Lee finds pragmatism preferable to ideology
Steers clear of far right with independent course
WASHINGTON — Buffalo’s suburbs have been spawning hard-line right-wing congressional luminaries such as Jack Kemp, Bill Paxon and Tom Reynolds over the last four decades.
Although it is far too soon to tell whether their successor, Rep. Chris Lee, will be a congressional luminary at that level, one thing’s for sure: You can’t call Lee, a Republican from Clarence, a hard-line rightwinger.
In three months in Congress, the former businessman has steered an independent course, setting himself apart as a fiscal conservative who is willing to break with his own party and work with Democrats.
For example, Lee strenuously opposed President Obama’s economic-stimulus plan as a budget buster — but then voted against all the 2010 federal budget plans, including those sponsored by the GOP, for the same reason.
While pushing business-friendly tax breaks and voting with Republicans on most issues, Lee supported Obama’s decision to fund stem cell research and expand a key children’s health care program.
In addition, Lee has partnered with Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo and other Democrats to push initiatives he considers important back home, as well as nationwide.
“I’ve actually done everything I said I was going to do, which was reach out to both sides, try to focus on positives for Western New York in a bipartisan manner and try to make decisions that I think are right for the district,” Lee said in a recent interview. “I think my views should encompass what the district’s are.”
Lee, 45, is catering to what appears to be an increasing centrism in the once-conservative suburbs and farmland between Buffalo and Rochester, which comprise the 26th Congressional District.
The more conservative Reynolds faced strong Democratic challenges in his last years in office, but local political leaders say no big-name Democrat is yet taking aim at Lee in the 2010 election.
In Washington, amid a Congress harshly divided along party lines, the new congressman’s approach has lent his early days in office a Mr. Lee-goes-toWashington quality.
For example, Democratic congressional staff members were surprised to see Lee at a meeting earlier this year with Gov. David A. Paterson, a Democrat, given that other GOP lawmakers had not always attended such gatherings.
In addition, Lee has worked hard to build a relationship with Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, faithfully attending meetings of her Upstate Caucus and serving as the strongest Republican voice for high-speed rail in upstate New York.
Lee, Slaughter and Higgins teamed up on a proposal to get the Government Accountability Office to study pilot training after the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 killed 50 people.
In addition, Lee and Higgins announced joint initiatives aimed at cutting the cost of applying for new documents that will be required for crossing the Canadian border starting June 1 and for opening a passport office in Western New York. In response, the State Department last week agreed to open a local passport office.
“Those good ideas that we announced were his ideas, not mine,” Higgins said. “But they were good ideas for Buffalo and Western New York, and that’s why I was there.”
Higgins acknowledged that he had no relationship with Reynolds. Not so with the new congressman.
“I see Chris Lee as a guy who is very serious. . . . I see great opportunities for he and I to work together to move Western New York forward,” Higgins said.
Unusually soft-spoken for a modern politician, Lee first signaled his ability to build working relationships even before he was elected. He quickly healed a rift with Erie County Executive Chris Collins, who had supported another GOP candidate for the congressional seat.
Collins now is among those praising Lee, saying his background as an executive at his father’s company, Enidine Corp., defined his approach to his new role as a lawmaker.
“What you’re seeing is a private- sector person who’s thrown himself into the political environment,” Collins said. “Decisions made in the private sector are done differently; there’s a different depth of analysis. Decisions are made without black-and-white litmus tests.”
Then again, Lee’s quiet pragmatism doesn’t sit well with everyone.
“He is, by any standard, a big-business, country-club Republican, which leaves some of us cold,” said Curt Smith, a Rochester radio host who worked in a Republican administration as a speechwriter for the first President George Bush. “He is a moderate caretaker representative without a voice, without a strong profile.”
Erie County Democratic Chairman Leonard R. Lenihan doesn’t see Lee making a name for himself, either. “I wouldn’t say he’s made a lot of noise or broken through on a lot of local issues,” Lenihan said.
But there’s no question that Lee answered the call of duty when tragedy struck in his district. As soon as news broke of the Feb. 12 crash of Flight 3407 in Clarence Center, Lee and his staff went to work, staying up all night to help however they could.
Lee went home the next morning for a painful round of meetings, news conferences and funerals, and families of the crash victims said they were very pleased at his response.
Robin Tolsma, widow of Norfolk Grumman Amherst Systems defense engineer Darren Tolsma, said Lee gave her a flag that had flown over the Capitol along with “a beautiful letter of condolences.”
Most importantly, she said, Lee presented it to the family himself at the memorial service.
“He realized that this would be important, especially to my children,” Robin Tolsma said. “It was the way it was presented; we just thought he handled it wonderfully.”
None of this was easy, Lee acknowledged. “I’m not good at going to wakes,” he said. “But you have to do it. People can see that you genuinely care.”
That thought has informed other elements of Lee’s first months in office, as well. He regularly holds office hours in communities across his district and has hosted several “telephone town halls,” where he answers questions posed by constituents districtwide.
A member of the House Financial Services Committee, the key panel overseeing the bailout of the banking industry, Lee said he still feels as if he’s “drinking from a fire hose” as he tries to fulfill all his duties.
But at the same time, Lee said, he is pleased with how things are going—and with the fact that he has found ways to work with members from both sides of the aisle.
“I think it’s the little things: You show up on time, you ask questions, you be respectful for other people’s input, and it’s amazing how you can then work together,” Lee said. “If you walk into these halls and come in with a partisan attitude, you’re not going to get the result that you’ll expect.”
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