Longtime Rep. Louise Slaughter dies at 88
WASHINGTON » Longtime western New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, a Kentucky blacksmith’s daughter who went on to chair one of’ most important committees in the House, died Friday at a Washington hospital where she was being treated after falling in her home, her top aide said. She was 88.
The Rochester-area Democrat died at George Washington University Hospital a week after a fall in which she had sustained a concussion, said Liam Fitzsimmons, Slaughter’s chief of staff.
Slaughter was the first woman to chair the House Rules Committee and was her party’s top member on the panel when she died.
Slaughter was serving her 16th term in the House, and her 31 years in the chamber made her its third longestserving woman, according to the official House website. She chaired the powerful Rules Committee from 2007 through 2010.
A special election will be held to elect someone to serve out the rest of Slaughter’s term, which expires Dec. 31. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo will set the date for the special election in the 25th Congressional District, which comprises the city of Rochester and numerous surrounding towns.
Hudson Valley Rep. John Faso, R-Kinderhook, called Slaughter “a kind and caring colleague, and a steadfast advocate for the people of western New York.”
“As the first woman elected to serve western New York in Congress, she is a trailblazer for so many women and young girls who also strive to serve our nation,” Faso said in a prepared statement.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Slaughter was “a giant.”
“Throughout her entire career, Louise worked with people from so many different philosophies and backgrounds, because she was such a genuine human spirit,” Schumer said.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said Slaughter “never wavered in her fierce defense of our shared values as Americans, and she was one of the kindest and most compassionate colleagues I’ve ever had.”
Slaughter had a degree in microbiology and originally was from Harlan County, Kentucky. Her soft, twangy accent always seemed out of place for someone representing a western New York district. But she was repeatedly re-elected — including a narrow victory in 2014 — and was the longest-serving member of Congress from New York state when she died.
“Louise never forgot her roots as the daughter of a Kentucky blacksmith,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, DCalif., said in a statement. “She brought the grace and grit of her Southern background to her leadership in the Congress, building bridges and breaking down barriers all with her beautiful accent. Louise could be fiercely debating on the floor in the morning, and singing in harmony with her colleagues across the aisle in the evening.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan called Slaughter “a giant in the people’s House” and said she was “unrelenting” in working for her ideals and constituents.
“Louise did not need a gavel to make a dent in history,” the Republican speaker said.
Slaughter was the chief force behind a 2012 law to ban insider stock trading based on congressional knowledge and require disclosure of market activities by lawmakers. She also helped write the Violence Against Women Act and a 2008 law designed to protect people with genetic predispositions to health conditions from facing discrimination from their employers or health insurance companies.
Her death creates a vacancy at the top of the Democratic side of the Rules panel, which sets the terms of House floor debates. It’s likely to be filled by Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
When Slaughter first was elected in 1986, she ousted Republican Rep. Fred Eckert after running a campaign ad in which the sister of kidnapped Associated Press reporter Terry Anderson accused Eckert of refusing to speak up for her brother.
The sister, Peggy Say, and Anderson were both from the Rochester area. Anderson, the AP’s Middle East bureau chief, had been captured the year before by Islamic militants in Beirut, Lebanon, and was not released until 1991.
Slaughter was born Dorothy Louise McIntosh on Aug. 14, 1929, in Appalachian coal country. According to the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, she was doing market research for a major chemicals manufacturer in Texas in the 1950s when she met Ohio native Robert Slaughter. They married in 1957 and moved to the Rochester area for her husband’s job. He later joined Eastman Kodak as a legal administrator. Bob Slaughter died in 2014 at age 82.
The couple became involved in local Democratic politics while living in suburban Rochester. Louise Slaughter served in the Monroe County Legislature between 1976 and 1979, then worked for Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo before serving in the state Assembly from 1982 to 1986, when she defeated Eckert.