Political Note #230   Max Rose NY CD 11

Look at the recent Daily Bits on the website. Reparations, Columnists afraid of kids, Are gun owners grown-up?

2020               General Election

Max Rose https://www.maxroseforcongress.com/ is prepared. He better be. Democrats don’t win on Staten Island very often. Of the group reviewed so far, he has raised the second largest amount of money and has the second largest amount of cash on hand. He is ready for a fight.

In 2018, New York City elected two new Members of Congress. Both from Outer Boroughs (not Manhattan). One is from District 14 – divided between the Bronx and Queens. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) defeated a powerful incumbent in the Democratic Primary and became a national phenomenon. One is from District 11 – one third Brooklyn, two-thirds Staten Island (all of Staten Island). . Max Rose defeated a one term Republican in a district which usually elects Republicans. He became one of the Group of Ten veterans among the freshmen Democrats.

The two districts are pretty different. AOC’s NY 14 is 50% Hispanic, 20% white, 15% Asian, and 10% black. Hillary Clinton got 77% of the vote in 2016. NY 11 is 70% white, 15% Hispanic, 10% Asian, and 5% black. Donald Trump got 57% of the vote in 2016. One tidbit about Staten Island. One website reported that 11% of New York City’s cops live on Staten Island.

The two newly elected Members of Congress have some similarities.

  • Both are young. AOC is 29. Max Rose in 32.
  • Both are short. AOC is 5’4”. Max Rose is 5’6” (one website claims he is 5’3”).
  • Both had parents ambitious for their children’s education. AOC’s parents moved out of the Bronx to Westchester’s Yorktown Heights for better schools. Max Rose’s parents sent him to Polyprep Country Day.
  • Both have talents. AOC danced in school. Max Rose was captain of his high school wrestling team.
  • Both are smart. AOC went to Boston University. In high school, she won a second place in the prestigious Intel science contest. Max Rose went to Wesleyan. In college, he was second in a prestigious writing contest.
  • Both have family immigration stories.
    • Technically, of course, AOC’s family were not immigrants. Both parents were Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans are American citizens.  They move to the US, they do not immigrate here. They are already citizens. AOC’s architect father was born in the US. Her mother moved from Puerto Rico. AOC departs from the conventional story first by returning home after college to help the family by waitressing and tending bar. Then by going into politics and becoming a national phenomenon.
    • Max Rose’s family is a Jewish immigration success story. His grandfather immigrated from Odessa. His father is a medical laboratory executive. His great grandmother was a school principal. His grandmother was a teacher in Harlem for 40 years. His mother teaches at Manhattan Community College – an expert in welfare policy.   He departs from the conventional story by joining the army and fighting in Iraq, earning a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

Consider their differences:

  • AOC is electric. Charming, Charismatic. Campaigning or leading the Squad or leading the left, she has earned national status. The New York Times said Max Rose is a bald, white man. His campaign in 2018 was a little boring. About day to day problems. About the length of his constituents’ commute. But also about the system being rigged against the ordinary person.
  • AOC voted for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker. She has caused Pelosi fits in other ways. In a party with a center and two wings, AOC has become a leader of the left wing. Max Rose voted for Senator Tammy Duckworth for House Speaker. With the party’s right wing, he has voted against the Speaker on procedural issues.  He seems to have reconsidered. Recently he has been with the Speaker and with the Democratic center.

AOC and Max Rose are interdependent. AOC and The Squad need a majority in the House of Representatives to be powerful. Max Rose and those like him create the majority. Democrats needed to flip 24 Republican seats to get a majority. They flipped 40. Max Rose’s victory was the 16th narrowest. Without him and those like him, the Democrats majority disappears.

Max Rose joined two of the three major Congressional caucuses. The Blue Dog Coalition –the most conservative Democratic caucus in the House. The New Democratic Coalition –moderates with a focus on being fiscally conservative. He joined the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus led by NJ Congressman Josh Gottheimer. More than The Squad, the Problem Solvers have been a problem for Nancy Pelosi.

Max Rose has joined other groups, too. The Congressional LGBT Caucus which is  is chaired by the eight openly gay members in the House (all Democrats). The Future Forum – focused on concerns of millennials such as student loan debt, college affordability, home ownership, entrepreneurship, job opportunities, and climate change. Forum members meet with mellennials at universities, job-training centers, and brewpubs.

Improving transportation infrastructure for his district is Max Rose’s most important priority (remember the commute time issue). His approach to Medicare For All is to reduce the age of voluntary participation in Medicare to 55 while adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act.. Max Rose would ban assault rifles and implement criminal background checks for all gun purchases. He would rejoin the Paris Agreement as part of addressing climate change.

Mas Rose has reasonable Democratic positions. They have not come to fruition. The infrastructure bill he touted made no progress at all. He may eventually help the Democrats get there. Max Rose is on the Homeland Securities Committee. The great highway expansion of the 1950s was built under the guise of national security.

We watch presidential candidates wrangle about what to do with health insurance.   We watch the consequences of failure to control the sale of guns with horror. We need to keep the Democratic majority in the House so that there is a chance to solve these problems. We also need to win the Senate to work on solutions. A Democratic president would make more of a difference than I can say in a single sentence.

Help with all three of these goals. Choose your presidential candidate and give money. Give again to whoever is the nominee. Watch these Notes for Senate candidates to give money to. Members and candidates for the House, too. An America that reflects your values is worth spending money on. Max Rose https://www.maxroseforcongress.com/ is worth spending money on. Help him out.

Vulnerable Congressional Democrats in the order of their margin of victory – narrowest first. With the money they have raised date to date and their cash on hand at the end of the 2nd quarter of 2019. Figures below: $100 = $100,000; $1,000 = $1,000,000

  1. Ben McAdams UT 04 Elected by 694 votes $783/$484
  2. J. Cox CA 21 Elected by 862 votes $894/$644
  3. Kendra Horn OK 05 Elected by 3,338 votes $1,075/$795
  4. Jared Golden ME 02 Elected by 3,509 votes $623/$495
  5. Lucy McBath GA 06 Elected by 3,634 votes $1,294/$929
  6. Xochitil Torres Small NM 03 Elected by 3,722 votes $1,099/$1,012
  7. Andy Kim NJ 03 Elected by 3,973 votes $1,165/$970
  8. Joe Cunningham SC 01 Elected by 4,082 votes $1,353/$970
  9. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell FL 26 Elected by 4,119 votes $1,134/$934
  10. Anthony Brindisi NY 22 Elected by 4,373 votes $908/$771
  11. Gil Cisneros CA 39 Elected by 6,711 votes $593/$390
  12. Abigail Spanberger VA 07            Elected by 6,784 votes $1,153/$1,025
  13. Cynthia Axne IA 03 Elected by 7,709 votes $1,037/$841
  14. Josh Harder CA 10 Elected by 9,980 votes $1,702/$1,406
  15. Lizzie Fletcher TX 07 Elected by 12,317 votes $1,112/$945
  16. Max Rose NY 11 Elected by 12,382 votes $1,453/$1,216

Four from the Northeast.

Four from the Southeast.

One from the Midwest.

Seven from the West.