The New York Municipal Election

One of the most persistent legends in American politics is that municipal machines cannot be defeated. Yet time and again they have been split from the inside, successfully overthrown by opposition organizations, and overwhelmed by the joint action of rival political, civic, and protest groups. On many occasions the political machine of New York City has been checked, chastened, and disrupted. On November 7, the allied forces of Fusion administered a crushing defeat to the Tammany and Bronx factions of the Democratic machine in New York City. At the same time, the organized non-partisan masses in Philadelphia administered to the Republican machine there its first defeat in fifty years; while in Pittsburgh the Mellon machine succumbed to attack from the same elements. In scores of other cities the citizens rose in arms against the machines.