Bernard Gotfryd · Public domain

Koch became mayor of New York City in 1978, only the second Jewish mayor in the city's history, and led it through fiscal recovery from near-bankruptcy while greeting subway riders and street corners with his trademark question, "How'm I doin'?" Reelected twice by landslide margins, he pushed an ambitious public housing renewal program in his later terms even as his administration was shadowed by corruption scandals among associates that never touched him personally. He lost the 1989 Democratic primary to David Dinkins after eleven years in office.