Roy M. Goodman

Roy Matz Goodman (March 5, 1930 – June 3, 2014) was an American politician and businessman who served as a member of the New York State Senate from 1969 to 2002. He was the Republican nominee in the 1977 New York City mayoral election, receiving 4.08% of the vote.

Roy Goodman
Member of the New York State Senate
from the 26th district
In office
1969–2002
Preceded byWhitney North Seymour Jr.
Succeeded byLiz Krueger
Personal details
Born
Roy Matz Goodman

March 5, 1930
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedJune 3, 2014 (aged 84)
Danbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
RelationsIsrael Matz (grandfather)
EducationHarvard University (AB, MBA)

Early life and education

Goodman was born in New York City on March 5, 1930. He was the grandson of Israel Matz, the founder of the Ex-Lax company. As a child, he attended Camp Androscoggin.[1] Goodman received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1951 and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1953.

Political career

Prior to serving in the Senate, Goodman was the New York City Director of Finance under Mayor John Lindsay in 1966 and 1967. He served as chairman of the New York County Republican Committee from 1981 to 2001.

State Senator

In 1968, Goodman was elected to the New York State Senate. He would serve for 34 years, in the 178th through 194th New York legislatures, until his retirement in 2002.[2]

He served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Investigations, Taxation and Government Operations.[3] He was considered a leader of the liberal Rockefeller wing of the New York State Republican Party. Goodman's supporters would sometimes refer to him as "The Statesman of the State Senate."

In 1977, Goodman ran for Mayor of New York City. He defeated Barry Farber, a talk radio host in the Republican primary. In the general election, Goodman finished third behind Democratic Congressman Edward I. Koch and New York Secretary of State Mario Cuomo, a Democrat who ran on the Liberal Party ticket.

Goodman was nearly defeated in 2000 by Liz Krueger. At first, Krueger was leading Goodman by several hundred votes. After a recount and the counting of the absentee ballots, Goodman was declared the winner in late December. In 2020, the New York Times reported that months after the election, in 2001, election workers discovered "hundreds of ballots" from a Krueger-leaning area in an air conditioning duct.[4]

Goodman resigned from the State Senate in early 2002. As of 2021, he remains the last Republican elected to office in Manhattan.

Manhattan Republican chairman

In 1981, Goodman became chairman of the New York County (Manhattan) Republican Party. In Goodman's first decade as county chairman, the only other Republican elected official in Manhattan was liberal U.S. Representative Bill Green, who represented the Upper East Side.

Goodman's tenure in the 1990s witnessed the expansion and then the contraction of the Republican Party in Manhattan. In 1990, Republican John Ravitz was elected to the New York State Assembly. In 1991, Charles Millard was elected to the New York City Council. In 1993, Andrew Eristoff also won election to the Council. In 1992, Bill Green was ousted by Carolyn Maloney, who has been in Congress ever since. Millard attempted to win back the seat for Republicans in 1994, but he was soundly defeated. Both Millard and Eristoff eventually left the City Council, and their seats were won by Democrats. Ravitz remained in office until 2002, when he lost the special election to succeed Goodman in the Senate to Liz Krueger. He did not seek re-election to the Assembly.

Role in the 1990 gubernatorial election
Main article: 1990 New York gubernatorial election

Goodman is notorious among New York Republicans for his role in picking Pierre Rinfret as the Republican candidate for governor in 1990. Republicans had difficulty anyone to run against incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo, who was considered unbeatable. Goodman checked his Rolodex and found Rinfret, whom he knew socially.[5][6] Goodman picked Rinfret because he was pro-choice on abortion and, as a millionaire economist, could spend some of his own money on the campaign.

On election Day, Rinfret received about 21 percent of the vote and barely outpolled Herbert London, the candidate of the Conservative Party of New York State.

Personal life

Goodman was President and CEO of the United Nations Development Corporation, a position he first occupied in 2002.

He was a Fellow For Life of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a patron of the Metropolitan Opera, a Patron of the New York Philharmonic Society, president of the Goodman Family Foundation, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served on the United States Commission of Fine Arts from 1985 to 1989.[7]

Death and legacy

Goodman died of respiratory failure in Danbury, Connecticut on June 3, 2014 at the age of 84.[8]

One of Goodman's 1968 campaign posters was on display in a bar scene in the June 23, 2013 episode of Mad Men, entitled "In Care Of."

Notes
  1. "The Executive Life; And No One Mentions The Many Mosquitoes"New York Times, June 14, 1992
  2. Ramirez, Anthony: "Goodman, Ex-Senator, Is Hospitalized After Choking", The New York Times, March 12, 2008, 2:43 pm
  3. John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters: "Nomination of Roy M. Goodman To Be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation",'The American Presidency Project', 14 February 1989
  4. Rosenthal, Brian M.; Rothfield, Michael (26 October 2020). "Inside Decades of Nepotism and Bungling at the N.Y.C. Elections Board". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  5. New York Times (November 7, 1990) "The 1990 Elections: New York-Cuomo's Re-election Unchallenged Victor; A Mismatched Race Against Rinfret Left the Governor Largely Untested"
  6. New York Times (November 8, 1990) "The 1990 Election; The 1990 Campaign: Moments to Remember; Moments Best Forgotten
  7. Thomas E. Luebke, ed., Civic Art: A Centennial History of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, 2013): Appendix B, p. 545.
  8. Pérez-Peña, Richard (2014-06-03). "Roy Goodman, Liberal Republican Stalwart in New York, Dies at 84 (Published 2014)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
New York State Senate
Preceded by
Whitney North Seymour Jr.		 Member of the New York State Senate
from the 26th district
1969–2002		 Succeeded by
Liz Krueger
Party political offices
Preceded by
John J. Marchi
1973		 Republican nominee for
Mayor of New York City
1977		 Succeeded by
Ed Koch
1981


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