Raymond B Harding

Mr. Harding was an aide to Gov. Hugh L. Carey from 1975 to 1977. He became the Liberal Party leader after the 1976 death of Mr. Rose, who founded the party in 1944 with an agenda intended to keep Republicans liberal and Democrats honest. The party helped elect the Democrat Robert F. Wagner and the Republican John V. Lindsay as mayors; the Republican Jacob K. Javits as a senator; the Democrat Edward I. Koch as a young congressman; and Mr. Carey and Mr. Cuomo, both Democrats, as governors. Mr. Harding profited as a lobbyist and secured jobs for his sons, Robert, as budget director and deputy mayor, and Russell, as head of the Housing and Development Corporation, although he was a college dropout with no housing experience. But in 2005, Russell Harding was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzling $400,000 from the agency. He practiced law for five years and from 1966 to 1969 was a lawyer for the city, investigating corrupt building inspectors. In 1975, he joined Governor Carey’s staff as a disaster coordinator, military adviser and legislative liaison. Mr. Harding’s influence, after peaking in the Giuliani years, waned in 2001 when he backed Mr. Hevesi in a race for mayor that was eventually won by Michael R. Bloomberg. In 2002, Mr. Harding endorsed Andrew M. Cuomo for governor. That proved to be a blunder when Mr. Cuomo quit the race. Without an active candidate, the Liberal Party fell far short of the votes needed for a place on the ballot. It was the coup de grâce for the party and for Mr. Harding’s political life. Snared in a subsequent state inquiry, Mr. Harding completed his fall by admitting in court that he had conspired to reward Mr. Hevesi’s supporters with pension fund contracts and to secure an Assembly seat for his son, Andrew. Felony charges against Mr. Harding were dropped, and at his own sentencing in 2011 on a single misdemeanor count he was spared jail time and allowed to keep the money he had taken. But it was a resounding humiliation for one of the last of New York’s old-time political bosses.