By Bill Parry
In her 21years on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria) has sponsored more legislation than any other member of Congress. Eleven of the bills she has proposed have been enacted into laws.
“In a Republican-controlled House, I have been able to pass more bills into law than 98 percent of my colleagues,” she said in remarks relayed to the paper by a campaign official since she was in Poland. “And I am proud to have passed more than 60 measures into law, both as stand-alone bills and as pieces of larger packages, including five this year.”
Now, as she runs for re-election in District 12, Maloney’s record is under attack from her challenger, Republican Nick Di Iorio, a 28-year-old former seminary student.
“If you look at her record in how many bills that have passed next to all that she’s proposed, then you see that she’s the worst legislator in the House,” Di Iorio said. “We deserve serious, sober representation in Congress. Instead Carolyn Maloney introduces hundreds of junk bills that go nowhere. She just throws them up against the wall to see if any stick.”
Di Iorio held a news conference last Friday on the steps of City Hall where he was joined by a campaign worker dressed in a panda costume. Maloney made a trip to China last August in a bid to bring a panda bear to a New York City Zoo.
“We are here because this is a serious campaign that has to address and is addressing serious issues,” Di Iorio said. “But Carolyn Maloney is focused on other things. She wanted to adopt a panda, so I’ve taken care of that.”
Maloney would not comment on the stunt, preferring to stand by her record.
“From the East Side Access and Second Avenue Subway to the Kosciuszko Bridge, I have been delivering billions of dollars for the largest infrastructure projects, not just in New York, but America,” she said. “I authored the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act that has helped care for the responders and survivors of 9/11.”
In this term, as part of the Violence Against Women Act renewal, Congress passed the Campus Sexual Violence Eliminate Act that Maloney authored to deal with sexual assault on college campuses. “This year, I also successfully fought to reauthorize the Debbie Smith Act program, which has been called by some as the most important anti-rape legislation ever signed into law,” she said.
Di Iorio was not impressed.
“Carolyn Maloney is not concerned with the serious issues of the day, she doesn’t understand aspects of foreign relations,” he said. “She doesn’t have the capacity. As a former financial contractor with Pfizer, I know how important the tax code is and Carolyn Maloney doesn’t even know how it works.”
To illustrate that point, the Di Iorio campaign has an ad that shows U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) explaining to Maloney how a 401K works, while a committee was in session.
“We face a crisis here in the city and nationally and she’s just not up to the job yet she keeps winning by the widest margins in the country,” he said.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
