Who in the Hell Represents Me?

I'm sure B&E readers will be surprised to hear that I vote in every election, including off-years and primaries. I can tell you who represents me at every level of government, even though I may not be terribly happy with some of them:

President - George W. Bush
Vice President - Dick Cheney
U.S. Senate - Charles Schumer
U.S. Senate - Hillary Clinton
U.S. House of Representatives - Joseph Crowley
Governor - Eliot Spitzer
State Senate - George Onorato
State Assembly - Catherine Nolan
Mayor - Mike Bloomberg
City Council - Eric Gioia

I have voted either for or against all of these people.

I have never voted for (or against) U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney. She simply has never been on the ballot at my polling station.

Please allow me to back up one more minute and explain something else...

I'm sure you'll all be surprised to learn that I'm on many political action committee (PAC) email lists. I feel like I may have signed up for one, and the rest have followed.

My zip code here in Queens is divided between two U.S. congressional districts. Most PAC's feel that I live in Representative Maloney's district. A few believe I'm in Representative Crowley's district. I've always assumed that my divided zip code is just too complicated for automatic petition generators to figure out.

Representative Maloney got that one? Whatever. It's not like she's reading it.

Meanwhile, I get occasional mail (like, real mail in the mailbox) from Rep. Crowley, and he keeps in semi-regular email contact as well. And I've voted for him. I've mentioned him at B&E before. He looks like this...


Yesterday I got an email message directly from the office of Carolyn Maloney. That was a first. I received an unrelated email from Joe Crowley. Because I was feeling rather insistent that I'm represented by Joe Crowley, I went to house.gov to confirm it.

Naturally, I didn't know my zip+4 (because who does?), so I then went to the U.S. postal service zip code finder. And I plugged that number into house.gov, and got my answer.

Ready for this? My representative in Congress is Carolyn Maloney. EVEN THOUGH I'VE NEVER VOTED FOR (or against) HER!

So please, dear B&E readers... Allow me to introduce you to my (new?) representative to the United States Congress. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney!


I don't know how she voted on the flag-burning amendment (see link to Joe Crowley above).