Christopher P. Carney

Former U.S. Representative (January 2007 to January 2011)

(Carney House
web site)

Why He Matters

Carney was typical of the House candidates who led Democrats to win control of Congress in 2006. A Naval Reserve officer who served during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he campaigned as a centrist against a Republican incumbent and espoused conservative views on such issues as gun rights, abortion and illegal immigration.

But Carney might not have won his first election had his opponent, incumbent Rep. Don Sherwood (R-Pa.), not admitted to an extramarital affair and been accused of assaulting his mistress. Carney had his own vulnerabilities in that race, chiefly his role advising the Pentagon during the run-up to the Iraq war, during which he asserted a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Naval Reserve (1995-2009); Associate professor, Pennsylvania State University (1992-2006)
Birthday: March 2, 1959
Hometown: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Alma Mater: Cornell College, B.S., 1981; University of Wyoming, M.A. 1983; University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Ph.D., 1993
Spouse: Jennifer
Religion: Catholic

Committees: Transportation and Infrastructure; Homeland Security
DC Office: 416 Cannon House Office Building, 202-225-3731
State/District Office: Clarks Summit, 570-585-9988; Shamokin, 570-644-1682; Williamsport, 570-327-1902
Email
Web site

Path to Power

Born in Iowa in 1959, Carney has described his middle American upbringing as a bipartisan affair. His mother, a dietician, was a Republican, and his father, a retired Navy officer and a teacher, was a conservative Democrat. "Our parents used to say they cancelled out each other's votes," Carney's sister once told a local newspaper. Carney, the oldest of five children, said he cast his first vote in the 1980 GOP Iowa caucus.

Carney attended nearby Cornell College and majored in political science, which soon became his career. He earned at master's degree at the University of Wyoming and then a Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Carney moved to Pennsylvania and took his first teaching position in 1992 at Penn State's Scranton campus.

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Intelligence Analyst

Carney enlisted in the Navy reserves in 1995. Like many reservists, he was called to active duty after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Carney was mobilized for deployment in Afghanistan, but was re-routed to the Pentagon to analyze intelligence. His role there, away from the front lines, would take on much more significance for the U.S.'s next major conflict.

The Department of Defense assigned Carney, along with another analyst, to a team headed by Under Secretary Douglas Feith and charged with scrutinizing the CIA's assessment of the links between al-Qaeda and Iraq. The CIA had been skeptical of a connection, but Carney and his colleagues found otherwise. They circulated a report up the chain of command citing evidence of al-Qaeda-Iraq links that would later form part of the George W. Bush's administration's case for war. "I thought that there was a relationship," Carney said in 2006. "Whether it was strong enough to go to war, that was the pru sident's decision." He said that on a scale of zero to 10, the connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq was "about a 2.5."

2006 House Race

When Carney returned to Pennsylvania from his Pentagon posting in 2004, he began exploring a challenge to Rep. Don Sherwood in the state's northeastern 10th congressional district.

After initially supporting the decision to invade Iraq, he became disappointed in the Bush administration's handling of the war, especially what he said was its failure to heed pre-war intelligence about the potential strength of the insurgency. Yet Carney said that the war was just "one straw among many" of the factors that led him to run for Congress,

A bigger factor, he said, was the lack of oversight and accountability in Congress, as well as its preoccupation with issues that he didn't see as among the nation's top priorities.

The moment that sealed his decision to run, he later said, came in 2005, when he encountered his would-be opponent at a gas station. Sherwood was enroute to Washington for a special session of Congress, where the Republican-led majority voted to intervene in the state court case of Terri Schiavo, the stricken Florida woman at the center of a debate over end-of-life decisions. "Is that Congress' business?" Carney said. "To me this was the politics of division played out to the nth degree. This was the Republicans trying to capitalize on this family's misery, and it made me mad."

By the time the 2006 election rolled around, Sherwood was in the news. In April 2005, a report surfaced that police had responded to a domestic disturbance in September 2004 at the GOP congressman's Capitol Hill home. A 29-year-old woman accused Sherwood of punching and choking her, and she later filed a $5.5 million federal lawsuit against him, claiming repeated abuse. Sherwood said he was giving the woman a backrub during the incident which prompted the police response. The two reached an out-of-court settlement in November 2005, and Sherwood, a four-term incumbent, later admitted to - and apologized for - having had a five-year affair with the woman.

Carney did not overtly reference Sherwood's affair until late in the campaign, when he ran an ad featuring a one-time Sherwood supporter holding up a photo of his stepdaughter. "How can I tell her I support Don Sherwood and feel good about myself?" the constituent asked in the ad.

Republicans targeted Carney's role in analyzing prewar intelligence at the Pentagon, setting up an awkward position in which the Republican National Committee appeared to take an anti-war stance on a conflict the party still supported. The RNC sent out direct mailer which said: "Chris Carney failed our nation once. Don't give Chris Carney a chance to fail us again."

In the end, Sherwood couldn't overcome the personal scandal. In the campaign's final weeks, it drew more attention as one of a series of embarrassments for Republicans across the country. Carney won on Election Day, with 53 percent of the vote.

2008 Reelection Campaign

Carney was seen as one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the country when he ran for reelection in 2008.

He represents a Republican-leaning district and the GOP nominated businessman Chris Hackett. But Hackett was bruised in the primary, and though he mounted an aggressive challenge to Carney, the race was never as close as predicted. Carney improved his margin of 2006 and won with 56 percent of the vote, a victory that bolsters his standing for future elections.

The Issues

Shortly before taking office in 2007, Carney described himself as "probably to the right" of most House Democrats. His record in Congress has largely borne that out. Though he has voted with his party nearly 91 percent of the time in the 111th Congress, Carney has broken with Democrats on notable key issues.

A member of the fiscally-conservative Blue Dog Democrats, opposed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout in 2008 and the cap-and-trade climate change bill in June 2009. But a cancer survivor, he did finally support the March 2010 health-care reform bill that became law.

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"This bill takes critical steps toward providing quality, affordable health care while reducing the cost burden on our hardworking families and small businesses," Carney said. "It does so in a fiscally responsible manner, reducing the deficit by an estimated $138 billion over the first 10 years and an additional $1.2 trillion in the following decade."

Personally opposed to abortion rights, Carney also noted that the health-care bill failed to provide public funding for abortion, a factor that "weighed heavily" on his mind.

In other areas, Carney as voiced conservative views on illegal immigration, emphasizing his opposition to "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants and his support for tighter border security.

The Economy

Carney voiced skepticism throughout the accelerated debate over the $700 billion financial bailout package in the fall of 2008. He was facing a tough re-election fight and voted against the first version of the bill, which failed to pass the House. He called it "economic Prozac" designed to calm the stock market.

Carney rebuffed lobbying from Democratic leaders and also opposed a revised version of the bill days later, saying the new legislation was loaded with "sweeteners" and only "slightly better."

The congressman voted in favor of the $787 billion economic stimulus package in February 2009, but not before pointing out what he regarded as the bill's flaws both in process and substance. He said the legislation was "rushed through Congress," and he criticized funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. "The stimulus is not perfect, but it is urgently needed and takes a strong step in the right direction," Carney concluded.

Iraq and Afghanistan

Carney's military service earned him immediate credibility in the debate over American foreign policy. He drew an invitation to the White House to discuss Iraq strategy on his second official day in office in 2007.

Despite the high-profile visit, Carney opposed President Bush's decision to implement a "surge" in American forces to Iraq. He struck a moderate position on the war; he called for a gradual drawdown in troops while opposing Democratic efforts to attach binding timetables for withdrawal during the waning years of the Bush administration. "I'm nervous about anything that would affect funding for the troops," Carney said in January 2007.

Carney, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, has voiced support for President Barack Obama's strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said the president had outlined a "sophisticated approach" to the Afghan war when he announced an increase in troops in March 2009. Carney added that Obama had made Afghanistan "his administration's war."

On Iraq, Carney has said since his first congressional campaign that American troops should withdraw as Iraqi forces become ready to defend the country.

Fiscal Policy

As a member of the Blue Dogs, Carney has highlighted his efforts to limit government spending and promote fiscal responsibility. He has also used the government spending issue to underscore his political independence and boost his standing in a competitive district. Carney is a strong supporter of pay-as-you-go budget rules that require new spending or tax cuts to be paired with corresponding spending cuts or tax increases elsewhere.

In addition to his vote against the initial Wall Street bailout, he backed a House effort to block the release of $350 billion in funding for the Troubled Asset Relief Program in January 2009. The measure passed the House but failed in the Senate. "I could not, in good conscience, burden taxpayers with $350 billion in further debt," he said after the vote.

Carney also opposed a major foreclosure bill backed by the Obama administration that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages and prevent people from losing their homes. He said the legislation would be unfair to homeowners who are keeping up with their mortgage payments and would reward risky behavior by lenders and borrowers.

The Network

Entering Congress in 2007, Carney had hoped to use his friendship with veteran Pennsylvania House member, Rep. John Murtha (D), to score a seat on the influential Appropriations Committee. Murtha passed away in 2010.

Carney had said during his campaign that he was promised a seat on the panel, which would have allowed him to solidify his local standing by bringing home millions in federal funding. But after Murtha lost his bid to become majority leader, Carney also lost his chance for a spot on Appropriations. He wound up on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee instead.

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Additional Resources

Carney press release, March 20, 2010
Wernowsky, Kris, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, "Carney Has the President's Ear," Jan. 6, 2007.
Wernowsky, Kris, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, "Affair at Forefront in Carney vs. Sherwood," Oct. 29, 2006.
Krawczeniuk, Borys, Times-Tribune, "Carney Unable to Stomach 'Sweeter' Bill," Oct. 4, 2008.
Sisack, Michael R., The Citizen's Voice, "Carney Votes to Block $350B in Funds," Jan. 23, 2009.
Lake, Eli, New York Sun, "RNC Mailing Accuses Pa. Democrat of Helping to Start the War in Iraq," Oct. 23, 2006.
Almanac of American Politics, 2008 edition.
Jones, Coulter, The Citizens' Voice, "Carney Still Introducing Self," Oct. 12, 2008.
Washington Post Votes Database
Wernowsky, Kris, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, "No Appropriations Seat for Carney," Dec. 27, 2006.
Krawczeniuk, Borys, Times-Tribune, "Carney Welcomes Afghanistan Plan," March 28, 2009.
Wernowsky, Kris, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, "Carney Stresses Value and Need for Change," Oct. 19, 2006.
Goldstein, Steve, Philadelphia Inquirer, "Democrats Facing Iraq Troop Quandary," Jan. 22, 2007.
Krawczeniuk, Borys, Daily Review, "Carney Votes Against Bailout Package," Sept. 30, 2008.
Carney House web site
Krawczeniuk, Borys, Times-Tribune, "Is Carney's Victory Beginning of a Trend?" Nov. 23, 2008.
Carney House web site
Krawczeniuk, Borys, Times-Tribune, "Carney Announces Support for Clinton," May 9, 2008.
Almanac of American Politics, 2008 edition; Chris Carney ad
Ackerman, Spencer, The New Republic, "Chris Cross," April 3, 2006.
Risen, James, New York Times, "A New House Democrat with an Insiders' View of Iraq," Nov. 28, 2006.