page_title: Irwin Steingut
section_title: John McCooey and the Madison Club of Brooklyn
hierarchical_section_title: Irwin Steingut / Political apprenticeship / John McCooey and the Madison Club of Brooklyn
caption_attribution_description: English: Delegates from the 18th Assembly District to the New York State Democratic Convention in Syracuse in 1922
context_page_description: Irwin Steingut was an American lawyer, businessman and politician. At the time of his death he had served as a member of the New York Assembly longer than anyone in history. Early in his career he teamed with Brooklyn boss John H. McCooey, who turned Brooklyn into a solidly Democratic power base and dominated its politics for a quarter of a century until his death in 1934. Steingut thereafter became the de facto leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. Throughout almost all of his legislative career Republicans held a majority in the New York Assembly, and much of that time Steingut was the Minority Leader. In 1935 for the one year the Democrats had the majority, Steingut was Speaker of the Assembly.
  Steingut stoutly defended the Democratic party machine in Brooklyn and when consistent with the Brooklyn machine's interests also Tammany. He faced spirited primary opposition several times by independent Democrats but never lost a race. He was a key legislative ally of both Governors Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert H. Lehman and considered his roles in the passage of unemployment relief under the former and the creation of Brooklyn College his greatest legislative achievements.
context_section_description: After his father's death, Irwin Steingut's move back to Brooklyn, which became his political base for the next three decades, was facilitated by Tammany Leader Charles Murphy, who introduced Steingut to John H. McCooey, the political boss of Brooklyn. The introduction proved the most fortuitous event in Steingut's life, for McCooey became his mentor, sponsor, and eventually closest friend.
  McCooey was a self-made man, having taken on the role of head of a family (of a widow and six children) at the age of 13 when his father died in an accident. For seven years he worked at the shipbuilding firm in which his father had worked Chester, Pennsylvania, while teaching himself mechanical engineering. At 20 he moved to New York eventually obtaining a job in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a job in the suffrage of the local political machine. In 1878 he obtained a position in the Post Office. Although he mastered all aspects of the service and was promoted to a more lucrative postmaster position, he was cashiered for political reasons when the Republicans regained control. He threw in with the local Brooklyn Democratic organization (for which he had been acting as a district leader) and obtained a post as deputy treasurer of King's County. Through his association with Patrick H. McCarren, he obtained the position as secretary of the Civil Service Commission (located in Manhattan) in the new consolidated City of New York. He worked his way to chairmanship, all the while acquainting himself with men and ways of Tammany. In the early days of consolidation there was considerable hostility between Brooklyn democrats and Tammany, but McCooey remained friendly with Tammany (while siding with Brooklyn). McCarren became head of the Brooklyn party, and was eventually squeezed out of state party affairs by Charles Murphy, who not only controlled Tammany but had dominating influence over the state party. McCooey was selected by the Brooklyn party's executive committee as a caretaker chairman until the conflicting factions of Brooklyn democrats could settle on a leader.
  McCooey's personal political base was the 18th Assembly District, which in 1910 comprised Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Prospect Park, Windsor Terrace and parts of Kensington, Midwood and Flatlands. McCooey moved whenever necessary to stay within the district. His personal political club was the Madison Club, an organization he founded with four others in 1905. Before Steingut's arrival, notwithstanding the efforts of the Madison Club, Democrats were rarely successful in sending a representative to Albany. In the 13 elections between 1908 and 1920 the Democrats only won twice.
  Steingut family tradition has it that his place on the 1921 ticket for assemblyman was secured when his mother-in-law, Sophia Kaufman, and his own mother, Lena Steingut, approached McCooey and asked "Why not run a Jew for Assemblyman?" McCooey is supposed to have said that it was a "good thought." The fact was, however, that although McCooey himself was of Irish descent and connected with all important Brooklyn Irish associations and although the Irish district often nominated an Irish-American, the Madison Club twice before 1921 had secured the nomination of Jews for the Assembly race (Edward Baruch in 1910 and Jacob Friedman in 1917). It is likely that Tammany's recommendation was more persuasive in Irwin's case than his mother-in-law's. In any event, the Madison Club ran Irwin Steingut for Assembly in 1921. Steingut beat his Republican opponent (Mortimer J. Wohl, also Jewish) 46% to 38%, with the Socialist candidate receiving 14%. The votes were 10,267, 8,537 and 3,143, respectively (and less than 300 to the Farmer-Labor and Prohibition candidates).
caption: (l to r) W.B. Vause, Irwin Steingut, John J. Campbell, John H. McCooey, W.A. Hyman in 1922.
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