Nita Lowey

Here’s a clip from Matt Stoler’s interview of Democratic Congressional candidate Kevin Powell (who is trying to unseat Representative Ed Towns of Brooklyn), where the two discuss the FISA bill that recently passed both houses on Congress, and which many on the left opposed. (Barack Obama faced criticism from progressives over the bill, which he voted for.)

About halfway through, Powell says, “We’ve lost our backbone.” He adds later, “A lot of us have become spineless Democrats.”

Towns voted against FISA.

In case you’re wondering, Democratic members of Congress from New York who supported FISA include Tim Bishop and Carolyn McCarthy of Long Island; Gary Ackerman, Greg Meeks and Joe Crowley of Queens; Eliot Engel of the Bronx; Nita Lowey of Westchester; Kirsten Gillibrand of Albany; and upstate's Mike Arcuri and Brian Higgins.  read more »

The Clinton campaign gathered Congress members Nita Lowey, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Gregory Meeks on a conference call this morning to demand that Barack Obama sever his campaign's ties to senior adviser and Pulitzer-prize-winning academic Samantha Power after she called Hillary Clinton a “monster” in an interview with a Scottish newspaper.

Congresswoman Lowey of New York opened by saying, “We feel so strongly that this is a long way that we have to go in this campaign, and it's likely to go all the way to Denver. Personal attacks are not the way to go.” She went on, “We’re calling on Senator Obama to make it clear that Samantha Power should not be part of this campaign.”

Lowey later said, “This is an important test for Senator Obama….it’s really a test of character. This comment set a tone.” She then added, “I think Senator Obama has to make a public statement and separate himself from Samantha Power.”  read more »

It was only after the midterm elections that the real campaigning began.

Below is a letter, dated November 15, from Charlie Rangel and Nita Lowey asking Nancy Pelosi to put Joe Crowley on the influential House Ways and Means Committee.

It's a position that provides access to business-minded constituents with lots of campaign cash to dole out to committee members. That's something, to judge by this recommendation, that's not lost on Rangel and Lowey.

"Joe has hosted events for candidates and Frontline Members in New York and contributed directly $275,000 to the DCCC and raised over $6.75 million in his role as Business Council Chair. Joe will continue to work in the 110th to support our Freshman and continue turning red seats blue."

The rest of the letter is over here [pdf].

-- Azi Paybarah

The Drum Major Institute just released its official report card focusing on how members of Congress performed for middle class Americans. Unsurprisingly, given the organization's liberal outlooks, they failed 99 percent of House Republicans. Slightly more surprisingly, only gave 20 percent of House Democrats scored an "A."

The star members of the New York class include Anthony Weiner, Charlie Rangel and Nita Lowey, all of whom scored straight A's. As Ben noted looking at the draft of the report, Greg Meeks earned a C with 60 percent, and Ed Towns did a little better, scoring 63 points but also coming home with an average C.

Of the potential Presidential candidates coming out of the Senate, the Drum Institute failed John McCain with 25 points, which is not bad considering George Allen failed with 0 points. Hillary Clinton aced the Institute's exam with an A. Chuck Schumer only got a B.

- Jason Horowitz

Terry McAuliffe arrived at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at 6:30 a.m. on Sept.  read more »

It was a brief encounter, but for Representative Nita Lowey of Westchester County, it must have been  read more »