Bill Pascrell and elder statesmen leave House in hands of a new generation of Democrats

After a long day of campaigning ahead of a tough primary in 2012, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) brought his two closest friends in Congress to an Italian restaurant in North Jersey.

Then-Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) couldn’t understand how all of these people were smoking cigars indoors, violating state law. “What are they gonna do,” Pascrell told Doyle, lighting his own cigar, “call the cops?”

Pascrell turned and introduced Doyle and then-Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.) to the local police chief, yes, with a cigar in hand. He went on to win by more than 20 percentage points, as Doyle recalled in an interview Wednesday.

It was vintage Pascrell, working as hard as ever to keep representing his constituents while maintaining the political touch of the local mayor that he was before winning his first House term in 1996.

Pascrell, 87, died Wednesday after a weeks-long battle with health ailments that sent him back and forth to the hospital, prompting an outpouring of goodwill for a unique character and an increasingly vanishing part of the House Democratic Caucus.

Pascrell never served as a full committee chair, nor did he climb into elected leadership positions. Yet, he held an unofficial title that carried weight in the caucus.

“Bill was certainly the mayor of ‘The Corner,’” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), a close ally of Pascrell’s.

That’s the far left corner of the House chamber, on the Democratic side, where Pascrell most often took the very corner seat. Originally referred to as the “Pennsylvania Corner,” that spot served as the longtime roost for former congressman John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), a legendary 36-year member who controlled the Pentagon’s budget and wielded vast influence until his death in 2010.

With no official seating, the House floor operates like a high school cafeteria. Just as how football players might choose to sit together, the California and Texas GOP delegations, for example, sit toward the back of the middle section on the Republican side and older members of the Congressional Black Caucus sit toward the front rows on the left flank of the floor.

For Murtha and friends, they found themselves in “the corner.”

Their crew symbolized the 20th-century Democratic Party, built upon political machines honed in Irish, Italian, Polish and other ethnic neighborhoods. They were not exclusively White men — the late Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) was a “Corner” regular, and Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (D-Calif.) has had a long-standing gig as stand-up comic at fundraisers for Pascrell.

Pascrell, as their oldest colleague and oftentimes most colorful, served as their elder statesman.

“He was a man of his time,” Capuano recalled in a telephone interview Thursday.

They considered themselves street smart, learning how to count votes, both on legislation and internal Democratic leadership races. Powerful figures such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) courted their support well ahead of her historic rise to become the first female House speaker in 2007.

But demographic change, along with state legislators drawing district lines in certain shapes, has forced many of these Democrats to confront challenges from younger, more progressive and diverse primary challengers. A few lost and some retired ahead of tough primaries, understanding their party’s evolution and leaving without many regrets.

But Pascrell managed to stay ahead of the curve. He crushed a primary challenge in June from New Jersey’s longest-tenured Muslim mayor who took on Pascrell for being too pro-Israel. Pascrell won with nearly 77 percent of the vote.

A native of Paterson, N.J., once known as “Silk City” for its dominance of that fiber’s industry early last century, Pascrell represented that region first in the state assembly and then won the mayor’s race in 1990.

After the 1994 Republican tidal wave, Democrats recruited Pascrell to reclaim the congressional seat in 1996. He focused heavily on his liberal base of labor unions, first on infrastructure projects through the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and for the past 17 years on the influential Ways and Means Committee.

Often called “Silky” by colleagues, for his city’s past and his own flowing hairstyle, Pascrell fought for funding for local fire departments, forging an early bond with then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.). As president, Biden in June signed into law an updated version of Pascrell’s 2000 Fire Act, the last major bill signing the lawmaker attended at the White House.

Pascrell developed the knack for loving a good debate but also never suffering fools lightly. In a new academic study of congressional rhetoric, Pascrell managed to be the second-best Democrat in Congress at maintaining “constructive debate” with Republicans, trailing only Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.). Yet, he also dished out the most “personal attacks” on Democrats through his speeches and other public statements.

“He could be very blunt, but he had a heart of gold,” Rep. John B. Larson (D-Conn.), a 26-year member of Congress and “The Corner,” said in an interview Thursday.

He tied the Ways and Means Committee into knots in 2017, early in Donald Trump’s presidency, as he led the push to get the real estate tycoon to release his tax returns. Pascrell forced the committee into votes that embarrassed Republicans who said publicly they wanted the returns released but then voted against forcing the issue.

“Do my friends and colleagues on this committee have the courage to put their country first? Pascrell asked at one hearing. “Or will we continue to hide the president’s secrets?”

Doyle and Capuano both ruefully recalled Murtha’s challenge to Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) for House majority leader after the 2006 midterms bumped Democrats into the majority and their ally Pelosi into the speaker’s chair.

They maintained two sets of whip lists: one for the overly optimistic Murtha, who heard members say “I love you” and thought they were supporting him; and the other for their more realistic assessment of how Hoyer would thump Murtha.

“That was nothing but pure loyalty,” Capuano said. “When one of your team dives in the water, you dive in the water and ask questions later.”

After Murtha’s death, the corner seat fell to then-Rep. Paul Kanjorski as the most senior Pennsylvania Democrat. He lost in the 2010 general election, and then Tim Holden (D-Pa.) took over the seat as the dean of the state’s delegation, only to lose in a 2012 primary and confer dean status on Doyle.

“I never sat in that chair,” Doyle said. “Jack had a curse on that chair!”

Instead, over the years, any non-Pennsylvania Democrat could take the seat, and in recent years, that fell to Pascrell.

No one’s quite sure who gets first honor of that chair now. It could be Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), a 32-year veteran and ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, or Rep. Matt Cartwright, the dean of Pennsylvania Democrats, or Larson, the closest friend to Pascrell still in office.

Pascrell never left Paterson, just like Capuano never left Somerville, just outside Boston, where he, too, served as mayor. And just like Bob Brady, who resigned in 2019 and lost his bid for mayor, never left Philadelphia.

“None of us were born with silver spoons in our mouths,” Doyle said.

Sometimes they were a debate society. Capuano credits his discussion with “Corner” buddies with helping him study the Iraq situation. He voted against the 2002 war resolution, just like Doyle.

Murtha and Pascrell voted for the war and eventually switched sides. “I have since regretted that vote deeply,” Pascrell wrote in a 2007 op-ed titled “A Historic Error.”

And oftentimes being part of “The Corner” meant having fun and playing practical jokes on each other.

Like clockwork, as Pascrell’s January birthday approached, his friends would send out invites for his “90th birthday party.”

A baseball fanatic, Pascrell played in the Congressional Baseball Game well into his 70s until Doyle, the team manager, talked him into a dual role of hitting coach and assistant manager. One year, however, staffers forgot to include Pascrell in the game program; Pascrell blamed Doyle, shunning him for weeks.

Finally, during votes, Doyle pulled Pascrell away from the corner. “I’m asking for your forgiveness,” he recalled telling his close friend.

A pause hung in the air. “I need time,” Pascrell said.

Pascrell loved poetry, scrawling out verses on sometimes discombobulated sheets of white paper stuffed inside his coat pockets. Larson so enjoyed a 2007 poem about their colleague, then-Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), that he entered it into the Congressional Record on a dare by Pascrell and friends.

“As cold and dark and empty and hollow as these moments are, it is here in the mind’s basement that we face this white ghost,” Pascrell wrote.

The past few years haven’t been kind to men from “The Corner.”

Former congressman Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), a 20-year incumbent, lost to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) in a stunning upset six years ago, followed two months later by Capuano losing to Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) retired from the House to run a long-shot Senate race, performing valiantly but still losing.

Rep. Emilia Strong Sykes (D-Ohio), one of the youngest CBC members, replaced Ryan. After 28 years of representing the Pittsburgh area, Doyle decided to retire two years ago ahead of what would have been a primary challenge from Rep. Summer Lee (D), who narrowly defeated Doyle’s preferred successor.

“Change doesn’t bother me,” said Capuano.

He and Doyle work for law firms now, tending to clients and occasionally coming to Washington. When they did, they made sure to schedule time to see Pascrell at their regular table at the Democratic Club.

“They don’t make them like Billy Pascrell anymore,” Doyle said. “God, I’m gonna miss him.”