Definition
Al Smith was a four-term governor of New York (1919–1920, 1923–1928) and the 1928 Democratic nominee for president — the first Catholic ever nominated by a major U.S. party. Risen from the Lower East Side and Tammany Hall, he became one of the most effective progressive executives in early-twentieth-century American politics.
For Robert Moses he was the indispensable first patron. Smith taught the brilliant, brittle young reformer how government actually worked, how to draft laws that consolidated power, and how to wield public authorities — a lesson Moses would apply for the next fifty years.
Why it matters
How it works
A great political mentor does three things at once: he teaches the protégé the unwritten rules of the institution, he shields the protégé while he develops, and he gives the protégé real responsibility before he is technically ready. Smith did all three for Moses — handing him the rewriting of New York's state-government structure, then the parks portfolio, then the authority charters that became his weapons.
The mentorship is also a cautionary tale. The protégé absorbs everything except the patron's restraint. Moses kept Smith's techniques and discarded Smith's loyalty to people he had risen with — including, eventually, Smith himself.