43 Facts About Stanley Steingut

Stanley Steingut was an American politician, New York Democratic Party leader, insurance brokerage owner, and lawyer.

Stanley Steingut took over his father's position as boss of Brooklyn County Democratic politics and eventually parlayed that position to become Speaker of the New York State Assembly.

Stanley Steingut considered his sponsorship of landmark legislation providing public educational services for the developmentally disabled his greatest legislative accomplishment.

Stanley Steingut spent the rest of his life as a lawyer refusing many opportunities to trade on his relationships by engaging in lobbying.

Stanley Steingut was the son of Irwin Steingut, a first-generation American, himself the son an immigrant from Hamburg who left his own prosperous family to emigrate to the United States sometime before 1886.

Irwin Stanley Steingut worked first as a reporter and then in his father's Manhattan real estate office, before his 30-year career as New York Assemblyman from Kings County.

Stanley Steingut was born on May 20,1920, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn to Irwin Steingut and Rae Kaufmann Steingut.

Stanley Steingut was the couple's second and only other child, his older sister June Eleanor having been born on August 12,1917.

Stanley Steingut served as a chief petty officer in the US Naval Reserve during World War II, went on to graduate from St John's University School of Law and was admitted to the New York bar in 1950.

Stanley Steingut learned retail politics at a young age from his father, with whom he campaigned door to door.

Stanley Steingut joined the Madison Club early, and it was there that he came into close contact with his father's friends, who came to Brooklyn from Manhattan's Lower East Side: Abraham "Abe" Beame and Nathan Sobel.

When his father died in 1952, Stanley Steingut stepped into the leadership position of the Madison Club.

Stanley Steingut would become head of the Brooklyn Democratic Committee in 1962.

In 1953 Stanley Steingut succeeded to his father's Assembly seat, which he would hold until his defeat in 1978, sitting in the 169th, 170th, 171st, 172nd, 173rd, 174th, 175th, 176th, 177th, 178th, 179th, 180th, 181st and 182nd New York State Legislatures.

Stanley Steingut was never known as a legislative craftsman, but early in his career, he worked diligently as a member of the joint legislative committee on physical handicaps and on mental retardation and eventually was appointed chairman of the Joint Committee on Child Care Needs.

When Eugene Bannigan died on July 4,1958, Stanley Steingut sought to replace him as Minority Leader.

The coalition behind Stanley Steingut having determined to allow upstate Democrats an important leadership position, the Senate was decided upon, and they, therefore, passed over Manhattan Senator and minority leader Joseph Zaretzki.

The missteps of the Stanley Steingut coalition appeared to have fractured the unanimous support he had at the informal caucus.

Stanley Steingut received the votes of 53 Democrats and 3 Republicans.

Stanley Steingut had lined up the votes in private and came away with 55 of the 57 votes cast, with Weinstein's colleagues from Queens largely abstaining.

Part of the arrangement Stanley Steingut had made was giving up control of the Brooklyn Democratic Committee, and its vast pool of influence, associations, and favor-seekers.

Stanley Steingut acquired the share in City Title Insurance Company that his father had and before him legislators from both parties.

Stanley Steingut became a partner with Esposito in Grand Brokerage Agency, an insurance brokerage firm.

Stanley Steingut used his political connections to refer business to all three firms.

Stanley Steingut publicly promised that if elected Speaker he would divest himself of all outside business interests as well as resign from the law firm where he was a partner.

One month before the election, Stanley Steingut made what was an astonishing error for one who treated the press so carefully.

Columnist Michael Kramer opined that either Stanley Steingut lied or he was "too dumb" to be Speaker.

When he took the gavel in January 1975, Stanley Steingut's victory was part of a greater triumph for his Madison Club.

Stanley Steingut gave up the Speaker's unfettered "right" to "star" calendared bills in order to prevent consideration by the Assembly.

Stanley Steingut agreed to provide each member $7,500 to staff district and Albany offices and to discontinue the practice of using County Democratic Leaders as whips.

The first skirmish between Stein and Stanley Steingut took place in 1974 when Stein accused Stanley Steingut of using "back room pressure politics" to end Stein's investigation of Medicaid fraud and abuses at state nursing homes.

Stanley Steingut claimed in response that he was preparing his own investigation, for which Stein was seeking credit.

Stanley Steingut was vulnerable not only because of insurance firm had extensive dealings with Towers Nursing Home but because Stanley Steingut's attorney, Daniel Chill, represented Bergman before state agencies.

In January 1978, at the beginning of the next legislative session, having weathered the nursing homes scandals and avoided a criminal trial, Speaker Stanley Steingut's prospects were as bright as at any time in his career.

Stanley Steingut was contemplating pet projects for the new session, including a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling.

Stanley Steingut planned a "new approach" to the treatment of mental patients in group homes.

At the primary, in the race only for a week, Murray Weinstein stunned Stanley Steingut by defeating the Assembly Speaker and one-time Brooklyn boss.

Stanley Steingut was already eligible for the general election, having received the endorsement and ballot line of the Liberal Party, and so made one final attempt to cut a deal.

Stanley Steingut announced that he would get off the ballot only if he were appointed to a judgeship.

Stanley Steingut was supported by an ideologically diverse array of New York-based Democratic political figures alongside every major New York newspaper.

Stanley Steingut was the author of a law requiring the State to educate handicapped students.

Stanley Steingut was appointed to the advisory board to Governor Carey's Task Force on Domestic Violence.

Stanley Steingut married Madeline "Madi" Fellerman of Long Beach, New York on May 30,1943, two weeks after she graduated from Russell Sage College.