Crain's New York Business Editorial: Vance for Manhattan DA

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In the 1980s, a friend of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's told him that he had been shaken down at every step of his company's renovation of the Rainbow Room. The contractor told the DA he would never work in New York City again, and Mr. Morgenthau realized what a “tax'' the mob and other predators were imposing on business and the economy of the city.

The result was a decades-long crusade by Mr. Morgenthau's office to break organized crime's grip on key sectors. First, he drove organized crime from the trucking business, then he broke up the mob-dominated garbage cartel, then he cleaned up the garment center and the Javits Convention Center. The effort soon broadened to tackle money laundering, securities fraud and eventually executive greed.

The key question for the city's business community in the Sept. 15 Democratic primary to succeed Mr. Morgenthau is who will continue his efforts to protect honest business-people. The candidate most likely to continue Mr. Morgenthau's work is Cyrus Vance Jr., and Crain's endorses him. (Since Manhattan is overwhelmingly Democratic, the winner of the primary is virtually certain to be elected in November.)

All three candidates—Mr. Vance, Richard Aborn and Leslie Crocker Snyder—served at some point in the Manhattan District Attorney's office and have built solid résumés and run creditable campaigns for the office. All three pledge fidelity to the successes of the Morgenthau era yet say there should be changes, too, which is not unwelcome, given Mr. Morgenthau's 34 years in the position.

But Mr. Aborn's emphasis would clearly be on implementing alternatives to imprisonment and on tougher gun laws, the issue where he has done the bulk of his work in recent years. Ms. Crocker Snyder's emphasis would be on violent felons, as befits someone who made her reputation handling such cases in the 1980s. Mr. Vance has had a distinguished career, and his decision to pull up stakes and move to Seattle to escape the shadow of his father is a sign of character, not the negative that his opponents claim. Most important, he occupies the middle ground, which puts him closest to Mr. Morgenthau.

He is the best choice to succeed his mentor.

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