Rep. Dan Maffei (D)

The congressman from the 25th District is Dan Maffei, a Democrat elected in 2008. He was born in Syracuse, the son of social workers, and grew up a self-described “nerd” who wrote computer code after school to make extra money. Maffei (Mu-FAY) earned three Ivy League degrees, from Brown University, the Columbia School of Journalism, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He briefly worked as a reporter for a local television station, and in 1996 Maffei went to Washington to pursue a career on Capitol Hill, working as press secretary to Sens. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., for a year each. He then spent six years as a press aide to the Democratic minority on the House Ways and Means Committee, where he forged a relationship with ranking Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. Maffei picked up valuable political experience as a coordinator for Democrat Matt Driscoll’s successful 2005 campaign for Syracuse mayor. In 2006, few observers gave Maffei much of a chance when he launched a campaign against nine-term Republican Rep. James Walsh. But his anti-war focus, coupled with the favorable national climate for Democrats, provided the ingredients for a near-upset. Maffei fell short by fewer than 3,500 votes.

With encouragement from Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and flush with cash from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maffei was set for a rematch with Walsh in 2008. Then, in January 2008, Walsh unexpectedly announced he would not run for re-election, leaving open one of the few remaining districts in Republican hands that backed Democrat Kerry for president in 2004. Maffei avoided primary competition but weathered criticism over the generous campaign contributions he accepted from Rangel while the Ways and Means chairman was under investigation for charges of tax fraud. He had received some $75,000 from Rangel’s political action committee and from a birthday gala for Rangel at Tavern-on-the-Green in Manhattan. Maffei defended the contributions as proper and legal, and declined to return them. Republicans also criticized him for campaigning with national party figures like party Chairman Howard Dean, but the outcry failed to resonate in this liberal-leaning district. Outraised almost 6-to-1, GOP nominee Dale Sweetland, a farmer and former Onondaga County legislator, proved unable to replicate Walsh’s success. Maffei defeated him 55%-42%. In his election night speech, he cited one of Moynihan’s aphorisms: “America is a land of the second chance.” His victory over Sweetland nudged congressional Republicans further along the road to extinction in New York. In the past three election cycles, Democrats have picked up seven House seats in the state. After four years of practically uninterrupted campaigning for the seat, Maffei ended not only with a seat in Congress, but a partner to share it with—he married his fiancée, Abby Davidson, in July 2008.

In the House, he emphasized his moderate stripes and nonideological pragmatism. He joined the New Democrat Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats. He got seats on the Financial Services and Judiciary committees. During his first month in office, Maffei fought to include billions of dollars for school construction in the Democrats’ economic stimulus bill. He also sought to direct funds to his district for “green jobs” and high-tech development. In a sign that the GOP has not given up on the seat, the National Republican Congressional Committee aired a series of radio commercials in Syracuse accusing Maffei of placing pork-barrel spending over job creation. With an eye on re-election in 2010, Maffei got an early start on fundraising with $440,000 in the first quarter of 2009, ranking him the third-most-prodigious fundraiser among freshmen Democrats. (He says he keeps a photograph of hard-charging Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff and former Illinois lawmaker, in his office closet as a reminder of the need to raise money.)

Maffei says his district leans more Democratic than those of three other upstate Democrats, which should help him in the case of a likely Republican challenge in 2010. Another political goal for him is to keep Onondaga County whole during redistricting in 2012, in contrast to Rochester-based Monroe County, which was split into four districts in 2002.