Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D)

The congresswoman from the 4th District is Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat elected in 1996. She was born in Brooklyn, trained as a nurse, and then married and raised a family on Long Island. Originally, she was a Republican, but her life and politics changed dramatically in 1993. That year, her husband, Dennis, a stockbroker, was killed and her adult son, Kevin, was seriously injured in the “Long Island Railroad Massacre.” A gunman opened fire on passengers riding a commuter train as it crossed the Nassau County line. McCarthy spoke movingly at the killer’s trial, and her strength in tragedy won many admirers. She began campaigning for gun control laws and, in 1995, lobbied her congressman, Republican Daniel Frisa, to vote against repeal of the assault weapons ban. After Frisa voted for repeal, McCarthy inquired about running against him in the GOP primary. When Nassau County Republicans discouraged her, Democrats who had been eyeing the seat for some time recruited her. Initially, McCarthy knew little about politics. When told that Minority Leader Dick Gephardt wanted to meet her, she reportedly asked, “Who’s Dick Gephardt?” But she learned quickly. As the Democratic nominee, she called for stricter gun laws and attacked Frisa as too close to Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Georgia conservative. Frisa abruptly stopped campaigning the week before the election, did not show up at his election night party, and never made a concession statement. McCarthy won 57%-41%.

In the House, McCarthy has a voting record that is one of the least liberal among New York Democrats, especially on economic issues and on some foreign-policy issues. She backed the use of force in Iraq in 2002, and she voted for a Republican resolution supporting the war in 2006.

On guns, however, she has remained committed to liberal positions. She has called for childproof locks on handguns, fines for parents of children who get possession of handguns, and mandatory jail terms for crimes committed with guns. The House approved her bill to help states gain more access to the federal background check system for gun buyers. The 2002 sniper spree in the Washington, D.C., area gave her the opportunity to gain approval in the House of her bill—the Our Lady of Peace Act—to strengthen laws prohibiting the mentally ill from buying guns and requiring states to file records with the national background check system. In 2004, she led an unsuccessful effort to force a House vote on extending the assault weapons ban. Then-GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay said there were not enough votes to extend the ban and refused to schedule a vote; McCarthy criticized President George W. Bush for “winking” at the National Rifle Association on the issue, but she also blamed Democrats for their lack of support. She has also called for a ban on .50-caliber sniper rifles.

With only limited success on gun issues, McCarthy has broadened her portfolio, using her experience as a mother and nurse to become active in education and health care. In 2002, Bush signed her bill giving incentives to hospitals to hire more nurses to remedy acute shortages. She chairs the Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, which deals with issues ranging from child nutrition and gang violence to low-income energy assistance. In March 2009, she sponsored a bill to boost federal support for early child care. Also in 2009, she was the House sponsor of the successful Serve America Act, a bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts that represented a significant expansion of national service opportunities. It triples the number of federally supported volunteers to 250,000 and establishes new service corps for clean energy, education, health care, and veterans’ services.

McCarthy had a tougher than usual re-election in 2002, when she was challenged by ophthalmologist Marilyn O’Grady, a Republican who took a hard line on terrorism and immigration and opposed abortion rights. She also ran ads criticizing McCarthy for taking a 1998 contribution from actress and singer Barbra Streisand. Although O’Grady received little party support, she held McCarthy to a 56%-43% victory. Since then, McCarthy has been re-elected easily. She strongly criticized the appointment of Democratic Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. She cited Gillibrand’s “awful” record on gun control. She has some influential ties to the Obama White House. Her former chief of staff, Jim Messina, is Obama’s deputy chief of staff.