George Spitz, a man for all seasons

Mel Hyman & Sherry Halbrook | 2001 | The Communicator

George Spitz, 78, ran for mayor of New York City in 2001 at 78.
[He lost]

The retired auditor and tax compliance agent for the former state Department of Tax and Finance was hardly the frontrunner.

He has never accepted contributions or endorsements.

But when he ran before in the Democratic primary for Manhattan borough president on a platform of eliminating the very post he sought, the Daily News endorsed him as "the only candidate in the race with any new ideas".

Current Spitz Newsday piece on Social Security:

Save Social Security from the Wall Street crowd

HERE

Spitz's greatest claim to fame is as the man who convinced the city in the mid-1970s to alter the path of the New York City Marathon to include all five boroughs, instead of just sending the runners around Central Park for four laps. The change was a tremendous success and helped boost the city out of a deep economic depression.

Spitz has run the 26-mile marathon dozens of times. He has never won it, but he always finishes.

Winning is not the main issue for Spitz.

His runs, whether foot races or political races, are for the personal satisfaction of striving and as an avenue to change his community.

During a run for for political office in 1968, Spitz proposed that welfare checks be deposited directly into the recipients' bank accounts. He lost the election but more than a decade later, in 1981, he won the issue in spite of stiff resistance from private check-cashing services.

A long-time labor activist, Spitz is using his candidacy to educate the public about the dangers of contracting out public services to private companies or consultants -- a practice that he says often leads to inefficiency, higher costs and more political patronage.

In far too many cases, contracts for job training or drug rehabilitation are awarded to companies that have made major political contributions, he says.

"It's all part of a political-spoils system that continues to mushroom. There's about $6 billion in (private) contracts that (New York City Mayor Rudy) Giuliani lets out each year," he says.

Union man

Spitz, who was a steward in PEF Division 191, has always been an advocate for working people. In fact, before he went to work for the state, he was a shop steward in his union at Bloomingdale's Department Store.

His unflinching support for workers' rights has cost Spitz many jobs. He's been fired at least 10 times that he recalls.

The state Tax and Finance Department fired him when he returned to work as an auditor in 1977 accusing him of lacking a driver's license and of writing a political column for a Manhattan weekly.

Spitz sued, charging the agency with age discrimination. He won. He also became close friends with the man who fired him, because the manager didn't lie under oath about why Spitz was fired.

And the feisty retiree didn't stop there. In 1997, Spitz ran for Manhattan Borough president on a platform of eliminating the very post he sought, claiming it was nothing more than a patronage mill.

"That (position) alone would justify an endorsement!" the Daily News told its readers in open admiration.

Mayoral man

Spitz brings the same inimitable and incorruptible spirit to the mayoral contest today.

"My race will have a major impact -- come win, lose or draw," he says, because the issues raised will be unlike any others.

For example, Spitz promises he will work to restore free tuition to the City University of New York, provide extended city library service, eliminate the Workfare program and raise the pay of police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other civil service workers to match what their counterparts make in the suburbs.

There would be plenty of money to pay for it, he says, if the city stopped wasting billions of dollars on contracting out public services and granting sports franchises huge subsidies to build arenas and minor-league baseball stadiums.

Even if he loses the Democratic primary, Spitz says he may very well continue the race on the Green Party and/or Working Party lines.

"I will try to energize the 200,000 city and state civil-service workers who live in New York," he says.

"My campaign platform will not be patented."

And who knows? In a city that's seen the likes of Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin making serious runs for mayor, Spitz might just have the recipe for success.