WASHINGTON – Rep. Charles Rangel, one of the first lawmakers to push Hillary Rodham Clinton for Senate, is now angling to become the most powerful New Yorker – and African-American – in Congress.
Eight months after being caught in the furor of the Apollo Theatre investigation, Rangel today is a party superstar who has raised more than $1 million in just four months for fellow Democrats in Congress, and is savoring Clinton’s recent rise in the polls against Mayor Giuliani.
“Recruiting Hillary meant we had a chance to whup him,” says Rangel with a chuckle, making no effort to conceal his dislike of the mayor.
But Rangel’s Midas-like ability to raise megabucks for fellow New York lawmakers – and for Democrats across the country – in some ways marks an even higher point in his 30-year career in Congress.
“He is really good at talking to people. Raising money is about relationships and he is very good at that,” said House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, the party’s top congressional fund-raiser.
By helping the party win back control of the House – lost to Republicans in 1994 during the wave that carried former Speaker Newt Gingrich into power – Rangel stands to see his own power extended.
If the Democrats win enough races this fall to cancel the Republicans’ current six-seat majority, he will become chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which controls 40 percent of the budget, writes tax laws and controls trade bills.
He’d be the first black lawmaker to chair that committee – a panel that will be on the hot seat in a few weeks when it takes its first crack at President Clinton’s proposal to boost China’s trade status.
About the easiest way to raise Rangel’s hackles is to suggest that his current post as top-ranking Democrat on the committee hasn’t enabled him to help New Yorkers by landing his share of pork.
“There is no question that [with me] as [Ways and Means] chairman, New York will do a hell of a lot better. When you’re chairman you don’t even have to work hard to get it done,” said Rangel, who insists he’ll land the state more federal aid if he’s running Ways and Means.
“New York state would benefit greatly if Charlie Rangel becomes chairman,” said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Long Island Democrat who received $2,000 of the $57,500 Rangel has given this year to fellow congressman from his own campaign coffers.
Another $2,000 went to Rep. Michael Forbes (D-L.I.), who is in a tough re-election fight after switching his party affiliation from Republican. Rangel is also helping raise funds for Forbes.
So far this month, Rangel has visited San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Las Vegas, Detroit, Texas and Washington to attend fund-raisers.
“They throw [money] at me,” he joked recently. He concedes: “The fact that I’m ranking Democrat on Ways and Means is a drawing card at every fund-raiser.”
Last year, he raised $2.5 million for the Democratic Party. In less than four months this year he’s already topped the $1 million mark and his staff sees no reason he won’t easily eclipse his 1999 effort.
He’s No. 3 in fund-raising among House Democrats, behind Gephardt and Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), chairman of the party committee that oversees efforts to elect Democrats.
On June 5 at the Supper Club in New York, Rangel will preside over a massive fund-raiser Vice President Al Gore is expected to attend that should net more than $1.5 million for the party.
Rangel, who is as effective winning campaign contributions from Wall Streeters as from such entertainers as Spike Lee, Bill Cosby and Ossie Davis, says he’s aware he’s a symbol to many blacks.
“It’s a great responsibility,” he says. “If I become chairman, you can be certain that I will leave my fingerprints” on the budget, “bumping up spending on social programs that help areas like Harlem,” his home.
It was just last summer that Rangel was drawn into in the probe of the financially ailing Apollo and his role as its board chairman amid charges that the theater had failed to collect millions in fees from longtime pal Percy Sutton.
Rangel agreed to give up the chairmanship in a deal in which state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, dropped a lawsuit launched by his Republican predecessor and said Rangel and other board members had acted in good faith.