The congressman from the 7th District is Joseph Crowley, an ambitious and garrulous Democrat first elected in 1998 who became chairman of the centrist New Democrat Coalition in 2009. Read More
The congressman from the 7th District is Joseph Crowley, an ambitious and garrulous Democrat first elected in 1998 who became chairman of the centrist New Democrat Coalition in 2009.
Crowley grew up in Woodside, where his family was involved in politics. His Uncle Walter Crowley was elected to the New York City Council in 1984. When he died in 1985, Joseph Crowley wanted to succeed him, though he was only 23. But Tom Manton, the boss of the efficient Queens County Democratic Party, chose his chief of staff instead. The following year, Assemblyman Ralph Goldstein from Elmhurst died. Fresh from Queens College, Crowley ran and won, with support from Manton. Crowley was interested in Irish affairs and sponsored the law that requires public school students to be taught about the Irish potato famine. He played guitar and sang tenor with the Budget Blues Boys, a group of assemblymen who performed on cold Albany nights. (He still loves to sing, and once did a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac” at a USO concert with Springsteen’s guitarist, Nils Lofgren.) When political boss Manton decided it was time for Crowley to go to Congress, he went.
In 1998, Manton was the 7th District incumbent. He filed for re-election by the July 16 deadline. Then at 11 a.m. on July 21, he convened a meeting of Queens Democratic committeemen, announced that he was retiring, and got them to vote in Crowley as the Democratic nominee. Other potential candidates were not notified beforehand and were naturally miffed, but also resigned to reality. Manton argued that Crowley, at 36, was in a position to accumulate seniority and power in Washington. Crowley was delighted. “What you’re hearing is not so much about the process, but sour grapes. What happened here is simply that I was offered an ice cream cone, and I took it.” His Republican opponent had no money and no chance. Crowley won in November, 69%-26%.
Once elected, Crowley voted as a centrist Democrat. He was the freshman Democrats’ class president that year. Over time, he changed his position from opposing abortion rights to favoring them, a stance in line with the party. He now has a seat on the powerful, tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. His local priorities include aid for city hospitals and adjusting the alternative minimum tax to reduce the number of middle-income taxpayers who are forced to pay it. He also has worked on a range of foreign policy issues, from extending economic sanctions against Burma’s military regime to criminalizing the removal of girls from the United States for genital mutilation, a practice common across Africa and parts of the Middle East and Asia.
An active participant in leadership activities, Crowley has had setbacks in seeking a top post. In 2005, he sought the chairmanship of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, highlighting his fundraising connections to Wall Street. But as an ally of Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, he was on the wrong side of Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who was then competing with Hoyer to move up the leadership ladder. The DCCC appointment went to Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who led Democrats to victory in the next election in 2006. Crowley was named to lead the DCCC’s Business Council, a key fundraising post. After that election, Crowley sought to move up to vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus. But Pelosi ally John Larson of Connecticut prevailed, 116-87. Crowley did some bridge-building with Pelosi and her allies, becoming chief deputy whip and DCCC vice chairman for finance. When the caucus vice chairmanship opened again after the 2008 election, he expressed interest but deferred when Pelosi backed Rep. Xavier Becerra of California. He was among those considered for DCCC chairman in 2011 but lost out to fellow New Yorker Steve Israel. After Manton died in July 2006, Crowley became Queens Democratic chairman.
For a time, he also held sway as the head of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats that had about 40 members in the 111th Congress (2009-10). Crowley sought to work more closely with the leadership than the often-confrontational Blue Dog Coalition, and cited his group’s success in reshaping elements of the financial regulatory reform bill that passed the House in 2009 and became law a year later. Their efforts earned them admiration from the industry’s lobbyists—an issue that the investigative reporting organization ProPublica highlighted in a lengthy October 2010 article detailing the New Democrats’ tight connections with K Street. Crowley found himself fighting allegations that he was the object of a lobbyists’ fundraiser right before a vote on the financial bill. The Office of Congressional Ethics investigated, and Crowley denied any wrongdoing. The House Ethics Committee ultimately cleared him and two other lawmakers in January 2011. The coalition lost about a third of its members in the November 2010 elections, and with Republicans back in control of the House, its influence has waned.
After the September 11 attacks, Crowley was especially active in homeland security issues. His district lost many firefighters, including his first cousin, who was a battalion chief. He won passage of an amendment to issue the Public Safety Officers Medal of Valor to the 414 first responders who died that day. And in 2007, the House passed his amendment to restore $50 million for homeland security funding in high-threat urban areas. Crowley has worked with Republicans on behalf of business interests to gain approval of bilateral free trade agreements. But when Republicans called for repeal of the Democrats’ 2010 health care overhaul, Crowley organized an effort asking GOP lawmakers who backed repeal to forgo their taxpayer-subsidized health insurance as a matter of principle.
Crowley has not faced serious opposition at election time. After the 2000 census, redistricting radically changed his constituency. In the old district, Queens cast 74% of the votes. Now the Bronx casts 62% (Crowley remains a Mets fan, though).
