Lawrence Ettore Gerosa (August 10, 1894 Milan, Italy – June 24, 1972) was an Italian-American politician who served as New York City Comptroller

New York City Comptroller

The Office of Comptroller of New York City is the chief fiscal officer and chief auditing officer of the city. The comptroller is elected, citywide, to a four-year term and can hold office for three consecutive terms. The current comptroller is Democrat John Liu, formerly a member of the New York...

 from 1954–1961.

A resident of the Riverdale

Riverdale, Bronx

Riverdale is an affluent residential neighborhood in the northwest portion of the Bronx in New York City. Riverdale contains the northernmost point in New York City.-History:...

 section of the Bronx

The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

, Gerosa was a conservative Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 who had been in the trucking industry before entering politics. After being jettisoned from the Democratic ticket in 1961 in favor of Abe Beame, he challenged incumbent mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr.

Robert F. Wagner, Jr.

Robert Ferdinand Wagner II, usually known as Robert F. Wagner, Jr. served three terms as the mayor of New York City, from 1954 through 1965.-Biography:...

 in 1961 as an Independent, proffering a fiscally conservative, law and order platform

Party platform

A party platform, or platform sometimes also referred to as a manifesto, is a list of the actions which a political party, individual candidate, or other organization supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said peoples' candidates voted into political office or...

. He garnered 13% percent of the vote against Wagner and liberal Republican Louis Lefkowitz

Louis Lefkowitz

Louis J. Lefkowitz was an American lawyer and politician.-Life:...

. The Gerosa campaign would articulate many of the themes which would be used again in 1969, when another conservative Italian-American Democrat Mario Procaccino

Mario Procaccino

Mario Angelo Procaccino was a lawyer, comptroller, and candidate for mayor of New York City.Procaccino was born in Bisaccia, Italy. When he was nine years old, his family relocated to the United States, and despite poverty, he graduated from City College and Fordham Law School, becoming a lawyer...

 challenged John V. Lindsay for control of city hall. Gerosa died of lung cancer

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

at Albert Einstein Hospital in the Bronx.