Herman Badillo has been one of the most enduring figures on the political landscape of New York City. A self-made man who has challenged commonly held stereotypes of what it means to be a Puerto Rican in New York, he has been able to effectively establish professional and political careers that span over 40 years.
Background
Badillo was born in Caguas, a suburban city that is considered part of the metropolitan area surrounding San Juan Puerto Rico, on August 21,1929. His father, Francisco, and his mother, Carmen, died of tuberculosis when he was a small child. When his grandmother, who cared for him, also died from the disease, Badillo was brought over to the United States by one of his aunts. After arriving in the United States at the age of 12, he lived with several relatives in Chicago and California before arriving in New York at age 14.
Education
When Badillo arrived in the United States, he didn't know English but that didn't deter him from finding odd jobs to support himself. In his early years in the city, he worked as a cook, a dishwasher, and a pin boy at a bowling alley. He attended Haaren High School, where he graduated at the top of his class, and went on to study accounting at Baruch College of the City University of New York while working full-time for an accounting firm. He graduated magna cum laude and enrolled at the Brooklyn Law School, where was selected as the class valedictorian and graduated cum laude in 1954.
Career
He was admitted to the New York bar in 1955 and passed his certification to become a certified public accountant in 1956. He established his own legal firm in the late 1950s. Badillo has been a maverick politician and a reformer on the very complex and competitive political stage of New York City. His involvement in politics started during the 1960 elections when he was the chairman of the East Harlem commit-tee that was working in support of the John F. Kennedy candidacy. In 1961, Badillo ran for district leader in East Harlem but lost by 75 votes. After the defeat, the mayor of New York, Robert Wagner, noticed Badillo's leadership and appointed him deputy real estate commissioner in 1961. The next year Badillo was appointed by the Democratic machine to become commissioner of the newly created Department of Relocation, which oversaw housing renewal and planning.
His tough stances on renovating areas on Manhattan's West Side and his proposals to remove many buildings inhabited primarily by his fellow Puerto Ricans brought him many political enemies. He was accused of gentrifying parts of the city by getting rid of settlements inhabited by poor immigrants. These events have fueled allegations by other Puerto Rican leaders that he is not Puerto Rican enough. These allegations, in turn, have followed him throughout most of his political life and have hindered his relationship with Latinos, minorities, and several of his obvious allies (Ojito June 8, 2001, Bl).
After moving from East Harlem to the Bronx, Badillo was elected Bronx borough president in 1965, where his administrative and accounting skills served him well. He planned and submitted strategic initiatives to City Hall that brought millions of dollars in innovative construction projects to his district. His capacity to negotiate and to deal with the political establishment and city government helped him to become the most influential Puerto Rican politician at the time. His political visibility made him well-positioned to run for the office of the mayor in 1969, but he lost in the Democratic primaries. When a redistricting initiative in the city created a new congressional district, Badillo positioned himself to run for the U.S. Congress. He ran a strong campaign and won the seat for the 21st congressional district, becoming the first Puerto Rican American ever elected to Congress in November of 1970. He joined the 92nd Congress on January of 1971. After some political maneuvering, he was also appointed to serve on the powerful Education and Labor Committee of the House of Representatives. He served in Congress until 1978, when he resigned before his term was over to serve as deputy mayor of New York under the leadership of Mayor Edward Koch. He lasted only a year in the post and resigned due to constant clashes with the mayor.
After his resignation, Badillo temporarily left politics and became a partner in the powerful law firm of Fischbein, Badillo, Wagner and Harding, one of the top lobbying firms in New York City. In the 1990s, he was appointed chairman of the board of regents for the City University of New York (CUNY), where he served until June of 2001. When he arrived at CUNY, he called the institution a "swamp of mediocrity" (Traub 1999, 96). He took an extremely proactive role in raising academic standards at the institution and in eliminating special opportunity programs for students who did not have strong academic credentials. He also succeeded in eliminating open admission policies to the institution, thereby removing any unqualified applicants from the college. His blatant criticism of the educational and intellectual ability of Mexican and other Central American immigrants caused an enormous uproar among sectors of the city that accused him of being bigoted and biased.
Politics
While Badillo broke ground through his election to the U.S. Congress, he has always had his eye on the position of mayor of New York City. He entered the Democratic primaries in 1969, 1973, 1977, 1985, and 1993. Frustrated with the Democratic machinery that controls the party in New York, Badillo switched party affiliation in 1998 and became a Republican. On June 8, 2001, he announced his candidacy for mayor of New York on the Republican Party platform. He ran as an education candidate but was defeated by New York businessman and multimillionaire Michael R. Bloomberg, who spent millions of dollars of his own money in the campaign.
Personality
Herman Badillo is a skillful political leader who doesn't hesitate to voice controversial positions that do not always endear him to either the liberal establishment or to his Latino and Puerto Rican constituents. He continues to be as involved in New York City politics as he was 40 years ago.