Gerald Ford to City: "Drop Dead"

[old timey villain]

Anyone old enough to remember this alleged quite from Gerald Ford? Apparently he opposed bailing out NYC when it was dealing with severe financial difficulties. This quote was front page news in 1975, a year before Ford was up for reelection.

Anybody have any data on NYC's swing between 1972 and 1976? I wonder if this comment cost him lots of votes in the city.

[old timey villain]

Yeah, I checked the results from 72 and 76 and there was a big D swing in NY, but the entire country swung hard as well, since 72 was a R landslide and 76 was a modest D victory. But the NYC swing seems larger.

My guess is that Carter won a lot more of the minority vote but I also think New Yorkers were upset by Ford's refusal to bail out the city. He never said "drop dead" but he was pretty clear in his opposition to the federal bailout. New York was in a terrible state at the time and I'm sure New Yorkers were ready to support anyone who was a little more sympathetic to their problems.

Carter had a big photo op standing in the south Bronx pledging to fight urban decay. Reagan stood in the same spot four years later and accused Carter of doing nothing. NYC is like disney world compared to the state it was in back in the 70s