Victory!

About the Book

About the Author

Daniel E. Button (November 1, 1917 - March 7, 2009) was Executive Editor of the Albany Times Union in May of 1966, when longtime Democratic Congressman Leo O'Brien announced his retirement and the O'Connell Machine promptly announced their candidate for the seat. For forty-six years, the O'Connell organization had backed the Congressman representing Albany. At the Times Union, Dan Button had editorialized throughout the 1960s against one-party control. He determined that the Machine candidate should be challenged, and announced he was resigning his job as editor and would seek the seat in Congress. As Albany writer and former Times Union reporter William Kennedy notes in his preface to this memoir, such a challenge was viewed as a "battle of Tom Thumb against Godzilla." In 2003, at the age of 86 and nearly forty years after he proved all the doubters wrong, former Congressman Button wrote this memoir of his race, revealing why he took on the challenge and how his historic victory was won.