Kieran Michael Lalor 2008 -

April 10, 2007

Iraq Vet Touts ‘True Conservatism’ in New York 19 Take Back Bid

New York Republican Kieran Michael Lalor, a veteran of the current Iraq war and a self-described “Reagan Republican,” is preparing to challenge freshman Democratic Rep. John Hall next year in the state’s 19th District.

While Lalor has not yet filed candidate paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, he said in an interview Friday with CQ that he was “aggressively exploring” a campaign and raising money.

“The more people I meet, the more I’m encouraged that I am going to ultimately make the decision to run,” said Lalor, who would seek the Republican nomination as well as that of the Conservative Party, which also has ballot access in New York elections.

“It would take something major — maybe the second coming of Ronald Reagan in the 19th District — to take me off track,” he said with a chuckle.

Lalor alleged that Hall, who unseated six-term Republican Rep. Sue W. Kelly last November, has taken “far, far left” stances and is out of touch with the 19th, which includes the Hudson Valley and has historically voted Republican. “I want to kind of right this ship,” Lalor said.

Lalor expects to graduate next month from Pace Law School in White Plains. His law studies have stretched out over six years because of his deployments with his Marine Corps Reserve unit (Lalor served in Iraq in 2003). Lalor said his congressional bid will put on hold any plans to become a junior associate at a top law firm.

Lalor runs a group called the Eternal Vigilance Society, which says it is dedicated to electing leaders who move aggressively to “achieve total victory in the War on Terror.”

Like some conservatives, Lalor does not attribute substantial Republican losses in the 2006 election to public disenchantment with the war in Iraq — but rather to anger among conservative activists who hold that Republicans drifted from their conservative moorings. Hall last November defeated Kelly by 2.4 percentage points in a district that backed President Bush in 2004 by 8 percentage points.

“An abandonment of conservative principles is why John Hall won,” Lalor said. “That happens every once in a while. A lot of people said, ‘Listen, I’d rather send the Republicans a message by letting a far, far left guy win ... than continue to slowly drift left.’”

Lalor also said that Kelly, a moderate Republican, was “tolerated” but “wasn’t really loved, and she didn’t have the support of the core conservative activists and voters.”

Lalor said that the 19th District is actually moving in the direction of “true conservatism,” which Lalor said would entail efforts to “protect the country, keep government spending under control, and stand up for the traditional values that have sustained the country for 230 years.”