New York: Fourth District

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D)

Carolyn McCarthy (D) Elected 1996, 6th term up
Born:	01-05-1944, Brooklyn
Home:	Mineola
Education:	Glen Cove Nursing Schl., L.P.N. 1964
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	widowed
Professional Career:	Nurse, 1964–93; Gun control activist, 1993–96.
DC Office	106 CHOB, 20515 202-225-5516 Fax: 202-225-5758 Website: carolynmccarthy.house.gov
State Offices	Garden City:516-739-3008;
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By the mid-20th century, Nassau County changed from almost entirely rural to almost entirely suburban. One of its first suburbs was Garden City, with its wide avenues and single-family homes, laid out more than a century ago by New York retailer A.T. Stewart at a time when reformers were urging that new communities retain the commercial vitality and social interaction of the city within a setting that preserved the healthful openness of the countryside. After World War II, freeways replaced strip highways and shopping centers sprang up at intersections, but many of the middle- and upper-income residents here continue to depend on the Long Island Railroad, with new construction planned to speed them to jobs in New York City. Garden City has maintained high real estate prices and is surrounded by some of Nassau County’s key institutions: the county seat of Mineola; Hofstra University in Hempstead; Roosevelt Field, where Charles Lindbergh took off for Paris, now a shopping center; and the inelegant Nassau Coliseum that county leaders hope to turn into a “town square.”

The 4th Congressional District of New York includes Garden City and the towns all around. It has several suburbs just north of the Jericho Turnpike—New Hyde Park, Mineola, Westbury—as well as a large swath of southern Nassau County east of the Queens County line. This territory includes communities like the surviving Republican citadel of Hempstead, Uniondale, Rockville Center and ethnically diverse Valley Stream, as well as the “Five Towns”—the railway suburbs of Lawrence, Inwood, Cedarhurst, Hewlett and Woodmere—many of which have more students at private schools (mostly yeshivas) than in public schools. Nassau County has traditionally been Republican, and both Garden City and heavily Catholic East Meadow remain that way. But the Five Towns are heavily Democratic, and about one-third of the district’s residents are black or Hispanic. Elmont, near the Queens line, once heavily white, now has a large Caribbean and Latin American population. The traditional Republican heritage in the 4th District is becoming a dim memory; the county legislature is now led by a Democratic majority, something that would have seemed unimaginable just a few decades ago.

The congresswoman from the 4th District is Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat first elected in 1996. She was born in Brooklyn, trained as a nurse, married and raised a family on Long Island; originally, she was a Republican. In 1993 her husband was killed and her son seriously injured in the “Long Island Railroad Massacre,” when a gunman opened fire on passengers as the train 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, and in 1995 lobbied her Congressman Daniel Frisa to vote against repeal of the assault weapons ban, unsuccessfully. McCarthy inquired about running against Frisa in the primary, but Nassau County Republicans discouraged this. Democrats had been eyeing the seat for some time and recruited her. McCarthy initially 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 gun control and attacked Frisa as too close to Newt Gingrich. Frisa disappeared in the campaign’s final week, did not show up at his election night party and never made a concession statement. McCarthy won 57%-41%.

In the House, McCarthy compiled a voting record among the least liberal of New York Democrats. Passionately in favor of gun control measures, she called for childproof locks on handguns, fines for parents if a child gets a handgun and shows it in public, and jail terms if a crime is committed with a gun. With support from the NRA, the House approved her bill to assist states to gain more access to the federal background check system for gun buyers. The 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, again with NRA backing. In 2004, she led the unsuccessful effort to force a House vote on extending the assault weapon ban. Majority Leader Tom DeLay said that there were not enough votes to extend the ban and refused to schedule a vote; McCarthy criticized George W. Bush for “winking” at the NRA on the issue, but she also blamed Democrats for their lack of support. She continued her crusade with a call to ban .50 caliber sniper rifles. In 2005, she successfully opposed part of an amendment to an anti-gang bill that inadvertently would have permitted grade-schoolers to pack a pistol while they were with a parent.

With only limited success on gun issues, McCarthy has broadened her portfolio, using her experience as a mother and nurse to take an interest in education and health-care issues. She stood at Bush's side in 2002 when he signed her bill to give incentives to hospitals in hiring more nurses and remedy the acute shortages. She surprised people on some votes, opposing the partial-birth abortion ban and backing the use of force in Iraq; in 2006, she was one of two New York Democrats to vote for a Republican resolution supporting the war in Iraq. In 2007, she chaired the revamped Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, with issues ranging from child nutrition and gang violence to low-income home energy assistance.

At home, Republicans have thrashed around to line up opposition. She had a tough time in 2002, when she was challenged by ophthalmologist Marilyn O’Grady, who took a hard line on terrorism and immigration, opposed abortions, and ran ads that attacked McCarthy for taking a 1998 contribution from Barbra Streisand. Although O’Grady received little national attention or party support, McCarthy’s margin shrunk to 56%-43%. In 2004, James Garner, the mayor of Hempstead and head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, sought to rally support as a black Republican and called McCarthy a one-issue lawmaker. But Garner was criticized for local problems in Hempstead, and national Republicans showed no indication that they viewed this district as an opportunity. McCarthy won, 63%-37%. In 2006, she had her biggest win, 65%-35%, against retired Nassau County police sergeant Martin Blessinger.

Committees

• Education & Labor (8th of 27 D)
  Healthy Families & Communities (Chmn.); Health, Employment, Labor & Pensions.
• Financial Services (15th of 37 D)
  Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit.

Presidential Vote

District Demographics (More Info)

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 9
• Area size: 103 square miles
• Urban Population: 100.0%
• Rural Population: 0.0%
• Population 2000: 654,360
• Population 2005 (est): 664,857
• Median Income: $66,799
• Poverty Status: 6.4%
• Military Veterans: 9.9%
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 62.3% White; 17.6% Black; 4.5% Asian; 0.1% Native Am.; 0.0% Hawaiian; 1.6% Two+ races; 0.3% Other; 13.6% Hispanic Origin;
• Ancestry: 17.5% Italian%; 12.4% Irish%; 8.0% German%;
• Occupation: Blue collar 16.6%; White collar 67.9%; Gray collar 15.5%;