Stanley Steingut (May 20, 1920 – December 8, 1989) was an American politician, New York Democratic Party leader, insurance brokerage owner, and lawyer. He took over his father's position as boss of Brooklyn County Democratic politics and eventually parlayed that position to become Speaker of the New York State Assembly. Before reaching that office, Steingut engaged in a power struggle along with Reform Democrats beginning in the early-1960s, when he was an early and powerful supporter of Robert F. Kennedy's bid for Senate from New York. In the late 1950s, he was an early supporter of then-Senator John F. Kennedy's bid for the nomination of the Democratic Party for the presidency. His support of both Kennedys caused a major rift with Tammany Hall Democrats led by then-Mayor Wagner. Those loyal to Wagner combined with Rockefeller Republicans deprived him of the Speakership in 1965 even though he had a great majority of the Democratic Assembly members. He would not take over the party leadership in the Assembly until 1969. He considered his sponsorship of landmark legislation providing public educational services for the developmentally disabled his greatest legislative accomplishment.
Political enmity did not then die out, and allegations of self-dealing began to dog him. Ultimately at the height of his political power within the Assembly, a primary challenge arose from a nearly unknown candidate. Steingut had been an ardent supporter of abortion as well as an outspoken foe of the death penalty. Although Steingut was supported by high-profile Democrats and employed a court challenge to save his seat, he ultimately lost. He spent the rest of his life as a lawyer refusing many opportunities to trade on his relationships by engaging in lobbying.
Early life Stanley Steingut was the son of Irwin Steingut, a first-generation American, himself the son an immigrant from Hamburg (Simon Steingut) who left his own prosperous family (his father and brother were bankers with their own firm in Hamburg) to emigrate to the United States sometime before 1886. Irwin Steingut worked first as a reporter and then in his father's Manhattan real estate office, before his 30-year career as New York Assemblyman from Kings County (1922-1952). During that time, he acted as minority leader from 1930 to 1934 and 1936 to 1952 and was Speaker in 1935 for the one term that Democrats had a majority in the New York Assembly during the 51 years from 1914 through 1964.
Stanley Steingut was born on May 20, 1920, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn to Irwin Steingut and Rae Kaufmann Steingut. He was the couple's second and only other child, his older sister June Eleanor having been born on August 12, 1917.Schlegel, Carl Wilhelm, Schlegel's German-American Families in America (New York: American Historical Society: 1916-1918), Volume 3, p. 111. He attended the Peddie School and Union College. He served as a chief petty officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II, went on to graduate from St. John's University School of Law and was admitted to the New York bar in 1950. (Corrected December 12, 1989.)
Early politics Stanley learned retail politics at a young age from his father, with whom he campaigned door to door. When he was in college at nearby Schenectady, he was a familiar figure in Albany, where he acquired the name "Zip" (owing to a "garment mishap"). Late in life he would recall swimming with Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Governor's mansion in Albany as well as in the White House and running errands as a page boy for Al Smith..
In Brooklyn, his father's political base was the Madison Club of Brooklyn, a machine founded by his mentor John H. McCooey, who sponsored Irwin Steingut's first run for the Assembly in 1921.Krase, Jerome and Charles LaCerra, Ethnicity and Machine Politics (University Press of America: 2009) ("Krase & LaCerra"), p. 81. Steingut's father became head of the Club during the New Deal (in part to appease the Administration for McCooey's decision to support Al Smith over Franklin D. RooseveltKrase & LaCerra, pp. 8-9.) and remained boss until his death.Tuccille, Jerome, Trump: The Saga of America's Most Powerful Real Estate Baron (Beard Books 1985), p. 98. Steingut joined the Madison Club early, and it was there that he came into close contact with his father's friends, who also came to Brooklyn from Manhattan's Lower East Side: Abraham "Abe" Beame and Nathan Sobel. When his father died in 1952, Steingut stepped into the leadership position of the Madison Club. He would become head of the Brooklyn Democratic Committee in 1962 (together with Congresswoman Edna F. Kelly, a protege of Irwin Steingut). In that position, he would amass "vast power and patronage." Influential columnist Jack Newfield would call him "a charter member of the Permanent Government."
New York Assembly career
In 1953 Steingut also succeeded to his father's Assembly seat, which he would hold until his defeat in 1978, sitting in the 169th, 170th, 171st, 172nd, 173rd, 174th, 175th, 176th, 177th, 178th, 179th, 180th, 181st and 182nd New York State Legislatures.
He was never known as a legislative craftsman, but early in his career, he worked diligently as a member of the joint legislative committee on physical handicaps and on mental retardation and eventually was appointed chairman of the Joint Committee on Child Care Needs. These areas became closely associated with him since the 1950s when he co-sponsored many programs with Republican Earl Brydges, who was especially interested in education policy and mental health issues. In 1957 he received an award from the Association for the Help of Retarded Children in which he was cited for "his contributions on behalf of the mentally retarded in the field of community services ... ."
Throughout the years, reporters remarked on his unprepossessing appearance. One said that "his slow-moving bulk, his heavy-bagged eyes, his thinning reddish hair and the creases in his face make it seem as if he was born old and has weathered since under the stresses of political wars." As a public speaker he was called "lackluster," and he was always "wary of reporters." Steingut once told one: "I have no comment—and that's off the record." His most memorable elocution in the Assembly emphasized mixed metaphors. He warned of the dangers of a bill that would "derail the ship of state," and he tried to move his colleagues by noting that "this session has been hit by an avalanche of creeping paralysis."
He excelled, as a practitioner of back room, inside-party politics. "He's the greatest checker mover in town," one Democrat said, explaining his skill in promoting young acolytes, while also creating new positions for others to enter into the system. This was one of McCooey's guiding principles for maintaining a political machine. He was also known for having a tireless work ethic, and for demanding the same from his colleagues, often rising to call fellow Democrats and his staff before 6 a.m. to discuss political business.
His abiding passion was to obtain the position his father had, Speaker of the Assembly, and was said to have harbored this single-minded goal "all of his life." Two things were needed for that to happen: Steingut would have to become the leader of the Assembly Democrats and the Democrats would have to become the majority party. When Eugene Bannigan died on July 4, 1958, Steingut sought to replace him as Minority Leader. Steingut was relatively junior by Albany standards and lacked the necessary "political muscle." The Democrats then controlled by Tammany Hall leader Carmine DeSapio chose Anthony Travia, also of Brooklyn, instead.
By 1964, with 15 years in the Assembly, Steingut was ready to try again, and this time the political muscle would be aided by the extensive organization of newcomer (to New York politics) Robert F. Kennedy. At the initial suggestion of Steingut after learning that President Johnson would not ask him to be his running mate, Kennedy reluctantly reconsidered a run for the Senate from New York, something he denied contemplating on June 22.Newfield, Jack, RFK: A Memoir (New York: Nation Books, c2003) ("Newfield"), p. 144. Almost all the Democratic bosses and machine politicians (including Nassau County boss John English, Erie County chairman Peter Crotty, Bronx boss Charles Buckley, powerful Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Steingut) supported Kennedy, impressed with the need for fresh blood in the party, which had not won a Senate seat since 1950 or the Governor's office since 1954, despite the advantage of 500,000 more registered voters than the Republican Party.Newfield, pp. 143-44. One time Tammany machine politician Mayor Robert Wagner now represented the opponents of Kennedy, who like the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune and others opposed Kennedy and put forward the lackluster upstate Congressman Sam Stratton.Newfield, pp. 144-45. Wagner's goal was to maintain control of the state party with a view to his own governor's race in 1966. Kennedy easily defeated Stratton on September 1. Despite a rambling general election campaign, Kennedy defeated Senator Kenneth Keating, largely on the coattails of Johnson's landslide victory, which also gave Democrats their first Assembly majority since Steingut's father was Speaker in 1935.
On November 17, Steingut made clear he was running for Speaker.. Although Kennedy himself claimed to be neutral, the Kennedy coalition together with Kennedy's brother-in-law and campaign manager Stephen Smith and Kennedy scheduler Justin Feldman appeared to be actively supporting Steingut. There were unfounded charges of "crude" tactics including offers of campaign cash, threats of retaliation and, according to Wagner, promises of increased "lulus" (the term for legislators' untabulated expense accounts). On December 22–23, 1964, at an informal party conference in Albany Steingut was preferred over Travia by a vote of 52 to 33. Both the state party chairman and the state party national committeeman supported Steingut. At this point, Wagner rallied assemblymen loyal to him to salvage his control over the state party. Their principal charge was that Steingut "was the 'principal architect' of the move to install Senator Julian B. Erway, an Albany conservative, as majority leader of the Senate. In fact, the takeover of the state legislature was largely owing to the election of upstate Democrats. The coalition behind Steingut having determined to allow upstate Democrats an important leadership position, the Senate was decided upon, and they, therefore, passed over Manhattan Senator and minority leader Joseph Zaretzki. Upstate Democrats then fixed on Erway for the position, and long-time Albany Democratic boss Daniel P. O'Connell consented. In the face of liberal opposition, however, Erway withdrew, as (seemingly) did Steingut's choice Jack E. Bronston who ran afoul of Queens boss Moses M. Weinstein, a Wagner supporter. The missteps of the Steingut coalition appeared to have fractured the unanimous support he had at the informal caucus. Steingut could not muster a majority of the members in either house, and the legislature was unable to function for six weeks while the leadership dispute continued.
In the end, Wagner made a deal with Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and on February 3, 1965 Republicans voted with the Wagner Democrats to elect Zaretzki Senate majority leader with the votes of 25 Republicans and 15 Democrats. His opponent Bronston got 18 Democratic votes. The next day the Assembly elected Travia with the votes of 46 Republicans and 35 Wagner Democrats. Steingut received the votes of 53 Democrats and 3 Republicans. Later in that session, nearly all the Wagner Democrats voted with the Republican to pass an unpopular 2% increase in the sales tax proposed by Rockefeller.