Edward Irving Koch (12 December 1924-1 February 2013) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NY 17) from 3 January 1969 to 3 January 1973 (succeeding Theodore R. Kupferman and preceding Carol Greitzer) and from NY-18 from 3 January 1973 to 31 December 1977 (succeeding Charles Rangel and preceding Bill Green) and the Democratic Mayor of New York City from 1 January 1978 to 31 December 1989 (succeeding Abraham Beame and preceding David Dinkins).
Biography[]
Edward Irving Koch was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York in 1924 to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents. He was raised in Newark, New Jersey before serving in the US Army during World War II, earning several decorations. After the war, Koch practiced law, and he served on the city council from 1967 to 1969 as a reformist Democrat, in the US House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977, and as Mayor of New York from 1978 to 1989. He began his career as an anti-Vietnam War and pro-civil rights liberal, but he experienced a conservative turn as he opposed the expansion of public housing projects into middle-class Forest Hills, Queens. As Mayor, he attempted to restore the city's financial security through austerity and moderating the municipal unions, and he also supported the death penalty, added 3,500 new NYPD officers, banned the playing of radios on subways and buses, gave the police broader powers in dealing with homelessness, and supported gay rights (while supporting the closing of gay bathhouses in 1985 in response to the HIV/AIDs crisis). His tenure was marked by the AIDS crisis, Bernhard Goetz's shooting of four Black men whom he accused of attempting to rob him, the crack cocaine and gang epidemic, a rise in racial violence, and several corruption scandals, such as the downfalls of Democratic politicians Meade Esposito, Stanley M. Friedman, and Donald Manes. In 1982, rumors of his homosexuality contributed to his defeat in that year's Democratic gubernatorial primary. In 1988, he sabotaged Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign by persistently attacking Jackson's record of anti-Semitism, ensuring that Michael Dukakis won the Democratic primary. After leaving office, Koch returned to his legal practice and became a political commentator, and he also became a weekly movie reviewer in 2009. Koch endorsed Republican mayoral candidates Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, gubernatorial candidate George Pataki, US Senate candidate Al D'Amato, congressional candidate Peter T. King, and 2004 presidential candidate George W. Bush, but he also endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 after Obama reaffirmed his support for Israel. Koch also supported the Iraq War and defended the Catholic Church against rising anti-Catholicism, arguing that it was mostly a force for good in the world. He died in 2013; he was posthumously outed as gay in 2022.