A catastrophic landslide permanently stripped party bosses of their power to hand-pick candidates.

Evidence

The Old Guard which had foisted Moses’ candidacy upon the GOP was adequately punished. Its influence would remain strong in the party, but county leaders who couldn’t afford to let their local candidates be caught in the undertow of the sinking of a poor candidate and who were determined that one as poor as Moses should never again head the ticket, would never let the Old Guard hand-pick another candidate. His candidacy was its Waterloo. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1840

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Moses inflated the tunnel’s true cost by $19 million in his public brochure — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2788