Hoover,  Mills,  Hilles  and  the  ancient  Republican  Party  bosses
had  been  politically  discredited  by  the  Roosevelt  landslide  and
by  the  closing  of  all  the  banks  in  March,  1933.  The  New  Deal
had  got  off  to  a  tremendous  start  at  Washington  and,  for  the
moment,  both  Big  Business  and  Boss  Politics  were  at  a  loss.
The  Republican  organization  in  New  York  County  ousted
the  veteran  Sam  Koenig  and  selected  Chase  Mellen,  a  sensi-
tive, high-minded  and  responsible  young  man,  as  County
Chairman.  (Mellen  was  to  be  ousted  by  the  Joe  Baldwin-
Kenneth  Simpson  combination  before  the  1936  election).
LaGuardia  got  the  Republican  endorsement  in  the  holy  name
of  "good  government".  It  looked  like  another  lost  cause,  for
the  Democrats  outnumbered  the  Republicans  three-to-one.
Then  the  Roosevelt  Administration  came  to  LaGuardia's
aid.  The  anti-Tammany,  pro-Roosevelt  Democratic  boss  of
the  Bronx  promoted  the  independent  candidacy  of  "Holy
Joe"  McKee  on  a  new-laid  "Recovery  Party"  ticket.  This
split  the  normal  New  York  City  Democratic  plurality  of  half  a
million  votes  and  threw  the  election  to  LaGuardia.  Once
again  Roosevelt  had  administered  a  thrashing  to  Tammany,
without  formally  abandoning  the  Democratic  Party  and  had
made  possible  a  New  Deal  type  of  City  Administration.
This  was  a  matter  which  had  already  given  the  Republicans
some  concern.  Roosevelt  was  riding  high,  wide  and  handsome
at  Washington,  with  N.R.A.  and  A.A.A.  and  T.V.A.  and
other  popular  emergency  measures  for  recovery  and  reform.
