After unexpectedly dropping out of contention to be the Ranking Member on the House Oversight Committee next year, Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY) has thrown his support to fellow New Yorker, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) — the next-most senior Democrat on the committee — who will fight it out for the panel’s top spot with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD).
“I support Carolyn Maloney to become Ranking Member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee,” Towns says in a statement sent my way. “She is next in line on the Committee, she has the seniority and competence to serve the Caucus well.”
Initial reports this evening suggested that Towns also supported Cummings. But both Cummings and Maloney say that’s not the case.
“I called him because Towns and I are very good friends,” Maloney told me in a phone interview early Wednesday. “And he said it’s totally untrue, and he supports me to be the ranking on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee…. He supports seniority. He is supporting me as well as the entire New York delegation.”
Shortly after Towns dropped out, another candidate for the ranking membership — Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) — also stepped aside. But he threw his support to Cummings.
After Democrats lost the House last month, the White House and Democratic leadership pressured Towns to step aside, in the hope that a more dogged member would rise to take on incoming chairman Darrell Issa. As the next-most senior Democrat, Maloney was an obvious choice. But Cummings has won broad respect from Democrats for his performance on the committee and was encouraged by supporters to throw his hat in the ring as well.
Wednesday morning, the Steering and Policy Committee will recommend a ranking member to the caucus (though, according to Maloney, the caucus can — and has in the past — buck that recommendation). Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Maloney has rounded up signatures to a letter to the Steering Committee from presidents of the nation’s top women’s groups who have thrown their support to her.
“When Mr. Issa pledges a hearing a week, i pledge to be present at every hearing, at every subcommittee, and taking him on point by point,” Maloney said.
