Carolyn Jane Maloney (née Bosher, February 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1993 to 2023 (numbered as from 1993 to 2013). The district included most of Manhattan's East Side, Astoria and Long Island City in Queens, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as well as Roosevelt Island. A member of the Democratic Party, Maloney ran for reelection in 2022 but lost the primary to 10th district incumbent Jerry Nadler after redistricting drew them both into the 12th district.
Maloney was the first woman to represent New York City's 7th Council district (where she was the first woman to give birth while in office). Maloney was also the first woman to chair the Joint Economic Committee. On October 17, 2019, she became the first woman to chair the House Committee on Oversight and Reform following the death of Elijah Cummings. On November 20, 2019, Maloney was formally chosen to succeed Cummings.
Early life, education, and career Carolyn Jane Bosher was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 19, 1946. She attended Greensboro College. After graduating, she visited New York City in 1970, and decided to stay.
For several years, she worked as a teacher and an administrator for the New York City Board of Education. In 1977, she obtained a job working for the New York State Legislature, and held senior staff positions in both the State Assembly and the State Senate. In 1976 she married Clifton Maloney, an investment banker.
New York City Council Maloney was elected to the New York City Council in 1982, defeating incumbent Robert Rodriguez in a heavily Spanish-speaking district based in East Harlem and parts of the South Bronx. She served as a council member for 10 years. On the council, she served as the first chair of the Committee on Contracts, investigating contracts issued by New York City in sludge and other areas. She authored legislation creating the city's Vendex program, which established computerized systems tracking information on city contracts and vendors doing business with the city.Lyall, Sarah The New York Times October 25, 1992 Maloney also introduced the first measure in New York to recognize domestic partnerships, including those of same-sex couples.Lee, Felicia R., "Bill Would Give Unwed Couples Equal Benefits", The New York Times, November 21, 1990. She was the first person to give birth while serving as a council member, and the first to offer a comprehensive package of legislation to make day care more available and affordable.
U.S. House of Representatives Elections
In 1992, Maloney ran for Congress in what was then the 14th district. The district had previously been the 15th, represented by 15-year incumbent Bill Green, a progressive Republican. She won with 51% of the vote. The district, nicknamed the "silk stocking district", had been one of the few in the city in which Republicans usually did well; in fact, they held the seat for all but eight of the 56 years between 1937 and Maloney's victory. However, redistricting made the district significantly friendlier to Democrats. The old 15th had been more or less coextensive with the Upper East Side, but the new 14th included Long Island City, portions of the Upper West Side, and a sliver of Brooklyn. Maloney also benefited from Bill Clinton's strong showing in the district.
The core of Maloney's district was the Upper East Side, an area with a history of electing moderate Republicans. Their dominance waned throughout the 1990s, and by the early 2000s Democrats dominated every level of government. This was exemplified in 1994 (the year of the Republican Revolution), when Maloney easily turned back a challenge from Republican City Councilman Charles Millard. Millard was the last reasonably well-financed Republican to run in the district; he was the last Republican to manage even 30 percent of the vote.
In 2004, Maloney faced a potential Democratic primary challenge from Robert Jereski, a former Green Party political candidate and unsuccessful candidate for delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention on the slate of Dennis Kucinich. Jereski opposed the Iraq War while Maloney had initially voted for the resolution to authorize force; she later renounced the war, including at a town hall meeting in her district with antiwar Congressman John Murtha, where her comments made headlines.Smith, Chad, "After Supporting War, Maloney Calls for Pullout", The Villager, April 12–18, 2006 Jereski failed to qualify for the ballot because his petition was found to have invalid signatures, leaving him four short of the 1,250 required.
In December 2008, Maloney hired a public-relations firm to help bolster her efforts to be named by Governor David Paterson as Hillary Clinton's successor in the U.S. Senate. She toured parts of the state, but was overshadowed by Caroline Kennedy's promotional tour for the same seat. Maloney interviewed with Paterson for 55 minutes. Public opinion polls placed Maloney's support for the Senate seat in the single digits, trailing the front-runner, then-State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, although her bid was endorsed by the National Organization for Women Political Action Committee, the Feminist Majority Political Action Committee,"Women's Groups Endorse Carolyn Maloney for Clinton's Senate Seat", National Organization for Women New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof,Kristof, Nicholas, "For Senate, Caroline or Carolyn?", The New York Times, December 17, 2008 and other columnistsBaldwin, Alec, "Paterson Must Appoint A Woman", The Huffington Post, December 11, 2008 and editorial boards."Maloney Is Best Choice for U.S. Senate", Queens Gazette editorial, December 3, 2008 .
On January 23, 2009, Paterson chose Representative Kirsten Gillibrand."Sources: Gillibrand to get Clinton's Senate seat", NBC News, January 23, 2008 Since Gillibrand is from upstate, many in NYC's political circles urged Maloney to primary Gillibrand in 2010."It's Called Democracy: Democrats Should Welcome All Comers Intro Primary for U.S. Senate", New York Daily News editorial, June 17, 2008 Despite leading Gillibrand in the polls, she instead ran to retain her congressional seat.Hernandez, Raymond, "Recognizing Long Odds, Maloney Drops Her Senate Bid", The New York Times, August 7, 2009 "Maloney Drops Out". A decade later, Maloney was the sole member of Congress to endorse Gillibrand's 2020 presidential campaign.
In the Democratic primary for Congress on September 14, 2010, Maloney defeated a well-funded opponent, Reshma Saujani, a 34-year-old Indian-American hedge fund lawyer, by 62 percentage points.Daley, Elizabeth. "Maloney wins primary". Queens Chronicle. September 16, 2010. That night, Saujani said, "I'm definitely running again",Pareene, Alex, "Wall Street's Favorite Candidate: I Will Run Again!", Salon.com, September 15, 2010 but three months later announced publicly that she would not challenge Maloney again.Pillifant, Reid, "Reshma Not Interested In 2012 Re-Match, Eyes 2013 Instead", The New York Observer, December 17, 2010.
In 2012 Maloney's Republican challenger was Christopher Wright, who took a leave of absence from J. P. Morgan to campaign. Maloney won with 80.9% of the vote, a margin of over 120,000 votes.
In 2014, Maloney defeated Republican nominee Nicholas Di Iorio, a financial contractor with Pfizer, with 80% of the vote.
In the 2016 Democratic primary, Maloney defeated Pete Lindner with 90.1% of the vote. She defeated Republican Robert Ardini in the general election with 83.2% of the vote.
In the 2018 Democratic primary, Maloney defeated progressive candidate Suraj Patel with 59.6% of the vote. In the general election she defeated Republican nominee Eliot Rabin with 86.4% of the vote.
In the 2020 Democratic primary, Patel challenged Maloney again, as did progressive Democrat Lauren Ashcraft and housing activist Peter Harrison. Erica Vladimer, a co-founder of New York State's Sexual Harassment Working Group, withdrew from the race before the primary. By July 29, 2020, it was revealed that Maloney led Patel by about 4% and 3,700 votes. On August 4, 2020, local election officials declared Maloney the winner of the primary.
The redistricting process of 2022 merged Maloney's district with the neighboring 10th district, represented by another member of the large Democratic freshman class of 1993, Jerry Nadler. The newly combined seat retained Maloney's district number, but was geographically more Nadler's district. Maloney challenged Nadler in the primary in August of that year, and lost by thirty points.
Tenure
In 2009, the National Journal'''s annual ranking placed Maloney as the 114th-most liberal (or 314th-most conservative) member of Congress, with more liberal scores on foreign policy than on economic and social policy. Her score of 75.5 ranked her as modestly more liberal than the New York Congressional delegation as a whole.
In 2011, a Daily News survey found that Maloney ranked first among New York's 28 representatives for activity with 36 proposed bills, resolutions, and amendments. In the 2013 legislative session, Govtrack.us scored her third among House Democrats for "Leadership", third among all representatives for "Powerful Co-sponsors", third-highest in the New York delegation for "Working with the Senate", and fifth-highest among all representatives for "Bills Sponsored". During the 2014 election cycle, the New York Daily News ran a story that said, "Maloney has proposed more legislation than any other House member, according to records", and called her "James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, giving compensation to Ground Zero workers who have fallen ill, as big a bill for the New York area as any in the last decade."
For the 2015 legislative session, Govtrack.us scored Maloney first for "Leadership" among House Democrats, based on sponsoring the most bills. It scored her second among all representatives for having the most co-sponsors, second for "Working with the Senate" and fourth among House Democrats for having powerful cosponsors. She was ranked in the top 10% of all representatives for bills introduced ("Maloney introduced 26 bills and resolutions in 2015").
As a U.S. Representative, Maloney was a superdelegate at presidential conventions. In the 2016 election cycle she was an early supporter of former Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Clinton. According to her 2018 GovTrack Report card Maloney ranked in the 80th percentile among House members for getting bicameral support for the bills she has introduced; she ranked sixth among House Democrats.
In 2019, Govtrack.us ranked Maloney as the top legislative leader in the House. This analysis ranked her second among all representatives for the most co-sponsors on her bills, in the top 5% for the number of bills introduced, and in the top 10% for getting her bills out of committee.
For her tenure as chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee in the 116th Congress, Maloney earned an "A" grade from the nonpartisan Lugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index.
In 2021 the Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked Maloney the third-most effective lawmaker in the House.
9/11-related issues
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Maloney advocated for federal help for New York's recovery and security efforts. Her efforts prompted Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice to write that Maloney was "like a tiger in the House on every dollar due New York."
On February 25, 2019, she introduced her Never Forget the Heroes Act, HR1327 in the 116th Congress—a bill to establish Permanent Authorization of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund Act. The $10.2 billion authorization was signed into law, establishing that both the World Trade Center Health Program and September 11 Victim Compensation are effectively permanent, with the WTCHP authorized to operate until 2090 and the VCF until 2092.
National security issues