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The battle for the 19th Congressional District this November
will be a first of sorts for Katonah-Lewisboro. The 2008
election, featuring Democratic Congressman John Hall’s first
(and it is hoped last) bid for re-election, is the first
time since 1992 that at least one of the candidates for
Congress has not been a taxpayer in the Katonah-Lewisboro
School District.
When Katonah’s Sue Kelly lost her bid for a seventh term in
2006, the center of the Republican universe moved north,
west and right — to Poughkeepsie’s Kieran Michael Lalor and
I hope the rejuvenation of the intellectually moribund New
York State Republican Party.
That Mr. Lalor is in the race at all is a tribute both to
Mr. Lalor’s tenacity and the inability of the Republican
establishment to field any other opponent. Mr. Lalor
announced his candidacy last November and has survived two
efforts by the GOP’s powers-that-be to nominate a more
liberal candidate.
The first “Stop Lalor” effort latched onto somebody named
Andrew Saul, who filled the role of congressional candidate
the way cement fills a hole. Here at Briefing Book, the
thought of the charismatically challenged Mr. Saul debating
the Colbert Reporting Mr. Hall was too dreadful to
contemplate. Fortunately, the Saul campaign rocket imploded
before it even reached the launch pad.
The Republican establishment then seized on an idea that was
quintessentially Westchester Republican — concede the seat,
gracefully. And who better to play the role of a graceful
loser than someone from the Westchester County legislature?
Enter Republican minority leader George Oros, leader of a
hardy band of three other Republicans in White Plains and
not to be confused with the liberal multi-zillionaire George
Soros. The Oros alternative looked like business-as-usual
for the risk-averse Republican establishment — run a known
quantity who won’t rock the boat, pour a little money into
the race to make the effort look legitimate, and start
writing the concession speech.
Mr. Oros’ Web site did not engender confidence. The site had
exactly one page devoted to issues. That one was about taxes
and took a couple of readings before realizing he was in
favor of making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent. The two
slide shows on the site contained several photos of Mr. Oros
in a graveyard — not exactly the image the New York GOP
should be invoking in 2008. Another photo of the candidate
was labeled, simply but unfortunately, “George at cross
burning forum in Cortlandt.” (Briefing Book note — never put
your candidate and the words “cross burning” in the same
sentence unless the next sentence gives a lot more
information.)
Last week, Mr. Oros decided that White Plains couldn’t
afford to lose any more Republicans. He dropped out of the
race, leaving Kieran Michael Lalor to challenge Mr. Hall.
The national Republican Party appears less than enthusiastic
about contesting this seat. That’s a shame because, in
addition to the 19th Congressional District’s having voted
54% for George Bush in 2004, Mr. Lalor represents the kind
of vigorous young challenger that the GOP ought to be
recruiting and supporting. Mr. Lalor’s Web site, which may
be found at kml2008.com, contains everything Mr. Oros’ did
not — namely ideas, issues and energy.
A native of Wappingers Falls and a former altar boy, Mr.
Lalor is a graduate of Providence College. He worked his way
through college as a gas station attendant and a forklift
operator. After teaching high school, Mr. Lalor enlisted in
the Marine Corps and was called to active duty after Sept.
11. Mr. Lalor was deployed to Iraq in March 2003, where his
unit patrolled the streets of Nasiriyah, establishing
checkpoints and acting on intelligence to thwart enemy
attacks and confiscate insurgent weapons.
The 9/11 attacks are intensely personal to Mr. Lalor. His
sister Suzanne worked on the 92nd floor of the north tower
of the World Trade Center. Mr. Lalor did not know that on
the morning of Sept. 11 she was running late because she had
to finish icing a birthday cake for their sister. It wasn’t
until later that day that Mr. Lalor finally learned that she
was safe, having been at the foot of the tower when the
plane hit.
A graduate of Pace Law School and a member of the Federalist
Society, Mr. Lalor appears intent on drawing sharp contrasts
with the liberal incumbent. As the all-but-certain
Republican nominee, Mr. Lalor will clearly be the underdog
in the November campaign. But Mr. Lalor has been the
underdog twice so far this year and seems well-suited to be
the last man standing once again.
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