United States Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., has been her 14th District’s choice for the House of Representatives since 1993, virtually never challenged as she forged ahead bringing home the bacon in billions for mass transit projects and health benefits for 9/11 firefighters, among others, as well as supporting the credit card bill restraining companies running roughshod over cardholders. This year, she received the “Good Government” award from the watchdog Project on Government Oversight for her work to bring transparency to government.
But these days, Maloney, 64, has a thorn in her side, one she tried ignoring for several months – 34-year-old hedge fund lawyer Reshma Saujani. The two are facing off in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary. It is the classic battle of the old guard against the new breed of leaders, encouraged by President Obama’s ascent to office, and in fact, instrumental in bringing him to the White House. According to some politicos, voters today are more focused on what they want rather than what the incumbent has done.
After trying to ignore Saujani’s repeated challenges to have televised debates, Maloney’s people are in talks with Saujani’s people about it. In terms of political experience, you can’t beat Maloney.
By the time she was Saujani’s age, she had already served a few years in the New York City Council, and did a 10-year stint there before moving on to Washington. She is considered more “liberal” than the whole New York delegation, has initiated bills that have affected women and children nationally, such as regular mammograms for women, funding for antirape enforcement, targeting sex trafficking, expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act to include same sex couples, to name a few. More recently, she authored the credit card bill and secured federal funding for the health care of workers affected during the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center.
“When we were trying to get funding for medical benefits for firefighters, she has been a fierce advocate for that,” Neera Tanden, a former senior aide to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, told The Indian American. “She and Hillary got a fair amount, around $100 million.”
Maloney also managed to secure some $60 million for Afghan women and children through an amendment to a foreign aid bill. Two years ago, she published her book, “Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: Why Women’s Lives Aren’t Getting Any Easier – And How We Can Make Real Progress for Ourselves and Our Daughters.”
Born Carolyn Bosher in Greensboro, N.C., and a graduate of Greensboro College, Maloney came to New York City in 1970 and fell in love with it. Seven years later, she married Clifton Maloney, nine years her senior, an Ivy Leaguer who worked in finance and an avid sportsman and philanthropist.
Clifton Maloney, 71, died last September while mountain climbing in China. Some of the congresswoman’s momentary uncertainty about her political options and her slowness in recognizing Saujani’s challenge is attributed to her dealing with his death.
She seems to have returned to her old self as a seasoned politician, now also seen rubbing shoulders with Indian-Americans and South Asians who seem torn between whether to vote for their “own kind” or continue supporting the incumbent.
“She’s a very tough fighter. She works hard,” Tanden says about Maloney. At the same time, “I like Reshma a lot. I like them both.” Lucky for her she does not have to make a choice. Tanden now votes in D.C. But nationally, it is a tough environment for incumbents, she concedes, noting the overthrow of longtime incumbent Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in Michigan’s 4th District by Hansen Clarke, an Indian-American, in the Democratic primary Aug. 3.
Maloney is becoming more visible among Indian-Americans and recently attended several local events, including a community reception thrown by Dr. Sudhir Parikh, publisher of The Indian American. She wants South Asians to vote for her based on her record.
In a telephone interview with The Indian American from her Washington, D.C., office, Maloney highlighted her initiative to allow Indian-American Sikhs in the U.S. Army to keep their articles of faith while serving. She initiated the letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on behalf of 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan. She also noted her work with the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, including her support for the U.S.-India civilian nuclear cooperation agreement.
A lead sponsor of the immigration reform bill, Maloney said she has a provision for catapulting to the top of the visa line anyone with an idea that could create jobs. “My bill, the Start-Up Visa 1 Bill, would permit entrepreneurs to get a two-year visa,” she said. It has been incorporated into the larger immigration reform bill.
Asked about a major complaint from Indians that they are seemingly being punished for going through the legal process and that illegals are being given precedence over them, Maloney said, “We are working on it.”
She last visited India as part of a congressional delegation in 1995. She hopes, but does not expect, that the president will have some lawmakers in his contingent when he heads to India in November.
India and the U.S., she said, are both victims of terrorism and Indian-Americans should consider her record on the 9/11 bill, as well as on intelligence and security. She pointed to the close cooperation between intelligence agencies in the two countries following the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
“Both India and Pakistan are our allies,” she said. But when asked whether the two countries should be treated on par, she noted, “One indication of the high respect is the very first diplomatic dinner was with the Prime Minister of India.” She was very impressed by Singh’s pronouncement on how U.S.-India relations were based on “principles over pragmatism.” “We are engaged with India on several fronts,” Maloney said.
She sees no recent anti-Indian-American sentiment in the greater New York area, where Divyendu Sinha, a 49-year-old IT consultant, was brutally attacked by a gang of teens and succumbed to his injuries in Old Bridge, N.J. Commenting on the Joel Stein column in Time magazine that ridiculed Indian-Americans, she said, “That was not funny at all,” she said.
“The Indian-American community is extremely successful not only in small business but also as physicians,” and in other fields, she said.
“I represent a number of them and they are highly regarded.” She recalled some Indian-American physicians worked with her to extend the moratorium on Medicare cuts. She will continue working on it for a permanent solution, she promised.
Indian-Americans living on the Upper East Side will vote for Maloney over Saujani, predicted Veena Oldenburg, a professor at Baruch College in New York. “They don’t recognize these cultural boundaries. They want to be the hip, quintessential New Yorkers. They may be very into Indian culture, but in a hip way. They won’t be influenced by ethnic connections. And their tax-sheltered homes are more protected by someone like Maloney,” Oldenburg contended.
Meera Kumar, former senior vice president at Safe Horizon, a provider of services for victims of domestic violence and abuse, said she is not going to vote based on ethnicity. She lives around 60th Street and knows about Saujani. Having lived for 10 years now in the 14th District, Kumar says she has seen services like sanitation deteriorate, homelessness increase and disparity between the rich and the poor get starker.
“I can just imagine people from Europe or elsewhere who come into Manhattan from the airport over Queensboro Bridge thinking they are in a third-world country when they turn into this first street,” she said.
When it comes to a vote, however, “We should leave ethnicity out of it. When I am hiring somebody, I shouldn’t be taking ethnicity into account. If people voted only for ethnicity, an Indian would not be elected and our president would not be African-American.”
Maloney has had a chance encounter with her opponent at a public meeting. “She is very pleasant,” Maloney said about Saujani. “I look forward to meeting her.”
When asked if she would agree to a debate with Saujani on television or at any other forum, Maloney avoided a definite answer. “That is something my campaign office is handling. You could find out from them.” When pushed, she capitulated, “I believe our two campaigns are talking.”
Tanden said the environment is very unsteady for incumbents. “It’s a unique time for incumbents. I don’t have any predictions on the race. Carolyn has to take it very seriously."
