CongressmanMichaelLawler MakesVisittoManhattanCollege

Isaiah Rosario Asst. Sports Editor

Manhattan College alum and congressman Michael Lawler paid a visit to his alma mater on Feb. 13. Lawler spoke with students about the congressional agenda for 2023.

A registered Republican and representative for New York’s 17th District, Lawler was sworn into the 118th Congress in January. Lawler defeated Democratic nominee Sean Maloney by 1.6 percentage points.

Dr. Margaret Groarke, a professor in the political science department, introduced Lawler to the many staff and students in attendance.

Lawler opened up the panel about his time at the college as an undergraduate student.

“I loved my time at Manhattan,” Lawler said. “It’s a great institution, great campus and certainly really gave me the opportunities in many respects, to be where I am today.”

Lawler opened up to the campus community about his life in politics and the time commitment required for such a vital position in government.

“In Congress, you spend about half the year in Washington, D.C.,” Lawler said. “The legislative session goes from January to December, but we have a week off in August, like this week, when I’m home in the district doing in-district work or attending events. When you add up all the days you’re in Washington, it’s about half the year. In Albany, I was only in session from January through June and then we were out after Thanksgiving.”

Lawler began his career in the New York State Assembly and now finds himself in Congress during a very vital time in our history. Lawler spoke during the panel about how his transition came to be.

“We’re adapting pretty well,” Lawler said. “Having served in the state legislature in New York for one term, that certainly prepares you. Congress is on a much larger scale and the size of my district is certainly six times larger. I now represent about 780,000 people in Congress, compared to about 140,000 in the State Assembly due to population growth in my district. We’ve hit the ground running in a very short period of time.”

Being a congressman, some might say in the best democracy in the world, does take a majority of your day.

“If I showed you my sched- ule it’s 7:38 a.m. to 10 p.m., every day,” Lawler said. “I literally do not have five minutes to myself. [ …] You’re at an event for 10 minutes and then you’re on to the next meeting or event. Committee hearings, voting on the house floor, media interviews, lunches, breakfasts, you’re constantly fed by somebody. It’s definitely a fast pace.”

Lawler emphasized that you do not need to be a political science major to enter politics. Lawler studied accounting and finance during his time at the college and still managed to find his way to Congress despite not being a political science major.

Ever since the 2016 election, we are seeing more of a divide between parties. Lawler explained two factors that resulted in the divide between the Democrats and Republicans.

“I think in large part [of the divide] is because of a few factors,” Lawler said. “The 24-hour news cycle, which is just nonstop, non-stop, non-stop, and it just is generally negative and social media. If I showed you my Twitter feed, I would say 95% of it is negative.”

In terms of modern politics, Lawler believes that we are missing one thing.

“One area where I think we are not embracing is the diversity of thought,” Lawler said. “If you think something that is not in line with the mainstream, whatever that is, you’re immediately cast aside or adjectives or ascribe to you, within minutes of voicing an opinion, that may not be exactly where a broader group of people are or where it’s okay to be.”

Lawler emphasized multiple times during the panel the importance of seriousness in politics. He claimed that there was a lack of seriousness among elected officials. One name that he linked to a lack of seriousness in Congress was George Santos.

“[Santos] is an embarrassment,” Lawler said. “I think his conduct is shameful. It goes to my point earlier about wanting people who are serious to be in public office. Somehow politics over the last decade has become about being a celebrity and about getting notoriety as opposed to doing a job that is serious.”

After a widely successful panel, Groarke spoke about how she thought the event went.

“I thought it was a great event,” Groarke said. “It was a great conversation and it’s always nice to have Michael Lawler back on campus.”

Students took over a majority of the seating that was available at the event. Sophomore Mark Crane spoke to The Quadrangle about how he thought the event went.

“I thought it was really good,” Crane said. “I think he’s a really interesting guy. I think it shows a new wave of politicians who are younger and have more based opinions and views and are willing to work together in politics and reach across the aisle.”

There was a lot of information to take away from this panel as Lawler discussed his plans in Congress, bipartisanship, the divide in the Republican party, the debt ceiling and Ukraine. Crane spoke about the main thing that he took away from the event.

“Something I took away was how [Lawler] used education to set him on a path to be in politics and to be able to work together and have different opinions and views in this field and still be able to communicate and talk to other people and get deals done.”