Maloney Leaves Washington
By Tia Carioli and Gregory Chisholm
WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2002–Connecticut’s 5th District Congressional Race was watched around the country as redistricting pitted two incumbents against each other in the most expensive House race Connecticut has ever seen. Republican Nancy Johnson came out victorious over Democrat James Maloney. Two weeks later, Maloney is talking about why he lost and what is in his future. WNPR Correspondent Tia Carioli reports from Washington.
Congressman James Maloney will leave his Congressional office for the last time today.
Over the past week, his staffers have been scrambling to pack up the office and find new jobs.
After representing Connecticut’s 5th District in Washington for six years, Maloney will be returning home to Danbury.
His opponent Nancy Johnson has 14 more years experience and greater public recognition which he says made his campaign an uphill battle from the beginning.
But Maloney says he’s not one to back down from a challenge.
I think we ran a very good campaign, I think we had a huge mobilization of volunteers, we had well more than 1,000 volunteers on election day doing all kinds of things, that tremendous spirit and that tremendous commitment all around the district. (18 secs)
Despite that commitment, Maloney couldn’t keep up with Republican opponent Nancy Johnson in one of the five most expensive races in the country.
Johnson raised and spent over 3 million dollars, compared to Maloney’s 1.8 million dollars.
This money gap also manifested itself on a national level.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised about 85 million dollars, while the National Republican Congressional Committee raised close to 160 million dollars.
Maloney says Republican deep pockets helped the GOP to not only maintain control of the House of Representatives but also to gain control of the Senate.
The Republicans have very substantially greater resources than the Democrats …I think what the Democratic party will need to do is expand and deepen its fundraising efforts. Its going to ultimately its going to have to go out to the public and intensify its efforts in a sort of a grass roots approach to fundraising to compensate for the corporate money that has been flowing into the Republican coffers. (27 secs)
But in order to gain the majority in either house of Congress, the Democrats have to do more than just raise money.
After their election losses, the House Democrats sought new direction for their party, and chose Nancy Pelosi as the new Minority Leader.
Maloney says Pelosi’s experience as a political party leader, as opposed to former Minority Leader Richard Gephart’s background as a public servant, will give her a better understanding of the changes that must be made.
She has a very keen appreciation and understanding of the need to strengthen political parties as a vehicle for public policy… and I think she will invest more of her time and effort in rebuilding the infrastructure of the Democratic party.
(14 secs)
Maloney plans to help the Democrats rebuild the party whether or not he is in Washington.
And for the time being, Maloney is looking forward to spending time with his family.
My oldest daughter is going to be going to college next year, so this year and this coming summer will really be the last year that she really is going to be around before she goes off to college, so I think that’s a wonderful opportunity to spend time with her as well as her two younger sisters and my wife. (17 secs)
He has not ruled out running for Mayor of Danbury, or even running for Congress again in two years.
And he proudly recalled his election night speech when the people started chanting “Jim for Governor.”
The people have been very kind to make a number of suggestions. All I’ve said is I’m committed to stay involved in Public Life and we’ll have to see how that works out in the specifics…I haven’t ruled anything in, I haven’t ruled anything out. (19 secs)
At age 54, Maloney says he hopes to have many years of public service ahead of him.
For WNPR, I’m Tia Carioli, in Washington D-C
Broadcast on Connecticut Public Radio, in Connecticut.
