Attleboro area congressman looks back on a momentous first year, and what lies ahead
In his first weeks in office — never mind his first year — the state’s newest congressman had a chance to experience, as his office says, an “insurrection, impeachment and an inauguration.”
But U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss says that “in the long arc” he will reflect on the birth of his daughter Grace in August and seeing his toddler son Teddy take his first steps.
Auchincloss, a Newton Democrat, won his seat representing the Fourth Congressional District by handily defeating GOP candidate Julie Hall, a former Attleboro city councilor, in 2020’s general election.
Before that, he survived a tumultuous Democratic primary, winning just over 22% of the vote to outpace eight other candidates on the ballot (two withdrew before Election Day).
The office had been vacated by Joseph P. Kennedy III, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat Sen. Ed Markey.
If Auchincloss was hoping to ease into his job quietly, he was in for a surprise.
In an interview the day after rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, Auchincloss told The Sun Chronicle that he was looking over the grounds of the building after its lockdown earlier in the day and was struck by a vivid image.
“It looked like a patrol base in Afghanistan,” the Marine Corps veteran said. “We had to turn a citadel of democracy into a fortress.”
Auchincloss, then just shy of his 33rd birthday, was in his third day as the representative of his district, which includes all of The Sun Chronicle coverage area.
While the Harvard and MIT grad was generally seen as the more moderate candidate in the Democratic primary, he has earned mention as the “White House’s favorite congressmen” and is among the most loyal Democrats in advancing his party’s agenda, his office noted in a report wrapping up his first year in office.
He has been a supporter of President Joe Biden’s ambitious Build Back Better legislative agenda, touting in the year-end report his efforts to boost the affordable housing supply through factory-built housing and urging House leadership to fund innovative, on-demand public transit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The congressman’s year-end report also cited his efforts to secure local funding, including $154.8 million in Child Tax Credit tax cuts for over 76,000 families in the Fourth District. Additionally, the district saw over $89 million in restaurant grants for small business. Massachusetts received over $385 million in shuttered venue grants, over $1.8 billion to help K-12 schools reopen safely, and over $146 million for community health centers.
Speaking to The Sun Chronicle last week, before U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., apparently scuttled Biden’s Build Back Better plan, Auchincloss said even with a compromise bill that could “get 50 votes in the Senate,” the House “will be receptive.”
In the wake of Manchin’s announcement Sunday that he would not vote for the Biden plan passed by the House, Auchincloss said he doesn’t think the bill is DOA. He told Fox News on Sunday, “We will be able to pass components of it, we may have to take a different format, but it’s not dead. This version of it is stalled out.”
But Auchincloss also warned against infighting between moderates and progressives.
“I’m not a big subscriber to labels. Democrats would do well to not further divide ourselves into factions,” he said, “especially when faced with an extremist wing” in the other party.
Democrats, he added, “need to start governing.”
For Auchincloss, the priorities for next year include “putting COVID behind us” and keeping schools open. He’s also proposed a “Marshall Plan for vaccines” to expand access in other countries. A strong economy is another priority and while he notes “inflation is pinching working families” he supports plans by the Federal Reserve to tackle the issue. And “protecting the integrity of our democracy” will also be important and he backs passing of a new Voting Rights Act.
So far, Auchincloss has only one declared opponent in next year’s Congressional election. Emily Burns, a political newcomer and libertarian from Newton, is running as a Republican.
Even so, he’s made sure his constituents see his name and face on a regular basis, and the congressman is a regular voice on local and even national media, writing op eds and appearing on cable TV.
And he’s invested in so-called retail politics as well. By the time the year ends, his office says, he will have visited all 34 cities and towns in the district at least once. Voters in the district this week received a slickly produced folder with an update on the recently passed Infrastructure and Jobs Act that included a mail-in opinion survey.
Even with the election nearly a year away, Auchincloss has already picked up an endorsement from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. And he is becoming a fundraiser in his own right. Last week he filed paperwork with the state to create the Jake Auchincloss 495 Political Action Committee with the stated purpose to “support candidates for state and local office in Massachusetts.” He’s already set up a federal leadership PAC called MA 4 Dems PAC to benefit other Democrats running for the U.S. House nationwide.
Source:
Tom Reilly