Appeals	John Van Voorhis		John Van Voorhis		George Rifkin[7]
Judge of the Court of Appeals	Adrian P. Burke		Sydney F. Foster		Adrian P. Burke

Obs.:

• The numbers are total votes on Democratic and Liberal tickets for Harriman/DeLuca and Roosevelt.
• The vote for Governor is used to define ballot access, for automatic access are necessary 50,000 votes.

Notes

1. ^ A.L.P. Legal Future At Stake on Tuesday; A.L.P. Must Poll 50,000 Votes To Remain a Recognized Party in NYT on October 30, 1954 (subscription required)
2. ^ A.L.P. Legal Future At Stake on Tuesday; A.L.P. Must Poll 50,000 Votes To Remain a Recognized Party in NYT on October 30, 1954 (subscription required)
3. ^ CANDIDATE SLATE FILED; Industrial Government Party to Seek Three Offices in NYT on October 1, 1954 (subscription required)
4. ^ Nathan Karp (b. ca. 1915), clothing cutter, of Queens, ran also for Lieutenant Governor in 1950; for the U.S. Senate in 1952; and for Mayor of New York in 1953
5. ^ Stephen Emery, subway train dispatcher, of New York City, ran also for the U.S. Senate in 1950
6. ^ Frank Del Vecchio, of Syracuse, D.A. of Onondaga County, later New York Supreme Court justice (5th District)
7. ^ George Rifkin (ca. 1907-1972), labor lawyer, of Queens, GEORGE RIFKIN DIES; LABOR LAWYER, 65 Obit in NYT on February 19, 1972 (subscription required)

Sources

• Official Result: HARRIMAN MARGIN LOWEST SINCE 1850; Chosen Governor by 11,125 in Official Tally; All-Time Low in Race 108 in 1792 in NYT on December 17, 1954 (subscription required) [The headline refers to the New York state election, 1850, in which Washington Hunt defeated Horatio Seymour by 262 votes; and to the New York gubernatorial election, 1792 in which the incumbent Governor George Clinton was re-elected by 108 votes over John Jay, after the controversial exclusion of several hundred votes from three counties.]

See also

New York gubernatorial elections