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November 15th, 2022 Political Note #523 A Tribute to Democrats who lost the Good Fight
2022 General Election
While we wait. While we wait to see if we will have a truly remarkable conclusion to this midterm election – a conclusion that has found Democrats have retained their narrow Senate majority and could even preserve the House majority, let’s pay tribute to those who have fallen in the general election.
As votes are counted, there may be more incumbents who lose. So far, six Democrats lost to Republicans in the 2022 General election.
Tom O’Halleran
Seventy-six years old, born in Chicago, he graduated from the Providence St. Mel School and tried college twice. He was a Chicago cop who got himself moved into the fast track. He became a narcotics and then a homicide detective and retired early. He learned a little about the Chicago Board of Trade, learned more, and earned enough to buy a Seat. He specialized in trading US Treasury Bonds. Retired, he became a technology consultant and moved to Arizona.
His retirement did not last. Tom O’Halleran was elected a state rep as a Republican, worked with Democrats to pass a full day kindergarten law, and was punished for it. He ran for the State Senate, served a term and was unseated in a primary. He took some time off and made a surprise return, running for Congress as a Democrat, winning three times in an R+6 district. He was a moderate, a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which, for him really meant that he preferred working across the aisle – now as a Democrat working with the Republicans. His district, transformed and renamed AZ 02 became tougher to win. Its lean was R+15. He spent enough money, a little more than his opponent — $4 million to $3.5 million. The 8 point loss was just about equal to the shift in the Republican Lean.
This time, he really will retire – to the Sidona community that he lives in. He will get to spend time with his grown children and his grandchildren. That’s not so bad.
Al Lawson
Seventy-four years old, born in Midway, Florida west of Tallahassee, he went to high school in Havana, Florida a few miles north of Midway. He graduated from Florida A&M and later earned an MPA from Florida State. He was a star basketball player in high school and college, played in the NBA for the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks, and became an Assistant Coach at Florida State, earning his Master’s Degree while coaching at the Tallahassee school.
He was elected as a state representative in 1982, served there until 2000, then in the State Senate until 2010. In the state legislature, representing Tallahassee, the capital, he was an advocate for state employees. He ran for Florida’s Congressional District 2– losing in the primary in 2010 to the white incumbent who would then lose to a white Republican. Al Lawson ran again in 2012 – losing to the now incumbent Republican. A lawsuit led to a reorganization of districts and created a majority Black Fifth district running east-west between Jacksonville and Tallahassee. He ran against the incumbent Black woman Corrine Brown whose candidacy was damaged when she was indicted for corruption. Al Lawson won the Democratic primary and then easily won the election and continued winning. In Congress, he was an advocate for gun safety, affordable health care, mental health services, and eradication of hunger.
In 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis insisted he would veto any redistricting proposal inconsistent with his own plan. The legislature acquiesced and agreed to, among other things, the elimination of two majority African American districts – one of which was Al Lawson’s District 05 which had a D+21 Lean. He ran for District 2, with its R+16 lean, and lost to the white Republican incumbent by 20 points. This was not a big money race. Al Lawson was outraised $1.6 million to $700,000.
Cindy Axne
Fifty-seven years old, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, she graduated from Valley High School in West Des Moines, IA, the University of Iowa and earned an MBA from Northwestern. She and her husband ran a digital design firm where they live in West Des Moines. Six feet tall, she played basketball in high school, the old fashioned six person girls’ basketball. She may have developed her reputation for sharp elbows there. Out of school, she worked for the Tribune Company, not as a reporter, but in leadership training. In Iowa, she worked in state government for nine years – in the Department of Administrative Services and the Department of Management. When Iowa elected a Republican governor, she was transferred to the Department of Natural Resources and fired. At home, she won a fight for full day kindergarten – an opportunity missed for her children – and ran for Congress. She won with less than 50% of the vote in both 2018 and 2020 and lost by .7 points this year getting 49.65% of the vote. There was no third party candidate in 2022 and the southwest Iowa district had been moved slightly east away from the southwest corner of the state. She ran ahead of the district’s R+2 lean, the same Lean as before.
Cindy Axne served on the Financial Services and Agriculture Committees, joined the centrist Democratic caucus, and supported the President. One bill she proposed would have precluded future government shutdowns. One problem for her were accusations of a failure to disclose stock dealings. She outraised her opponent $6.5 million to $2.2 million, but it was not enough – this time. She is young enough to consider future candidacies, but Iowa has become tough terrain for Democrats. Not long ago, Iowa had three Democratic women Members of Congress. Now they are all gone.
Tom Malinowski
Fifty-seven years old, born in Stupsk, Poland, when he was six, his mother married journalist and political activist Blair Clark. They settled in Princeton. He graduated from Princeton High School, University of California, Berkeley, and, with the support of a Rhodes Scholarship, from St. Antony’s College, Oxford. Before Oxford, he worked for Senator Patrick Moynihan. After Oxford, he worked for the Ford Foundation and then for Secretaries of State Warren Christopher and Melanie Albright — writing speeches and in policy planning. He became a Senior Director on the White House National Security Council.
With Democrats out of office, he joined Human Rights Watch, serving as its Washington Director and as an advocate for human rights at home and internationally. Among the politically unpopular positions he took was opposition to Israel’s construction of a wall to keep terrorists out of the country. He joined the Obama administration as an Assistant Secretary of State for human rights and was subsequently particularly critical of President Donald Trump’s fondness for “tyrants.”
Tom Malinowski was elected to New Jersey’s 7th district – western New Jersey, north of the state’s cinched waist at Trenton, but short of the northern border. The district’s D+4 Lean was just right for a pro-labor, pro health care, pro environmental issues moderate Democrat –what Tom Malinowski made himself into. He defeated the incumbent Republican in 2018 and by a point, in 2020, Thomas Kean Jr a state assemblyman and son of a popular former Republican. He lost to Thomas Kean Jr in 2022 by 4 points. The district had been redistricted unfavorably to him into a R+3 Lean as New Jersey Democrats sought to protect his neighbors. Josh Gottheimer’s district was shifted from EVEN to a D+7 Lean and Miki Sherrill’s district was shifted from D+1 to D+11.
Tom Malinowski raised enough money — $8.3 million to his opponent’s $4 million. His campaign was damaged by a failure to make a timely disclosure of trades of about $1 million worth of stocks that could associated with the Covid pandemic. The public is not necessarily tolerant of politicians whose strength is their conscience appearing to behavior like a politician whose strength is elsewhere.
Sean Paul Maloney
Fifty-six years old, born in Sherbrooke, Quebec to United States citizens, grew up in Hanover, New Hampshire. His father was in the lumber business and Sean Paul Maloney stresses their Catholicism. He went to Hanover High School and then to Georgetown. Perhaps because he realized he was gay, he escaped to finish his last two years at the University of Virginia. He volunteered with the Jesuits in Peru then returned to the University of Virginia for law school. While still in law school, he went to work on the Bill Clinton presidential campaign.
He practiced law then worked on Clinton’s reelection campaign, worked on organizing the convention in New York where he met his partner, and then became a senior advisor in the White House. He returned to the practice of law, ran unsuccessfully for attorney general of New York, joined the short-lived Elliot Spitzer administration and remained as an advisor to David Patterson who became governor after Spitzer resigned.
Sean Patrick Maloney remained in private business and practicing law for the next ten years and before being elected to Congress in 2012 representing the evenly divided District 18 situated in northern Westchester County and north of Westchester.
Two major changes occurred for him for the 2022 election. He became the head of the DCCC, the Democrats Congressional campaign entity and, after redistricting, switched to run for District 17 – which included some of Westchester County and Rockland County west of the Hudson River and had a D+7 lean as opposed to his old district which had been pushed farther north and had only a D+3 lean. The Lean was not enough for a candidate who was foreign to the district.
He may have appealed to his colleagues for the DCCC position because of his Machiavellian approach to elections. He was an advocate for encouraging Republicans to select the most extreme candidate, one who Democrats expected would be the easy to defeat. That strategy proved to be relatively successful.
I have suggested previously two things about Sean Patrick Maloney. He would be a hero if his strategy were successful. After redistricting, it would not be as easy as in the past for him to win his election. It wasn’t the money. He outraised his opponent $5 million to $1.1 million. Nevertheless, he lost by a point. He can claim a heroic win as Chair of the DCCC. There was no Red Wave, not even a Red Ripple. It is unlikely, but there may yet be a sustained Democratic majority in the House.
Indominable, he will resurface.
Elaine Luria
Forty-seven years old, born in Birmingham, Alabama to southern Jews. Her family sold goods to coal miners and established at least two synagogues. Her mother, a former president of the National Council of Jewish Women, was an example for her. Elaine Luria graduated from the private Indian Springs School and the US Naval Academy. After receiving training from the US Naval Nuclear Power School, she earned an MS in engineering from Old Dominion University. One of the first women to spend her entire career on combat ships, she operated nuclear reactors and completed her career as a Commander, leading a combat-ready assault unit of 400 sailors.
Married to a retired naval commander and mother to two step-daughters, she opened a curio shop in her retirement. Dissatisfied with that, she ran for Congress in 2018, winning in a R+2 the Virginia Beach based district District 2 and won 51-49. She was reelected in 2020, again with 51% of the vote.
In Congress she belonged to the more moderate New Democratic Coalition and the more conservative Problem Solvers Caucus composed of both Republicans and Democrats. Having served on the Armed Services Committee, the Veteran’s Affairs Committee, and the Homeland Security Committee, she also served on the Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. I would like to think that the source of her loss was redistricting (undertaken by the Republican dominated Virginia Supreme Court when the redistricting commission did not come to an agreement) that shifted her district to R+6 rather than any vulnerability created by her role on the January 6 committee. She certainly raised enough money – outraising her opponent $9.8 million to $3 million.
She is a young woman with important experience. It will be interesting to see where she goes from here.
A few thoughts
The Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi or her replacement, should remind Democrats about the financial rules. Freshmen Members need the advice. So do sophomores and others who are people with integrity, but somehow forget that disclosure rules about financial dealings applies to them.
Redistricting is another matter. Had Tom Malinowski alienated state legislators? Had he neglected to take time to make a case for taking his reelection into account?
There was not much that could be done in Virginia. Republicans on the Redistricting Commission could take a tough position knowing that the Republican leaning Supreme Court was the final arbiter if the Commission had no plan.
In New York, on the other hand, a 6-1 Democratic Court decided that the legislature’s plan, created when the New York Commission’s plan was rejected, was unconstitutional – a decision that could easily have called for a second vote by the legislature or a delay because of the lateness of the issue. Blame Andrew Cuomo for the Justices he nominated. Blame the legislature for what might be called excessive gerrymandering. But also blame Andrew Cuomo’s court for gerrymandering on behalf of the Republicans.
Florida would have been a perfect case for a complaint of racial gerrymandering if the US Supreme Court were willing to reject the pretense that race and political alignment have nothing to do with one another. The Florida Supreme Court was no better than the US Court.
The money incumbents raised was not an issue. Only Al Lawson, of the incumbents, was outraised by his opponent. Outside spending may have been a factor.
