Experience makes Alcee Hastings the best choice

For Democratic voters in the 20th Congressional District, the Aug. 18 primary is “déjà vu all over again,” as the late, great Yogi Berra once said.

For a second time, Rep. Alcee Hastings, 83, a battle-scarred veteran politician, is defending the House seat he has held since 1993 against a passionate and spirited challenger, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who at 41 is not quite half his age.

She was his only opponent two years ago in a Democratic primary that should have been open to Republicans, independents and others, but remained closed because a write-in candidate had filed for the November election. Hastings won the primary, assuring his re-election, with 74 percent of the vote.

Undaunted, Cherfilus-McCormick is back. She and Hastings are unabashedly liberal with no significant disagreements on what ought to be the nation’s priorities, including universal access to affordable health care, and compassionate reform of the immigration and criminal justice laws. They may differ in details, but not in intent.

Both are well-educated and have law degrees, though neither practices at present.

Although Cherfilus-McCormick has never held public office and did not run for one before 2018, she has compelling life experience as the mother of a child with a learning disability, as an advocate for better social services, and as the chief executive officer of a home health care agency in Miramar.

If she were running against a lesser incumbent or for an open seat in Congress or the Florida Legislature, she would have a better case. She could have a promising future in politics.

But we cannot overlook the experience, seniority and influence that Hastings has in the Congress. Those assets have benefitted the district and the state in the past and will be particularly influential if the Democrats can keep the House, which is likely, and take control of the Senate, which is possible. Under Republican leader Mitch McConnell, the Senate has been the Valley of Death for hundreds of good bills, including most of the work product of the current Democratic House.

Hastings is the vice chairman of the powerful Committee on Rules and chairman of its Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process, which deals with the often-fraught relations between Congress and the Executive Branch. He has used his committee positions to advocate for the Everglades, help ban offshore oil drilling, and bring state-of-the-art radar to the Miami and West Palm Beach aircraft control towers. Especially now, Floridians need him for the sake of protecting Medicare,

Medicaid and Social Security.

He is dean and co-chairman of the Florida congressional delegation.

He is also chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He fills the significant role of reminding our most important allies that President Trump’s abrasive isolationism does not speak for the U.S. Congress or the American people.

“I’ve served as the buffer, I’ve taken the brunt of jokes from 57 countries,” he said in a joint candidate interview with the Sun Sentinel editorial board.

Hastings began his career as a crusading civil rights activist and as the first AfricanAmerican to be taken seriously as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, in 1970. He did not win, but in 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to be a federal district judge.

Like his would-be Republican rivals, Cherfilus-McCormick faults Hastings for passing only seven bills in his own name, most of them insignificant. However, the mark of an influential representative is rarely measured that way, especially not for one whose career has been spent for all but seven years in the House minority.

As we remarked when we recommended him two years ago, Hastings has been steadfastly popular with the district’s voters. After a come-from-behind 1992 runoff against Lois Frankel, who is now his colleague from another Florida district, he has won every election either with ease or unchallenged.

That 1992 election was a remarkable comeback from the uncomfortable distinction of having been impeached and removed as a federal judge, just three years earlier, over allegations of bribery for which a civil jury had acquitted him. A more recent ethics issue evaporated this month when the House Ethics Committee dismissed it because Hastings had married the aide with whom he shared a home and a relationship.

His health is a continuing concern. He announced in January 2019 that he was under treatment for Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, but in our editorial board interview, conducted remotely, he appeared to be in robust condition and said he is working “in many respects harder” than he did before.

Once again Alcee Hastings is the more practical choice for Democrats in this primary.

Hastings