The Latest from the Prospect
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

 

View this email in your browser

**JUNE 3, 2022**

How Sean Patrick Maloney Has Built Power for Republicans

BY LEE HARRIS

Maloney's announcement that he will exit his old district for a
slightly safer seat spells doom for Democrats. But he has long put
personal interests over his party.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) took other members of the New York
congressional delegation by surprise when he declared last month that he
will leave his district to run in a slightly safer neighboring region.

The choice sparked outrage at the top House Democrat charged with
defending lawmakers in vulnerable races. As chair of the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Maloney has access to crucial
polling and analysis, and appears to have decided that the move to a
district that gives him just a two-point edge

is vital for his political survival.

Abandoning his former district, primarily in the Hudson Valley, makes it
more likely that Republicans will capture the open seat, something
Democrats cannot afford if they want to hang on to the House.

But local politicians in Maloney's region say that although the
congressman heads the party's national electoral strategy, his
willingness to sabotage fellow Democrats is familiar. Maloney has long
guarded his right flank by supporting Republicans and declining to
campaign for Democrats in the district he is now exiting.

That strategy, several disgruntled Democrats said, is representative of
a party that has jettisoned issues popular with its base, such as
abortion rights and environmental issues, in favor of promoting
bipartisanship that may not deliver returns.

"He hasn't done anything to build the party or the infrastructure
behind it," former Dutchess County Democratic Committee Chairman Joe
Ruggiero told the Prospect. "Locally, he's all about himself."

Ruggiero speaks from experience. Maloney declined to endorse Ruggiero
when he challenged incumbent Marc Molinaro for Dutchess County
executive, after Molinaro's failed bid for New York governor. The
NRA-backed Republican's platform centered on building a new jail
complex

in Poughkeepsie.

Since winning that race, Molinaro has declared that he is running in New
York's 19th District, which is newly competitive as Democratic Rep.
Antonio Delgado has left it to become lieutenant governor. Several local
political organizers said Maloney's failure to endorse Molinaro's
progressive opponent typified his unwillingness to go to bat for
Democrats in his district.

"It's infuriating because Marc Molinaro is the county exec, he's
slick, but he doesn't have much power unless people give him power,"
said Lisa Jessup, chair of the Democratic Committee in the Hudson Valley
city of Beacon.

MALONEY BIGFOOTED HIS WAY into the district he's bigfooting out of. He
originally entered the old 18th after buying a home in Cold Spring, and
quickly became a force holding the line against progressives.

Elisa Sumner, then chairwoman of the Dutchess County Democratic
Committee, had recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with DCCC
chair Steve Israel about strategy for the region, where she and other
party leaders were confident that a progressive could win. She pointed
to Rep. John Hall, an environmentalist and rock star with the 1970s band
Orleans ("Still the One") who had written music performed by Pete
Seeger, criticized the Iraq War, and been a member of the Congressional
Progressive Caucus.

If Hall could win in the Hudson Valley, she reasoned, so could another
progressive local like Matt Alexander, then mayor of Wappingers Falls.
But she learned that Maloney, who had been an aide to former Gov. Eliot
Spitzer, had President Bill Clinton making robocalls on his behalf.

"We begged him not to run in the district," Sumner said. "We
already had [political] machines up and running, and he just came in and
cleared the field." In response, she added, Maloney "intimated that
he wanted to be in this district because it was closer to the New York
City media market."

Maloney campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg disputed that claim, writing
in a statement, "It is nonsensical and false to allege that the NYC
media market was a motivating factor. In reality, the media market posed
a challenge-it's the most expensive media market in the country and
he was a first-time candidate with no cash on hand against an incumbent
worth tens of millions."

When Maloney was elected, several Democrats said, he emphasized
bipartisanship at the expense of his own party. He bragged about voting
routinely against President Obama, including on implementing the
Affordable Care Act
.
When Donald Trump took office, Maloney was one of 33 House Democrats

who voted with Republicans for one of the administration's few
legislative victories, a bank deregulation bill that mostly benefited
large regional banks.

In 2014, Maloney backed

former state Sen. Bill Larkin of Orange County, an anti-choice,
NRA-funded

Republican, when Larkin faced a challenge from Newburgh City
Councilwoman Gay Lee, a pro-choice Black woman.

The following year, Maloney endorsed Republican Rob Rolison, an ex-cop
who also opposed abortion, for mayor of Poughkeepsie. He even went
door-to-door with Rolison
and Molinaro, the county executive, snubbing Randy Johnson, another
Black Democrat in the majority-minority and left-leaning city.

In the next mayoral election, Rolison faced a progressive challenge from
Joash Ward, a Black man who grew up in Poughkeepsie public housing,
graduated high school as valedictorian at 16 years old, and became an
intern in the Obama White House. Maloney again stepped in to endorse
Rolison, tipping a close race, which the incumbent ultimately won by
just 312 votes.

Johnson, the Poughkeepsie county legislator who lost to Rolison in 2015,
noted that Maloney had frequently declined to endorse Black candidates.
"He really did a disservice to the Democratic party in the city," he
said.

Not everyone agrees that Maloney has neglected to support Democrats.
Scott Reing, chairman of the Putnam County Democrats, stressed in an
interview that Maloney flipped his seat from Nan Hayworth, a member of
the far-right Tea Party.

"As someone who lives in Putnam County, a deeply red county otherwise,
Sean has shown up for us," Reing said. "It's a point of pride that
every Democrat in our very red county is represented by a Democrat."

"Maloney's record of supporting Democrats in the Hudson Valley and
all across the country speaks for itself: he has raised and contributed
millions of dollars to candidates and party committees, campaigned for
candidates, knocked doors, and rallied volunteers for his fellow
Democrats," Ehrenberg, the campaign spokesperson, said in a statement.

Local party officials also recalled Maloney's reluctance to stump for
Democrats in tough races, even when he did not actively endorse the
opposition. Lisa Jessup, chair of the Democratic Committee in the Hudson
Valley city of Beacon, said she vividly remembers hosting an event for a
mayoral candidate that Maloney and Ruggiero attended, shortly after the
congressman had declined to endorse the Democrat for county executive.

After the event, Jessup tried to group speakers together for a photo,
and was stunned by how nimbly Maloney extracted himself: "He just sort
of jumped off the side of the stage and was out the door."

Maloney has also helped guard against challenges from the left at the
statewide level. When actress and activist Cynthia Nixon declared her
primary challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Maloney was one of the first
elected officials to come out in support

of the governor. He cited his own identity as a gay man as giving him
credibility to dismiss Nixon's claim that Cuomo wasn't a real
progressive.

He also played a spoiler in the 2018 attorney general race, harming
upstate support for progressive Zephyr Teachout. That helped tip the
election to Letitia James, whom Cuomo had endorsed. (Ironically, it
would be a report from James on Cuomo's sexual misconduct allegations
that would drive the governor from office.)

When defending his strategy, Maloney has stressed that he sits in a
swing district. "If I wasn't managing the Frontline program, I'd
be on the program," he recently told

reporters. Now, he will face a primary challenge from Alessandra Biaggi,
a state senator who in 2018 unseated a key architect

of New York's Republican-aligned Independent Democratic Conference.
She sees a similar foe in her new target.

"Maloney cares more about short-term wins and holding on to his power
than strengthening the Democratic Party," Biaggi told the Prospect.

In the new 18th District, Maloney would likely have been running against
Colin Schmitt, a Trumpian Republican assemblymember who last year gave a
speech to galvanize protesters

on their way to the January 6th protests of Biden's inauguration in
Washington. Schmitt will instead vie with Ulster County Executive Pat
Ryan, a graduate of West Point military academy who says he has launched
one of the first county-level Green New Deal

plans in the country.

As a less-tested Democrat, Ryan will face headwinds. Meanwhile, Maloney
will need to woo wealthier voters in Rockland and Westchester Counties.
Even centrist Democrats aren't thrilled about it.

"I'm not going to sell my soul so people can call me Congressman
again," Max Rose, a former Staten Island congressman running in the
11th District, wrote in a Tuesday statement
that
appeared to obliquely reference Maloney. "If we can only win in seats
where Joe Biden won by more than ten points then we will never build the
coalition we need."

To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe. 

How Rich People Stole Identity Politics

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò charts a course between cynical corporate
liberalism and right-wing anti-wokeness. BY PROSPECT STAFF

The RNC's Ground Game of Inches

Inside the secretive, dubious, and extremely offline attempt to convert
minorities into Republicans. BY ALEXANDER SAMMON

Why the War FOR Poverty Has Made Gains

Discontinuing the expanded Child Tax Credit has plunged millions of
families back into poverty and its anxieties. BY RAMENDA CYRUS

All Corinthian College Loans to Be Canceled

Thanks in large part to activist work from a group of debt strikers,
over half a million borrowers of the defunct for-profit college chain
will have their loans forgiven. BY DAVID DAYEN

City Limits

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's bold plans for affordable housing run into
old-school politics, perverse regulations, and limited home rule. BY
GABRIELLE GURLEY

[link removed]

 

Click to Share this Newsletter

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

A MESSAGE FROM A PROSPECT PARTNER

Today, corporate narratives dominate our media.
Want an alternative?

Welcome to OptOut, a free news aggregation app for independent media
you can trust. Read, listen, and watch content about democracy, climate,
justice, labor, and other topics that matter from voices that the
corporate media overlooks. On OptOut, you can find Prospect stories
alongside your other favorite outlets. Download the iOS app today
and sign up
for OptOut's free newsletter .

 

[link removed]

YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM

The American Prospect, Inc.
1225 I Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States
Copyright (c) 2022 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.

To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
.

To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
.

To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
.