Hinchey eases into retirement

He went on to defeat Republican Robert Moppert in that 1992 election by a 50-47 margin. Moppert would vex him again in 1994, the year of the Republican Revolution and Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, in which Democrats nationwide were toppled. In a race in which the counting stretched on for weeks, he scraped by the challenger by 1,200 votes. Though he had a relatively tight race in 2000, he wasn’t seriously pushed again.

The important work Hinchey points to now in those congressional years include:

Helping to initiate and spearhead legislation preserving more than 15,000 acres in Sterling Forest, the last significant area of open space in the greater New York City region.

His pointed and persistent questioning of Alan Greenspan forced the Federal Reserve Board Chairman to acknowledge the existence of tape-recorded meetings wherein interest rates and other important economic policies were established. Public access to such “previously closed” meetings are now a result.

Accusations of “meddler” from conservatives accompanied a bill which made millions of acres in Utah forever wild.

In 1999, Hinchey succeeded in passing an amendment which required the CIA to report to Congress on its Nixon-era involvement in the 1973 coup against Chile’s democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende. Following the coup, Allende was assassinated and General Augusto Pinochet began his 17-year dictatorship. The document now known as “The Hinchey Report,” makes a clear case that the U.S. — at the very highest levels of government (a.k.a. Henry Kissinger with Nixon approval) — was deeply involved in the destabilizaton of Chile’s government and economy over a period of nearly 20 years.

Says Hinchey, “because I had a reputation for defending the underdog, and maybe because I wasn’t so easily bullied … many people from all over the world sent me letters. And before you know it — I’m involved in a lot of different situations … “

Given his liberal, occasionally downright radical views, it is quite a feat that Hinchey was able to remain undefeated in what had traditionally been considered a conservative district, though redistricting following the 2000 census did help him maintain his Democratic base.

Hinchey most famously went out on an extremely narrow limb, in criticizing the policies of the second President Bush, calling his policies around the 9/11 attacks and the wars which rapidly followed “impeachable.” Particularly enraging to the status quo was Hinchey’s examination of conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks, and his belief that the loss of life was “avoidable.” During the saber-rattling of the period, Hinchey’s staunch anti-war stance and unwavering attacks on Cheney-Bush policy became fodder for Fox News and other conservative and right-wing media outlets. He stoutly opposed the 2003 Iraq war from the outset.

By 2000, Hinchey was assisted on the campaign trail by President Bill Clinton, and history appears to have vindicated Hinchey’s early opposition to the war.

But outspoken though he was on national and international issues, Hinchey kept his own district a first concern. The cause could be heading off bankruptcy for New York apple farmers with emergency aid after a killer frost, improving the infrastructure of cities or the research capabilities of local universities, rescuing villages like Endicott from the scourge of industrial pollution, or securing billions of dollars of federal aid to spur job growth, Hinchey assiduously championed his district. Nor was he — like any effective politician — beyond occasionally bending the rules for the greater good.

I asked Hinchey if it was true that some wetlands had been impacted when Horseshows In The Sun (HITS) was pushed through, bringing a significant tourist dollar to Saugerties in a lagging economy’s dog days of summer. And while I can’t be totally certain where our “over hill and dale” conversation ran, my sense is he admitted a swamp or two had been filled in. (Though he added it was considered a “minor” wetland and was for the greater good … )

Years ago Hinchey started dragging journalists out on what remained of Poughkeepsie’s railroad bridge over the Hudson. Often cited as a champion of lost causes, Hinchey inaugurated a campaign extolling the virtues of the long-unused bridge and began working with a dedicated group of individuals to propose what today has become “the Walkway Over the Hudson” — the world’s longest pedestrian/bicycle bridge.

Hinchey secured $1.34 million in federal funding for the project, and then helped deliver an additional $2.4 million through the 2008 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Confronted as to whether this was a perfect example of pork barrel projects handed out, Hinchey bristled.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “In hard times cities need income. But America doesn’t have the factories it did when I was a boy — so where does the money come from? We have to use tourism as an economic engine so that this district can compete on a world-class level. And the Walkway is a very powerful economic engine at that. Pork barrel? It depends on your definition. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy helping to develop economic tourism. And today … what’s the number of people who’ve come to Poughkeepsie, eaten in its restaurants, stayed overnight in its hotels?” The Hinchey organization provides the following figures: 1.2 million visitors since opening to the public in 2009.

Locally, Hinchey has shored-up such tourist “economic engines” by helping to win a restoration grant for the historically important and still artistically vibrant Maverick Concert Hall. He likewise assisted in a grant to help restore White Pines, the founder’s home of Byrdcliffe, Woodstock’s original art colony. He’s assisted the Woodstock Museum and Opus 40. Hinchey’s Woodstock popularity-in-the-extreme has been cinched by the following positions: anti-Nixon, anti-Bush (both of them), anti-war, pro-choice, pro-equal pay for women (together with other women’s right’s such a pregnancy leave with pay), pro-medical marijuana. He has always boosted solar initiatives, leading to the establishment of The Solar Energy Consortium, together with grants seeding such industries in which the district has become a leader.

Hinchey’s strong ecological and environmental stance has resonated locally, where he has been powerful friend and ally to the Woodstock Land Conservancy, which honored him this year. Indeed, the list of organizations bestowing awards on Congressman Hinchey on this his last time ‘round “the sprawling stadium” of District 22, would rival even the length of this article.

Last year, it is well-known, Hinchey endured extensive chemo treatments for colon cancer, which — as of this date — have been deemed successful. What isn’t widely known is that after receiving such treatments he usually insisted on driving himself from Albany to Washington in order to attend the following day’s congressional session. Despite this typically stoic battle, several times over the course of our conversation Maurice expressed frustration over the loss of energy which has forced him into what he considers early retirement at 74. He also expressed impatience with himself for not always having the facts and figures in his head which made him a formidable foe to adversaries and tireless defender of not only his constituents, but of people seeking freedom all over the world.

As a child from a working class family who didn’t always have shoes to wear in the summer, who eventually would come to be known as a snappy dresser (if one who preferred driving his own car to being chauffeured); as an environmental warrior who sought to protect vast stretches of wilderness yet never lost touch with the urban poor, seldom failing in his attempts to bring jobs, child-care, health-aid, dignity, efficiency, increased safety — indeed beauty — to our cities; He is one who came to wield power yet didn’t forget the common man … he turns out to be a combination of interesting opposites.

Local people came to the point where they simply trusted him to do the right thing. They would say, “I don’t always agree with what Hinchey says or does but I trust Maurice to come home and explain to us the reason why.”