cuchulainn
Member
from the A.P. via Newsday
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...ct17,0,5793846.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...ct17,0,5793846.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
Gun control's `guiding light' faces challenge
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
October 17, 2003, 12:56 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Nearly a decade after her husband was killed and her son badly wounded in a shooting rampage on the Long Island Rail Road, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy is headed back into battle over the same piece of legislation that propelled her to Congress.
McCarthy, 59, decided to run for office after her then-congressman, Republican Daniel Frisa, voted in 1995 to repeal the assault weapons ban. Running as a Democrat, she unseated him the following year.
As Congress approaches the 10-year expiration of the ban, the widow advocate turned Washington lawmaker is gearing for the political fight to extend the ban, even as state Republicans say a serious challenger is preparing a campaign to unseat her in 2004 in the tightly-balanced Long Island district.
The congresswoman is serving her fourth term as representative of Long Island's 4th district, which covers parts of Nassau County.
Republican sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mayor James Garner of Hempstead, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, plans to run against her next year.
McCarthy, a former nurse, fought fervently for gun control after her husband was killed aboard the commuter train on Dec. 7, 1993. While she has always campaigned on bread-and-butter issues like improved health care and education, she is most closely identified with the gun control movement.
"She's our moral compass, our leader ... a guiding light," said Joshua Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "To have someone who can look other members (of Congress) in the face and talk to them from a very personal experience, that can make all the difference. ... Her district should be extremely proud."
When asked what has changed in the battle over the Second Amendment since she arrived in Washington, McCarthy smiles ruefully and recounts a story about how she watched the 1972 Robert Redford film, "The Candidate," soon after she won her first election.
"It was probably the saddest movie that I have ever watched, mainly because when that movie was made, all of the issues are exactly what we're dealing with today," she said. "It was gun violence, the choice issue, the environment, education."
But the issue of gun control is still central to her work.
She begins each working day by lighting a candle in her congressional office, a ritual that began when she first came to Washington. At first, the candle's light symbolized all shooting victims, she said, and now represents victims of senseless violence, including those killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Unlike most members of Congress from New York, McCarthy does not have a relatively secure district. By her own count, there are only two seats that could go either Democrat or Republican _ hers and that of Rep. Timothy Bishop, a freshman who won in 2002 by a scant 3,000 votes.
McCarthy said her record on health care and education, and her upcoming trip to Iraq _ as part of an all-female bipartisan delegation seeking to ensure Iraqi women's inclusion in the country's new government _ show she is far more than a one-issue lawmaker.
But Republicans are eager to challenge her, and Garner, a long-serving mayor whose national profile has increased dramatically since taking the helm of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, has told fellow Republicans he will run.
Garner, when reached for comment, would not say definitively whether he will run, but said, "I certainly plan on making an announcement in November."
The Republican sources said Garner, 58, has already had discussions to gather support from national leaders, including Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., head of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
One Republican officeholder, who declined to give his name, said Garner, who is black, highlights the Republican party's effort to attract more minority voters.
But McCarthy seems undeterred by the opposition and expressed confidence in her record. She also said he was not afraid of ruffling feathers as the gun control battle heats up again.
"I'm already getting colleagues saying, 'You're not going to bring this up again, are you?"' McCarthy said. "I say, "Yeah, I am."'
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
Copyright © Newsday
Hey, lady, howzabout focussing on your job instead of goofy grandstanding symbolism?