Frank McCloskey

Francis Xavier McCloskey (June 12, 1939 – November 2, 2003) was an American journalist, lawyer, and politician from Indiana who served in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from 1983 to 1995.

He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Bloomington, Indiana after receiving an undergraduate (majoring in political science) and J.D. degree from Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

McCloskey thus became the sixth challenger since 1966 to unseat an incumbent in what had become known as "the Bloody 8th".

Upon arriving in Washington, McCloskey sought a seat on the Appropriations Committee, but was rebuffed by then-Majority Leader Jim Wright, who told him first-term members of Congress rarely obtain a seat on that committee.

McCloskey instead was given a seat on the Armed Services Committee, where he served throughout his congressional career, and gained a reputation as one of the committee's most liberal members.

He was a vocal critic of Pentagon spending during his first term.

He was the Democratic nominee for a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives in 1970.

Frank McCloskey worked as a reporter for The Indianapolis Star, the Bloomington Herald-Telephone, and the City News Bureau of Chicago.

McCloskey was elected mayor of Bloomington in 1971, the year he graduated law school, by defeating two-term Republican incumbent John H. Hooker Jr., and served through his election to the 98th Congress in 1982.

While mayor, he was credited with helping obtain federal funds to help improve city services and revitalize the city's downtown area.

His administration also developed Bloomington Transit, the city's bus service.

Mayor McCloskey was an alternate delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention.

Initially, Mayor McCloskey was an underdog in his race against two-term incumbent Republican representative Joel Deckard in Indiana's 8th congressional district.

He was re-elected mayor in 1975 and 1979.

In 1981, McCloskey was elected president of the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns.

Additionally, he served on a 10-member task force created by the U.S. Conference of Mayors created to study urban financial policy.

During the campaign, McCloskey argued for deferral or elimination of a 10 percent tax cut scheduled in 1983 and for cuts in military spending.

McCloskey also attacked Deckard for waffling on the nuclear freeze issue after the incumbent co-sponsored both the stronger and weaker versions of the freeze resolution.

McCloskey's campaign was further boosted after Deckard was involved in a drunk driving incident shortly before the election.

McCloskey significantly benefited from the support of Michael Vandeveer, the popular Democratic mayor of Evansville, the district's largest city, and emerged the victor on election night, 52% to 48%.

Knowing he would be a target in 1984, he returned to the district often, and focused on areas of importance to his constituents, such economic development, uses for high-sulfur coal mined in the district, and farm credit.

In the 1984 contest for the Democratic nomination for President, McCloskey supported Colorado Senator Gary Hart over Walter Mondale and Jesse Jackson.

After McCloskey accumulated a liberal voting record by opposing President Reagan over 80% of the time during his first year in office, Republicans recruited 28-year-old, two-term conservative state representative Rick McIntyre to challenge McCloskey in 1984.

McIntyre hailed from small Lawrence County in the northeastern part of the district, and spent much of the election boosting his profile in the populous Evansville area.

McCloskey, however, spent much of his first term tending politically to Evansville, and retained the support of the still popular Vandeveer.

Ultimately, McCloskey ran up large margins in Evansville and Vanderburgh County.

In this election cycle, President Reagan carried the district 61% to 38%.

Benefiting from this strong Republican turnout, McIntyre trailed McCloskey by only 72 votes after the initial vote count.

A tabulation error in two precincts of one county was found to have resulted in an overcounting of McCloskey votes, and Indiana's Secretary of State (a Republican) quickly certified McIntyre as the winner by 34 votes without checking other counties, even though a recount in another county showed McCloskey with an overall lead of 72 votes.

After a recount, McIntyre was up by 418 votes, but more than 4,800 ballots were not recounted for technical reasons.

The Democratic-controlled House refused to seat either McIntyre or McCloskey and conducted their own recount.

A task force, consisting of two Democrats and one Republican, hired auditors from the U.S. General Accounting Office to do the counting.

The recount dragged on for nearly four months, with three Republican-sponsored floor votes to seat McIntyre failing.

The task force, per House rules, instructed the auditors to ignore many of the "technicalities" that resulted in Indiana officials throwing out ballots.

In the end, the House seated McCloskey on May 1, 1985 after declaring him the winner by just four votes (116,645 to 116,641).

The vote to seat McCloskey, 230–195, was largely along partisan lines and in response every Republican House member momentarily marched out of the chamber in symbolic protest.

Once sworn in for a second term, McCloskey used his position on the Armed Services Committee to prohibit job contracting at the Crane Weapons Center.

Following the 1986 U.S. airstrikes on Libya, McCloskey sponsored legislation blocking the Marine Corps from buying bulldozers from a company partially owned by the Libyan government.

McCloskey's campaign focused on the effects of Reaganomics, and attempted to tie the district's high unemployment rate to Deckard and President Reagan after Deckard supported Reagan on key tax cut and budget votes in the 97th Congress.

Some of the district's counties were experiencing unemployment rates not seen since the Great Depression.