FRANK NERVO IS THANKFUL

Chapter 18. On the Use of Money in Politics

THE civil service gang is always howlin� about candidates and officeholders puttin� up money for campaigns and about corporations chippin� in. They might as well howl about givin� contributions to churches. A political organization has to have money for its business as well as a church, and who has more right to put up than the men who get the good things that are goin�? Take, for instance, a great political concern like Tammany Hall It does missionary work like a church, it�s got big expenses and it�s got to be supported by the faithful. If a corporation sends in a check to help the good work of the Tammany Society, why shouldn�t we take it like other missionary societies? Of course, the day may come when we�ll reject the money of the rich as tainted, but it hadn�t come when I left Tammany Hall at 11:25 A.M. today.

Not long ago some newspapers had fits became the Assemblyman from my district said he had put up $500 when he was nominated for the Assembly last year. Every politician in town laughed at these papers. I don�t think there was even a Citizens� Union man who didn�t know that candidates of both parties have to chip in for campaign expenses. The sums they pay are accordin� to their salaries and the length of their terms of office, if elected. Even candidates for the Supreme Court have to fall in line. A Supreme Court Judge in New York County gets $17,500 a year, and he�s expected, when nominated, to help along the good cause with a year�s salary. Why not? He has fourteen years on the bench ahead of him, and ten thousand other lawyers would be willin� to put up twice as much to be in his shoes. Now, I ain�t sayin� that we sell nominations. That�s a different thing altogether. There�s no auction and no regular biddin�. The man is picked out and somehow he gets to understand what�s expected of him in the way of a contribution, and he ponies up � all from gratitude to the organization that honored him, see?

Let me tell you an instance that shows the difference between sellin� nominations and arrangin� them in the way I described. A few years ago a Republican district leader controlled the nomination for Congress in his Congressional district. Four men wanted it. At first the leader asked for bids privately, but decided at last that the best thing to do was to get the four men together in the back room of a certain saloon and have an open auction. When be had his men lined up, he got on a chair, told about the value of the goods for sale, and asked for bids in regular auctioneer style. The highest bidder got the nomination for $5000. Now, that wasn�t right at all. These things ought to be always fixed up nice and quiet.

As to officeholders, they would be ingrates if they didn�t contribute to the organization that put them in office. They needn�t be assessed. That would be against the law. But they know what�s expected of them, and if they happen to forget they can be reminded polite and courteous. Dan Donegan, who used to be the Wiskinkie of the Tammany Society, and received contributions from grateful officeholders, had a pleasant way of remindin�. If a man forgot his duty to the organization that made him, Dan would call on the man, smile as sweet as you please and say: �You haven�t been round at the Hall lately, have you?� If the man tried to slide around the question, Dan would say: �It�s gettin� awful cold.� Then he would have a fit of shiverin� and walk away. What could be more polite and, at the same time, more to the point? No force, no threats � only a little shiverin� which any man is liable to even in summer.

Like deja vu all over again.

Was that the fixed panel?

This guy Frank Nurvo is a [DELETED] genuis.

First, he controlled the Panel and got his friend to be the Administrator and handpicked who he wanted to serve with her. Then he controls the election.

If he votes for himself, he wins.

Forget Tamany, Nurvo got those guys beat, this is truly history in the making.

The N.Y.C. First Civil (no longer 'Municipal") Court District Democratic Party screening panel was set up by the local district leaders. The County organization's panels screen only for county-wide Civil Court vacancies--unless the D.L.s in a district request that County do it for them.

While this much-criticized panel--"fixed" or not--may not have been concordant with the panel guidelines established in the 1970's by the Party's Reformers, the "bottom line" is: Is Frank Nervo a good lawyer and will he make a good judge? I think he will.

--Alan Flacks, Upper West-sider, and not involved in this.

What genius? According to Alan Flacks, Frank Nervo does not even know the correct way to refer to his own slot.

The bottom line is not the particular qualifications of any single candidate, but the fact that New York's judicial selection process is anathema to fundamental democratic principles of transparency and choice.

Real judicial choice is only going to happen when a bunch of lawyers get together, refuse to pay to play, put together blocks of judicial candidates covering each vacancy, tell the "independent" screening panels and self-promoting bar association committees to shove it up their left nostril, advertise to the public that they actually stand for something and run. Let the voters decide who is qualified to be a judge just like they decide who is qualified to fill every other elected position in this state.

Some guys are just like that.

They get the slots confused.