Coxswain
Back and Forth: Ed Cox
Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:49:00
In the late 1960s, a muckraking Harvard Law student under the tutelage of Ralph Nader detailed the unsavory activities of the Federal Trade Commission, sparking a series of congressional hearings and the involvement of the president of the United States.
He also happened to be the boyfriend of Tricia Nixon.
Thirty years later, Ed Cox, one of the original Nader's Raiders, is taking on a very different, and possibly more challenging, role: chairman of the New York State Republican Party.
His path to the helm of the beleaguered GOP was not easy. Cox faced stiff opposition from, among others, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose supporters quietly spread word of Cox’s associations with liberal interest groups, such as the League of Conservation Voters, and his friendship with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Cox sat down in his law office at Patterson Belknap Webb and Tyler to discuss what that fight will mean for his leadership of the Republican Party. He also dusted off an old copy of the original Nader Report, of which he was a co-author, and talked about the one Republican elder—and possible gubernatorial contender—who has not called to congratulate him since he won the race for chairman.
What follows is an edited tran scri pt.
The Capitol: What have you been doing since it became clear you would be the next chairman?
Ed Cox: We just started shifting gears from actually running, if you will, to more having a whip group that makes sure all the proxies get in, that kind of thing. And then going right into—what are we going to do as chair?
TC: Why is your political pedigree sufficient experience for running the state party?
EC: Where do you want to start? Do you want to start more than 45 years ago? When I was a senior in high school, and I met my future wife, and her father just moved here to be a lawyer? I met her father also. And I followed the ’64 Goldwater debacle through his eyes. He was obviously right in the middle of that. People were talking about him being a future [presidential] candidate in ’64, and he backed off from that, but supported Goldwater. And I followed that debacle, and then I followed the comeback where we won back 47 seats in the House. I was just a senior in high school, so it was quite an experience watching it through the former vice-president’s eyes. … And then, two years later, he’s president of the United States.
TC: And after that?
EC: My work with Ralph Nader, from ’68 to ’69 … which created the Nader Raiders. … I was the youngest member of the team. But I wrote the report, after we graduated. Actually I came up with the first story that got this going, on the Federal Trade Commission … and made it a place where young lawyers wanted to come to fight for consumers. And it’s been a very aggressive defender of consumers ever since.
TC: Most Republicans probably would not tout their work with one of the liberal icons of the past half-century.
EC: We’re about making government work. And guess who the president was, who appointed Casper Weinberger to clean up the mess that we, working with Nader, uncovered. … Richard Nixon.
TC: More recently you founded a political action committee, New Yorkers for Growth. Will you stay involved in that?
EC: John Faso and I, and others, started that organization. But I’m not sure I’m going to have much time to continue that.
TC: What about Faso? Many people think he should run again for comptroller.
EC: He would make a superb comptroller, obviously. This position was made for him.
TC: Should he run?
EC: Well, he’s got to make up his mind. He’d also be a terrific candidate for the 20th congressional district. … John would be superb in either position.
TC: More importantly, you have to field a gubernatorial candidate. Do you have to plan as though David Paterson is not running?
EC: No. Maybe the president of the United States has given up on Governor Paterson, but we still want to work with him to do the right thing for the people of New York State. If he proposes the right budget, I would urge and hope that our party would work with him to make sure the budget gets passed. If he follows through on what he said about being fiscally conservative, then we as a party should support him on that because that’s the right thing for the people of New York State.
TC: How do you work with potential candidates who actively tried to block you from becoming chairman?
EC: What the party has to do going forward—not just me, but all the leaders of the party working together—is to decide, for the statewide offices, who’s best to run for what position and put together the best slate we can. That means not just dealing with the names that are out there but dealing with perhaps some names yet to be discovered, and encourage them to run.
TC: What about Senate? George Pataki was reportedly working against you in the race for chairman. Would it be difficult working with him if he decided to run?
EC: George Pataki made it very clear to me, called me and made it very clear, that he was absolutely neutral.
TC: Is Kirsten Gillibrand vulnerable to a challenge by him?
EC: Here you have an unelected governor appointing an unelected senator who then goes out and votes for funding ACORN, a corrupt operation, a foundation that is being used to wash taxpayers’ money through to pay for funds to be used for political purposes. And for Gillibrand to do that—she’s just a political chameleon. I mean, upstate she was a conservative. … Very vulnerable and very, I think, very beatable. Right on her own, whether or not she gets primary, she’s still beatable. For the White House to waste any energy on this, I think, is a waste of time for Rahm Emanuel to do that.
TC: But if Pataki decides not to run, who else is there to challenge her?
EC: Well, you saw the very intriguing suggestion that’s going around recently that maybe [Rudy] Giuliani would do very well against Gillibrand. If he weren’t to run for governor, he could run for the Senate. Of course, he is more of an executive type.
TC: But Giuliani seems to be focused mostly on a possible run for governor. Have you spoken with him about whether or not he will do it?
EC: No. I have talked with him briefly from time to time over the last year, but we haven’t talked recently. … He’d be a great candidate. I’d like to see him out there.
TC: He didn’t call you when it became clear that you would be the chairman?
EC: No.
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Photos by Andrew Schwartz
