McCarthy tested in bid for an 8th term

It was a story of tragedy turned to triumph.

A Mineola nurse whose husband was killed and son wounded during a murderous rampage on the Long Island Rail Road runs for Congress and soundly defeats the Republican incumbent who voted against gun control.

"I don't want to go to Congress and get caught up with whatever goes on there," Carolyn McCarthy said after her upset victory in 1996. "I don't want to change. I like who I am." She predicted she would return to her modest family home after serving "several terms."

Now, 14 years later, Democrat McCarthy is running for her eighth term in Congress and her Republican opponent contends she has become what she feared: out of touch with her middle-class constituents in the 4th Congressional District, shunning Mineola for D.C. and her $2-million Westhampton house.

"No question, she's really become a Washington insider," said challenger Fran Becker, 57, who has served nearly 15 years as a Nassau County legislator from the 6th District. "I think she spends most of her time in Washington and the Hamptons, and is rarely in her district and does- n't understand the concerns."

McCarthy, 66, laughs at his description: She returns to Mineola every weekend, she says, and rents out her Hamptons house year-round.

"I don't think I've been caught up in it," McCarthy said in a recent interview. "The one thing I hear from my constituents . . . is that I'm still the same. I haven't changed."

Financial perspective

McCarthy's congressional salary is $174,000, nearly double Nassau's median household income of $94,856 as of 2008, the latest pre-recession number available from the U.S. Census. Besides her Mineola family home, she owns the 1.8-acre Westhampton house on a creek, assessed at $1.892 million.

But McCarthy notes that, like everyone else, she has to pay for health insurance and gets no stipend for housing in Washington, where even small apartments rent for more than $1,200 a month. "If you saw my studio apartment, there would be no reason why I'd want to stay there," she said.

Becker said McCarthy "has had some ethical problems," referring to reports that she accepted $53,700 in campaign donations from a lobbyist charged with funneling illegal cash to politicians, who sponsored "earmarks" to the lobbyist's clients.

The New York Daily News reported that McCarthy steered $4.3 million in earmarks to two clients of the now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group. McCarthy, whose campaign donated the $53,700 to charity last month, has denied any connection between the contributions and the earmarks, which, she said, were intended to create jobs for her constituents. "None of the members knew what PMA was doing," she said.

McCarthy, who also has the Working Families Party line, said she continues to run for re-election "because I love my job." Winning on a gun-control platform, McCarthy at first had little success pushing the issue. But after the 2002 shooting of a priest and parishioner in Lynbrook, followed by the Virginia Tech murders, she said she authored a bill signed into law by President George W. Bush that helps keep guns away from the mentally ill and convicted criminals by providing money for states to update a national background-check system.

She also is proud of two laws she sponsored that encourage volunteerism and fund a civil rights oral history project.

Becker comes from a well-known Lynbrook political family. His grandfather was the area's congressman from 1950 through 1962. His father was Lynbrook's mayor; his brother served in the State Assembly and Fran Becker has been a member of the Nassau Legislature since its inception in 1996.

Also running on the Conservative, Independence and Tax Revolt lines, Becker said he has a better grasp of economic issues than his opponent.

Grasp of the issues

"I'm a small-business owner and a certified financial planner. I understand what we need to do to create jobs," he said. "Part of the problem is Washington seems to be regulating everything, taxing everything."

He accuses McCarthy of being "almost like sisters" with Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi, voting with her 97 percent of the time. He also knocks McCarthy for voting for "Obamacare," the health insurance reform that Becker derides as ". . . taxing everything under the sun."

"She's not in touch," Becker said. "People are really suffering. People are losing their homes. I'm talking about creating jobs and she's talking about obesity legislation."

McCarthy responded, "Mr. Becker doesn't seem to understand that in Congress you need to do more than one thing. Obviously, we've been working . . . hard and long on getting jobs."

She said she was able to bring $136 million back to the district through the federal Recovery Act - including $551,000 for the Carle Place school district, $5.9 million for waste water treatment in Cedarhurst and $4.8 million for traffic signal upgrades.

McCarthy also called Becker's views on Israel and the Mideast "very, very way out there." Becker says the United States, in support of Israel, should have stopped Iran from building a nuclear reactor. "We should have taken out their facilities already, bomb them," he said.

McCarthy was sidelined two years ago by back surgery, but says she's fully recovered. "I'm getting around fine."

The 4th Congressional District, which had a Republican edge when McCarthy first ran for office in 1996, now leans Democratic, with 177,556 registered Democrats to 145,277 registered Republicans. Some 100,000 voters are not affiliated with either major party.