Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) chided his fellow Democrats on Friday for competing to replace Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY) as the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee after the chairwoman lost her primary race to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) earlier this week.
RACE TO SUCCEED MALONEY AS TOP DEMOCRAT ON OVERSIGHT PANEL UNDERWAY AFTER PRIMARY LOSS
Multiple House Democrats have publicly declared their interest in the role, which, if Democrats are in the minority after November’s midterm elections, will be crucial to the party’s efforts to defend President Joe Biden as Republicans look to investigate the administration.
Krishnamoorthi, who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, said that under the current political landscape, “I think it is a tad unseemly to be campaigning for a committee leadership position.”
“Right now, we need to be supremely focused on the midterm elections staring us in the face,” he said. “Many of our colleagues are in tough fights, and I am concentrating on getting them, myself, and red-to-blue candidates elected in November so that we can keep the House out of the hands of Kevin McCarthy.”
Democrats who have made their interest in the role clear include Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), while Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Punchbowl News that he is “seriously considering” entering the race.
But Krishnamoorthi did not rule out a run himself. He went on to call it “concerning” that of 29 standing, select, and joint committees in the House, only one chairperson is of Asian American Pacific Islander origin and that there has never been a chairperson or ranking member of South Asian descent of a full House committee.
“But, again, our electoral focus right now should be on winning in November, not on caucus elections,” he said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The committee chairperson vacancy is due to a member vs. member primary between Maloney and Nadler, her longtime House colleague from New York City and onetime ally. The contest was prompted in the new 12th District by the Empire State’s recent redistricting process, which cast the two powerful House committee leaders against one another by combining their home political bases, Nadler’s on the Upper West Side and Maloney’s on the Upper East Side. Nadler won the race by a wide margin.
