Page "Jacob K. Javits" Paragraph 2

In his youth Javits had watched his father work as a ward heeler for Tammany Hall and experienced firsthand the corruption and graft associated with that notorious political machine.

Tammany's operations repulsed Javits so much that, he forever rejected the city's Democratic party and in the early 1930s joined the Republican-Fusion party, which was supporting the mayoral campaigns of Fiorello H. La Guardia.

After the war he became the chief researcher for Jonah Goldstein's unsuccessful 1945 bid for mayor on the Republican-Liberal-Fusion ticket.

Javits's hard work in the Goldstein campaign showed his potential in the political arena and encouraged the small Manhattan Republican party to nominate him as their candidate for the Upper West Side's Twenty-first Congressional District ( since redistricted ) seat during the heavily Republican year of 1946.

Although the Republicans had not held the seat since 1923, Javits campaigned energetically and won.

He was a member of the freshman class along with John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Richard M. Nixon of California.

He served from 1947 to 1954, then resigned his seat to take office as New York State Attorney General.