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hand, saw no merit to my position. I had formed the Right to Sing Committee. But that was in 1960. It was a terrific name, right? (laughs)

She had been a captain in MacNeil Mitchell's club. He was then the Republican State Senator who had Roy Goodman's job-- at that time a very powerful man. And when she went to work on a volunteer basis -- she didn't get a single dollar from me; we didn't pay anybody -- MacNeil Mitchell called her up, and he said he was very upset that she was working for me, a Democrat and she's a Republican, and would she not please come back to the club. And he offered her a thousand dollars. And this was a woman of very modest circumstances. And she said, “What does he think I am? A whore?” She was incensed that he would think he could buy her back.

That group won all of the ten election districts that were Italian, and you have to contrast that with two years before when another Democrat was running who was Italian, Bob Ferreri, and he only won one of them in the general election, because they vote Democratic in the primary and Republican in general elections, the Italians. He only won one of them. I won all ten.

Now, the reason I tell the story is: To get on the ballot, you have to have signatures, as you know, in the primary. They have to climb stairs -- these are 5, 6, 7-storey walkups. Wally Popolizio is highly regarded in the Village -- he's lived there all his life, and his father is like 99 years old and used