PEEKSKILL: At a recent rally with union workers and other supporters in the downtown square of this small town on the banks of the Hudson River, New York Representative Sean Patrick Maloney tried to remind Democrats of everything he thinks the party has completed.
He wrote of sweeping coronavirus relief legislation passed in early 2021, infrastructure deals last fall, plans to boost high-tech manufacturing, the strictest limits on guns in decades and, most recently, a climate and health care law.
“Democrats are doing great things,” Maloney said in an interview after the incident.
He is betting that the message will be enough to help him and his party deal with a treacherous political climate this year. As head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Maloney is responsible for helping the party defy historical trends and maintain or even expand its majority in the House. Meanwhile, he faces a challenge from the left in next week’s primaries in a district that could be competitive in the general election.
Facing a confluence of hurdles, Maloney insists on staying focused on the party’s agenda.
“When things are working, it’s the best politics,” he said.
The 56-year-old Maloney was seen as a rising Democratic star when he was first elected to the House a decade ago. The first openly gay congressman from New York, he was at the vanguard of a new Democratic Party making inroads far beyond its urban base.
But he’s facing a primary challenge next week from state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, a 36-year-old progressive who has sought to portray Maloney as an out-of-touch operator of the establishment.
“I think he represents everything that is wrong with politics,” Biaggi said in an interview.
Maloney counters the establishment has delivered what voters want: pragmatism over activism. “We’ve had a real summer of success, and if things continue like this, I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people in November,” Maloney said.
He’s also gotten the endorsement of The New York Times, which carries a lot of weight with the Democrats in the district’s suburbs and exurbs of New York City, along with the endorsement of former President Bill Clinton, whose Chappaqua home is in the area.
Maloney, who worked in the Clinton White House, is a “proven leader,” the former president said in his endorsement, which thus far has not been echoed by his wife, former New York senator and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She has stayed out of the race, though her support would carry far more weight: Biaggi worked for her presidential campaign, and Clinton led Biaggi and her husband in their vows at their 2019 wedding.
The biggest name backing Biaggi, a lawyer in former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration and granddaughter of former Bronx Congressman Mario Biaggi, is progressive star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Biaggi, like Ocasio-Cortez, has a history of taking on powerful, more moderate members of her party and espouses an activist, working-people credo.
In the 2018 progressive wave that carried Ocasio-Cortez into office, Biaggi — despite being heavily outspent — ousted a longtime state senator known for leading a band of Democrats who collaborated with Republicans. She’s counting on a similar grassroots approach and desire for change as she aims to topple Maloney.
“I’m going to be on those doors, just like I’ve been every single weekend, knocking them down off the hinges, push through every single inch,” she said as she rallied a group of campaign volunteers in Sleepy Hollow for a weekend of door-knocking.
She’s also counting on the unusual circumstances of next week’s primary to help her chances. It’s the second primary election New Yorkers have had this summer, a delayed date to accommodate the redrawing of political maps after the first attempt at redistricting was thrown out in court.
There was a primary in June for the governor’s race and other statewide offices, but the primary for congressional races was delayed until Aug. 23 so new maps could be drawn.
New Yorkers aren’t used to voting in two primaries, especially one in late August when many are on vacation, and the new maps may leave them unfamiliar with their new district lines and who is considered an incumbent — which could create an opening for someone like Biaggi with activist energy behind her.
While Maloney has represented parts of the newly-drawn 17th District, Biaggi currently represents none of it in her state Senate seat and moved about 15 miles north to become a resident.
Maloney also moved north from New York City when he first ran to represent the region 10 years ago, but he quickly notes that he and his husband already had a second home in the area.
“She has every right to run, but people have a right to know that her district is 95% in the Bronx, and I represent several hundred thousand people who are in this district,” he said of Biaggi in the interview.
He and his supporters have painted her politics as too far left for the district, pointing to her embrace of the “defund the police” messaging that liberals took up in 2020 amid a broader national reckoning over race and policing.