Yesterday, I sat down with Manan Trivedi, who is running in the Democratic primary to be my congressman here in Pennsylvania’s Sixth District. While we ate a couple of Italian hoagies, in true Philly style, Trivedi shared his thoughts on the job responsibilities of being a congressperson, his Democatic opponent Doug Pike, the incumbent Rep. Jim Gerlach, local issues, current events, the Republican Party, and the president’s job performance.
Manan Trivedi is showing surprising strength in the district. The DCCC thought they had their man when Doug Pike got in the race. I was excited, too. Doug is the son of Otis Pike, who you should remember as the chairman
of the House Select Committee on Intelligence in 1975-76. Pike’s report on government abuses was so hard-hitting that Congress wouldn’t approve its declassification. It’s hard to believe but the Church Committee report that came out of the Senate was the tame version. His son, Doug, spent his working life in the newspaper business, including on the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I figured we’d be getting a real muckraker and I immediately tried to get in touch with the Pike campaign. I thought I might even work for them if they were interested in my talents. But they wouldn’t respond to my inquiries. Then Andrew Eldredge-Martin, his campaign manager, got banned from Swing State Project and Daily Kos for sockpuppetry. Boy, was I glad that the Pike campaign hadn’t returned my calls. I had, however, run into Pike in Pittsburgh and found him socially awkward, uncomfortable with retail politics, and vague on the issues. I began wondering whether we were going to miss another chance to beat Rep. Gerlach. Obama beat McCain here 58%-41%. When I heard that a doctor of South Asian ancestry was getting in the race, I didn’t think much about it. Pike, after all, has millions to self-finance his race, so I figured no one would have any chance against him. But the more I saw of Pike, including his rejection of J Street’s endorsement, the more I wanted an alternative. So I asked for an interview to get a feel for Manan Trivedi, and I liked what I learned.
Trivedi is a medical doctor who works as a family practitioner in the Reading area. He’s also a veteran of the Marines and the war in Iraq.
Whenever I talk to aspiring politicians, I always begin by asking them how they envision their job if they actually win. Being a congressperson isn’t just voting on bills and resolutions. All the real work goes on in the committees where bills are marked up and experts are questioned. I feel that someone who wants to serve in Congress should have spent a lot of time thinking about what they want to do when they get there. If they can’t tell me in some detail what committees they want to sit on, and why, then I don’t think they’re qualified to serve. When CabinGirl and I were in Pittsburgh for last year’s Netroots Nation conference, she asked Doug Pike this question and he told us that he hadn’t put much thought into it. He couldn’t discuss the committees in the House in any detail. Manan Trivedi was ready for the question.
“Of course, I recognize that, as a junior congressman, it’s hard to pick and choose your committees. But I would be honored to be on the Way & Means Committee, especially its Subcommittee on Health. I think my background as a physician and a health policy advisor to the Navy Surgeon General and President Obama’s campaign, and my research into health reform legislation and that kind of stuff fits perfectly for that kind of seat. I think the health care, the bill that we passed was far from perfect, it’s a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done and that subcommittee is where it will happen.
“The other thing is my background as an Iraq War vet and someone who served on the front-line of the initial invasion. I’d be honored to serve on the Armed Services Committee. And then the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. As a veteran myself, that’s something I hold near and dear to my heart. I believe we need to be doing a lot more for our veterans. President Obama signed a bill the other day for caregiver’s assistance for Wounded Warriors. I think that’s the kind of stuff we need to do in much more detail. We need veterans’ benefits that are easily navigable to make sure the guys that served us are being served well now. So, those are the kind committees I’d be honored to sit on. Of course, the Ways & Means Committee, in particular, is not the easiest committee to serve on, but I can make a case.”
This was an impressive answer for a few reasons. First, he recognized that it was unlikely that he would be given a seat on Ways & Means as a freshman, Currently, there are no freshmen serving on the committee and only one sophomore from the class of ’06. Second, he knew that the real action on health care takes place on the Ways & Means Subcommittee on Health. He even corrected me when, in a momentary bout of confusion, I talked about the “Health Committee itself,” which only exists in the Senate. Third, his goals in Congress match his experience. He’s not like some disgruntled Republican car dealer who wants to go to Washington to write tax policy.
I next asked Trivedi how he distinguished himself from Doug Pike and Jim Gerlach, and why he was a better choice.
“Well, look, I know Doug. I’ve met him thousands of times on the campaign trail and he’s a nice guy. But at the end of the day we have to have the best candidate to beat Jim Gerlach. And I’m convinced that I’m the best candidate…There are people all over the district, we have over 135 endorsements. Montgomery County [Democrats] endorsed me with 73%, Chester County [Democrats] 71%, and I think people have come on board so fervently and so quickly, because they recognize that I have the right profile to beat Gerlach. A third of the vote out of this district comes out of Berks County. We’ve never had a candidate for this district from Berks County, and that’s where we always lose. Democrats from Berks County, not just Republicans and Independents, have voted for Gerlach in the past because they failed to make a connection to the Main Line candidate. And I know Berks County. I was born and raised in Berks County. I can bring that vote to the table.
“The second thing is as a veteran, there are over 60,000 veterans and active duty personnel who live or vote in the district. Polling shows that many of them vote for Republicans and Gerlach but will vote for a Democrat if he or she is a veteran, especially if he or she has served in combat, that’s a special bond. Many of the vets here are Vietnam vets.
“Thirdly as a physician and health policy researcher, in an election where health care is sure to be an issue, I can speak from a position of strength. There is a recent article in the USA Today about physicians who run for Congress, and it showed a statistic that showed that regardless of where a voter stands on the health care bill, Tea Party to left-winger, they respect a physician’s point of view on this bill because they know that he or she speaks from a position of authority, speaks from a position of knowledge…So those are some of the assets that I think have drawn people to me in droves and make me much more, by far, of an electable candidate.”
Trivedi is right about people trusting physicians. The USA Today article cites a Gallup Poll showing that 77% of Americans trust doctors to do the right thing on health care but only 32% feel that away about Republican leaders and only 49% about Obama. He’s also right about Berks County, as can be seen by looking at the county results from the 2006 election between Lois Murphy and Jim Gerlach. Murphy lost by 3,001 votes, but she dropped 6,000 votes in Berks Co. alone. We need a candidate who won’t hemorrhage votes in the western half of the district, and it’s hard to see why Doug Pike is that guy.
Trivedi brought up two other points in his favor. The first was something reported in March by The Hill:
Of the 26 leading Democratic House candidates contacted by The Hill, only one would commit to voting for the Senate healthcare bill if and when it comes to the House floor…
The only candidate to say unequivocally that he would support the Senate bill, which could be voted on in the House next week, is a primary-care physician running to face Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.).
Dr. Manan Trivedi said it’s important to get the ball rolling on reconciliation.
“The answer is yes,” he said flatly.
In other words, Trivedi has the courage of his convictions. Doug Pike did not respond to The Hill. The second, related, example Trivedi cited was his willingness to respectfully disagree with the president’s policy on Afghanistan. “Pike, I think has failed to show that courage, and I think that is why we lost in [the special election for Teddy Kennedy’s seat] in Massachusetts because we had a candidate who failed to show that she was fighting for the core Democratic principles that we fought so fervently for in 2008.”
At this point, we transitioned over to Gerlach. Trivedi stayed with the theme of political courage.
“Gerlach is the exact opposite of what I just described. The guy isn’t fighting for everyday Americans. Gerlach has shown time and again that he is for the special interests and himself. A great example is just recently with the governor’s race. A year ago around this time he said ‘I’m not going back to DC, there’s nothing for me there. I’m from Western Pennsylvania and I’m running for governor.’ When he realized he wasn’t going to have a salary next year he flip-flopped and vacillated and came back to this race because he only serves his own interests. He doesn’t represent the district. He doesn’t fight for what they want. He takes money from Wall Street and puts it in his campaign coffers. I think people are fed up with that kind of guy, and they’re fed up with a guy whose only experience in life is politics.
“Gerlach graduated from law school and started running for Congress, I mean running for elective office out west, which is where he’s from. He’s not even from this area, he’s from Western Pennsylvania. He lost a couple of races there and then shopped around the state to find a state House district where he could win. He found that and then ran for State Senate, and then basically drew a congressional district for himself in 2002. So, look, that’s not what ‘representative’ means, ‘representative’ means that you be from the community and fight for what the community’s values are. And I think that’s what makes me a very attractive alternative. Because I’m not a career politician. I’m not in this for some ego-trip or greater salary.”
I next asked Trivedi about district specific issues. I mentioned that our public schools are considering charging fees for after-school activities because of budget shortfalls. Trivedi said that the federal government can spend more money on education and that they can start by taking the money from the bloat in the Defense Department. He also wants to see a rail-line built between Reading and Philadelphia, pointing out that Gerlach has failed to deliver on that promise during his time in Congress. He wants high-speed rail to ease commute times and lower energy consumption, while improving our air quality.
At this point, I moved on to some of the big issues being discussed nationally at the moment. The first was about Joe Lieberman’s bill to rescind the citizenship of terrorists and our tendency to overreact whenever someone commits an act of terrorism. Trivedi said that we can go after terrorists very hard, but we have to do so in a “sane and rational fashion” and that “the concept that we need to check everyone’s papers and throw people in illegal prisons, that’s not America.” He emphasized that it’s better to be pro-active rather than re-active, and that politicians like Lieberman are grandstanding after the fact while true leaders do something when ‘nothing is happening.”
Trivedi said he doesn’t support the Arizona immigration bill at all. He pointed out that his father was an immigrant and that the kind of rhetoric people are using to discuss immigration can discourage talented people from wanting to come to America. He talked about serving undocumented people as a doctor in Los Angeles, and how they wait until they’re on death’s door to seek treatment. He’s concerned that laws like the one Arizona passed will just push immigrants further into the shadows. He supports immigration reform that creates a path to citizenship, where people have to get in the back of the line and fulfill the same requirements that his father had to fulfill.
On the financial reforms, he emphasized the need for a Consumer Finance Protection Agency, ideally to be headed by Elizabeth Warren. He wants to restore Glass-Steagall and add greater transparency.
On off-shore drilling, Trivedi said he does not support the president’s proposal to expand off-shore drilling. He wants to invest our energy in new technologies, although he does support nuclear energy (despite reservations about waste disposal).
I asked him about the current state of the Republican Party. Trivedi said, “They say they want to take their country back, but I want to take our country forward.” He was careful to note that he has respect for “Republicans who have ideas” like former Maine senator William Cohen and former New Jersey governor Christie Todd Whitman, while “people like Gerlach have suspended independent thought and are just sort of toeing the Tea Party line.”
He gives Obama a B+ despite his disagreement on Afghanistan and declined to show a preference between Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak.
Trivedi has not only been endorsed by the Chester and Montgomery County Democrats, but he’s actually raising nearly four times more money than Pike. The primary is on May 18th and you can contribute to his campaign here. Adam Bonin, of Daily Kos, was accurate in characterizing Pike’s fundraising to a Martha Coakley-level of complacency.
If you live in the Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District, the choice is crystal clear. Manan Trivedi is engaging, smart, and highly energized. He’s a strong and unapologetic progressive who is on the right side of all the issues. Doug Pike is coasting on his war chest and can’t even capitalize on his supposed inevitability to win the county endorsements.
I endorse Manan Trivedi.
