Robert F Wagner Jr

In the first year of his first elected term, Lyndon Johnson made the presidency look easy. Landmark bills on education, health care and civil rights were flying through Congress. But he stayed out of New York politics.

The leadership stalemate of 1965 occurred at the start of the session, when bill expiration deadlines weren't looming. Pedro Espada's defection (facilitated by Hiram Monserrate) flushed months of hard-fought negotiations and legislative footwork down the toilet.