House Democrats campaign manager faces a tough race of his own

PEEKSKILL, NY (AP) — At a recent rally with union workers and other supporters in the downtown square of this small town on the banks of the Hudson River, New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney tried to remind Democrats how much he thinks of the party. he have achive.

he promoted the sweeping coronavirus relief legislation approved in early 2021, infrastructure deal last fall, a plan to boost high-tech manufacturingthe hardest gun limits in decades and recently, a climate and health law that had been canceled.

Democrats are “doing great things,” Maloney said in an interview after the event.

He’s betting that message will be enough to help him and his party navigate a treacherous political environment this year. What the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maloney is responsible for helping the party defy historical trends and maintain, or even expand, its majority in the House. Meanwhile, he is also fending off a challenge from the left in next week’s primary in a district that could be competitive in the fall general election.

Facing a confluence of obstacles, Maloney insists on staying focused on the party’s agenda.

“When things work, it’s the best policy,” he said.

Maloney, 56, was seen as a Democratic rising star when he was first elected to the House a decade ago. The first openly gay congressman from New York, he was at the forefront of a new Democratic Party that was advancing far beyond its urban base.

But he faces a major challenge next week from state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, a 36-year-old progressive who has sought to portray Maloney as an operator disconnected from the establishment.

“I think it represents everything that’s wrong with politics,” Biaggi said in an interview.

Maloney counters that the establishment has delivered what voters want: pragmatism over activism. “We had a real successful summer and if things continue like this, I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people in November,” Maloney said.

He also garnered the endorsement of The New York Times, which carries a lot of weight with Democrats in the suburbs and suburbs of the New York City district, along with the endorsement of former President Bill Clinton, whose Chappaqua home is in the area.

Maloney, who served in the Clinton White House, is a “proven leader,” the former president said in his endorsement, which has so far not been echoed by his wife, the former New York senator and US secretary of state. HillaryClinton. He has stayed out of the race, though her endorsement would carry far more weight: Biaggi worked for her presidential campaign and Clinton led Biaggi and her husband in voting for her at their 2019 wedding.

The biggest name backing Biaggi, a lawyer in former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration and granddaughter of former Bronx congressman Mario Biaggi, is progressive star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Biaggi, like Ocasio-Cortez, has a history of taking on powerful and more moderate members of her party and espouses a labor activist creed.

In the same progressive wave of 2018 that brought Ocasio-Cortez to office, Biaggi, despite spending far more than he did, unseated a state senator known for leading a gang of Democrats who collaborated with Republicans. She has a similar grassroots focus and desire for change as she aims to bring down Maloney.

“I’ll be at those doors, like I’ve been every weekend, knocking off the hinges, pushing every inch,” he said as he gathered a group of campaign volunteers in Sleepy Hollow for a weekend of knocking on doors.

He’s also counting on the unusual circumstances of next week’s primary to improve his chances. It’s the second primary election New Yorkers have had this summer, a date pushed back to accommodate the redistricting of political maps after the court threw out the first redistricting attempt.

There was a primary in June for the gubernatorial race and other state offices, but the primary for congressional races was pushed back to August 23 so new maps could be drawn.

New Yorkers aren’t used to voting in two primary elections, especially one in late August when many are on vacation, and the new maps may leave them unfamiliar with new district lines and who is considered incumbent, which could create a opportunity for someone like Biaggi with activist energy behind her.

While Maloney has represented parts of the newly drawn District 17, Biaggi currently represents none of that in his state Senate seat and moved about 15 miles north to become a resident.

Maloney also moved to upstate New York City when he first ran to represent the region 10 years ago, but is quick to point out that he and his husband already had a second home in the area at the time.

“She has every right to run, but people have a right to know that her district is 95% in the Bronx and I represent several hundred thousand people who are in this district,” he said of Biaggi in the interview. .

He and his supporters have painted his politics as too left for the district, signaling his acceptance of the “defund the police” message liberals adopted in 2020 amid a broader national reckoning over race. and surveillance.

Biaggi has said in interviews that he no longer uses the term because it doesn’t convey the need for police reform very well. Her campaign has armed her volunteers with talking points about her use of the phrase, noting that her grandfather was a decorated police officer and she used the phrase as she reacted to the horrific video showing the murder of George Floyd.

“It was like, in the heat of a moment where he saw a pretty horrific incident and he tweeted that, because we don’t have to shy away from that,” Biaggi campaign aide Cori Marquis explained to volunteers in Sleepy Hollow as they prepared to knock on doors and introduce voters. “She has been very clear in speech, in action, in policy, that she is truly committed to working with all stakeholders to reform our criminal justice system.”

Biden won the areas in the new congressional district by 5 points in 2020, but the northern stretches, which Maloney represents, heavily favor the GOP and Donald Trump won his district in 2016. Maloney won his current seat from a Republican a decade ago and has clung to the battlefield ever since, which he said is “not a given for a gay kid with an interracial family.”

Voters there, he says, want someone who can work their way down the aisle but also beat Republicans.

Maloney’s work on cross-cutting issues, and to defeat one Republican in particular, has drawn criticism from members of his own party, including harsh criticism from Biaggi.

The House Democrats’ campaign arm, which Maloney chairs, spent $425,000 on a Michigan campaign ad that boosted U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer’s far-right opponent, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.

Meijer lost to a Trump-backed candidate, which Maloney said only boosted the prospects for the Democratic nominee in December. But members of his own party warn that it was a dangerous gamble.

“It makes people feel like the Democrats are playing a game and it’s not a game,” Biaggi said. “I think it represents everything that people hate about politics.”

Maloney said he understands people who are debating the tactic, but defended the move.

“My job is to win seats. We are more likely to win that seat now than we were before the primary, and that is the bottom line. And that is my responsibility. Full stop,” she said.

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