Rep. Louise Slaughter dies at 88: A 'giant' and trailblazer for women

On Capitol Hill she was known as an energetic leader of the Democratic Party and a passionate champion for progressive issues. In Rochester, most of her constituents knew her simply as Louise.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat who represented the Rochester area in Congress since 1987, died Friday morning in a Washington, D.C., hospital. She was 88.

The congresswoman fell at her Washington residence last week and was taken to George Washington University Hospital to receive treatment and monitoring for a concussion. She was surrounded by her family when she passed, according to a statement from her office.

Flags at the U.S. Capitol building were lowered to half-staff Friday morning, and condolences poured in from nearly every major American political figure.

“Louise was a giant in the people’s House,” said Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI). “She was unrelenting in fighting for her ideas and the people back home in Western New York. But really the thing that I keep coming back to is that she was tough but unfailingly gracious.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-NY, called her “a giant.”

"She had deep convictions — on both issues important to the people of Rochester, and for the integrity and honesty of the political system,” Schumer said. “The ferocity of her advocacy was matched only by the depth of her compassion and humanity. Her passing will leave a gaping hole in our hearts and our nation."

Even her political opponents loved and respected her.

Gates Town Supervisor Mark Assini, a Republican who challenged Rep. Slaughter in two elections, said her Southern drawl was disarming.

“People were surprised at the genuine affection we had for one another and the respect and the politeness,” Assini said. “Losing to her was no shame. She was beloved. She was beloved for a reason. It wasn’t because she was a good politician. She was a good person. … She cared about people and she was pretty candid about things.”

A life in politics

Rep. Slaughter retained her Southern accent long after her move from her native Kentucky. Known to charm constituents and colleagues alike with a folksy manner, Rep. Slaughter also was willing to step into the political trenches.

Those who knew her best recognized that her down-to-earth demeanor belied a tougher edge that could emerge in both political and legislative tussles. One Washington politico referred to her as “a Southern belle with a cigar in her mouth,” according to a 1992 Democrat and Chronicle story.

“To have met Louise Slaughter is to have known a force of nature," said her chief of staff, Liam Fitzsimmons. "She was a relentless advocate for Western New York whose visionary leadership brought infrastructure upgrades, technology and research investments, and two federal manufacturing institutes to Rochester that will transform the local economy for generations to come."

Rep. Slaughter broke her leg in 2012, an injury that required lengthy rehabilitation. But Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and friend of Rep. Slaughter’s, said that she refused to let her age slow her.

“What struck me the most the last 10 years, as I get a little older myself and find I don’t have quite the energy I once did, this was somebody that was just an Energizer bunny — feisty and wouldn’t take crap from people.

“But what drove her, what kept that motor running at full capacity, was trying to make the world a better place, especially for the most vulnerable,” he said. “She’s going to leave a vacuum here because she really was a force of nature.”

Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle, D-Irondequoit, said he was shocked by Slaughter's death. He said he met with her just a few days before she fell, saying she had the same vigor as always.

"This is such an incredible loss to the community, to the country, but a personal loss for me," he said. "She was a friend since really I started in this business. She was one of the first people I talked to about advice in politics and government."

Many female politicians said Friday that Rep. Slaughter had been a role model who inspired them to pursue a career in politics.

Among them was Kathy Hochul, who served with Rep. Slaughter in New York's congressional delegation before being elected lieutenant governor. She said Rep. Slaughter's passing was a tremendous loss to her personally.

"She was an early inspiration and supporter when I unexpectedly won a special election in the adjacent congressional district,” Hochul said. “I often looked to her for guidance when starting off as a new member."

Others heralded Rep. Slaughter’s ability to balance the demands of a political career with an active family life.

“I especially loved seeing the congresswoman in the summertime. She used to bring her nephews with her to events in Rochester,” said Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo “She was so proud of her family. She was dedicated to her husband. They were always together. What you learn from that is we’re really people first and you never forget that. First and foremost we’re people helping people. That’s the thing I loved most about her.”

While Rep. Slaughter established herself as a key figure on the national political stage, it was her personal touch that endeared her to constituents in Rochester. She was just as passionate about fighting for a major piece of federal legislation as she was helping a local resident navigate government bureaucracy and solve a personal problem.

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren recalled Rep. Slaughter’s infectious enthusiasm.

“She walked in the room and she brightened it up. Everyone cheered, everyone loved to see her,” Warren said. “When I think about her and who she was, she always had a kind word and a loving heart. We’re going to miss that Southern drawl that she brought to all of her speeches, and that warm spirit.”

Her longtime friend, former Democratic elections commissioner Betsy Relin, said that Rep. Slaughter preferred to die just as she did.

“This is what she wanted,” Relin said. “She wanted to go in office and she wanted to go as her husband did — very quickly. She went the way she wanted it.”

Biography: A legacy of service

Dorothy Louise McIntosh Slaughter was born Aug. 14, 1929, in Harlan County, Kentucky. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor's degree in microbiology and a master's degree in public health.

She moved to Western New York shortly after marrying Bob Slaughter, who worked as a legal administrator at Eastman Kodak Company. Together they would have three daughters, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Bob Slaughter died in 2014.

Rep. Slaughter lived most of her life in Fairport, where she first entered politics in the early 1970s. She helped launch an aggressive but unsuccessful effort to keep bulldozers out of the beech and maple forest of Hart's Woods in Perinton.

Spurred to get more involved, Slaughter ran three times for Monroe County Legislature before being elected in 1976. She served there until 1978. She was also the Rochester regional coordinator for Mario Cuomo from 1976 to 1978 while he served as secretary of state and from 1979 to 1982 while he served as lieutenant governor.

Slaughter served in the state Assembly from 1982 to 1986 and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1986, defeating Republican incumbent Fred Eckert in a close race.

She successfully ran for re-election 15 times and was preparing to run again this November.

In an interview last month, Slaughter said she didn't run against opponents, but rather ran on her record. She pointed to her successes, saying she wasn't sure someone new in the job could be as effective a representative as she has been.

She cited local economic development initiatives including the Inner Loop project, Rochester's new train station, waterfront revitalization in Charlotte, and grants for High Tech Rochester. She also pointed to her work addressing the overuse of antibiotics, in barring genetic discrimination in health care and ensuring that homeless children receive proper, adequate education.

"Because of all that and because I think every time I go into Wegmans, from the front door to the meat department, people come up, grab my hand and say 'I hope you are going to stay, I hope you are going to stay,'" she said. "I hope it's OK with you that we will."

She chaired the powerful House Rules Committee, which determines how bills reach the floor for a vote, from 2007 to 2011. She was the only woman to hold that position and remained the committee's ranking minority member at the time of her death. She was the oldest member of the House of Representatives, and only nine current members had served longer.

Rep. Slaughter's district includes all of Monroe County except the town of Hamlin, a tiny portion of Clarkson and the southern portions of Wheatland, Rush and Mendon.

A special election will be held to elect someone to serve out the rest of Slaughter's term, which expires in January. Gov. Andrew Cuomo will set the date for that special election.

Renaissance woman

The only microbiologist in Congress, Slaughter’s legacy extends to the academic and research sectors from the health sciences to photonics. She was remembered as “one of the great, great champions of science in the country,” by Dr. Mark Taubman, CEO of the University of Rochester Medical Center.

“She had just a wonderful understanding of the scientific process, of what science can create in terms of improving the health of the world,” Taubman said, particularly when it came to technological advances in recent years and the potential those offered. “And as such she was a great supporter of the NIH (National Institutes of Health), and a great supporter of increasing funding for science.”

Her advocacy, while not a lone voice, was forceful in the face of pressures to cut research funding, allowing URMC to maintain itself as one of the top research institutions in the nation; one of possibly the 40 best-funded institutions, Taubman said.

“When I would sit down and talk to Louise, we could get down to the details of what needs to be done because I wasn’t spending my time trying to explain to her the importance,” Taubman said, “and because she lived it and understood it, it also means she had a profound understanding of why research and bio-medical research costs as much as it does.”

She authored the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), extending insurance and employment protections to people based on genetic mutations. It took 14 years to get the bill through Congress. President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2008. And she has been an advocate on limiting the use of antibiotics in livestock, and for consumer education. In a statement Friday, her office said Slaughter “continued to rail against the bipartisan failure to take the bold action necessary to save antibiotics and considered it her primary unfinished legislative business.”

Slaughter was in Rochester two weeks ago to attend the latest state photonics board meeting. She isn’t a board member but has regularly attended nonetheless, having led a three-year effort to land the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics headquarters in Rochester.

Before that March 2 meeting, Slaughter requested a sit-down with leaders of the photonics initiative, the Department of Defense and others — “very technical folks,” said Michael Liehr, CEO of AIM Photonics. There were no media cameras and nothing particular on the agenda.

“She just wanted to hear what everyone was thinking. It was definitely something she initiated,” Liehr said.

Asked if he ever has had an elected official take such interest in his work, he didn’t hesitate before answering: “No. … Not anywhere near on the level Louise Slaughter did. … Cheering on from someone in a position like hers means a lot.”

Slaughter helped secure another Manufacturing USA institute for clean energy spearheaded by Rochester Institute of Technology. And RIT’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies building is named in her honor.

“She was sort of a renaissance woman,” said Deborah Stendardi, vice president for government and community relations at RIT. “She touched a lot of issues, everything from higher education to science to manufacturing to the arts.”

The Rochester Museum & Science Center’s current exhibit, Genome: Unlocking Life's Code, is a credit to Slaughter, who saw the exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and told RMSC’s CEO Kate Bennett about it. Bennett, who echoed the description of Slaughter as a champion of science, introduced the congresswoman back in 2010, when she was one of six congressional honorees recognized by the American Association of Museums. She also has received the University of Rochester’s top honor and the Eastman House’s Medal of Honor, declaring at the time, “We can’t allow art to be seen as expendable, either now or in the years ahead.”

Beyond the loss of a voice for science, the advocate and the cheerleader, many spoke of the friendship. Stendardi choked up in talking about Slaughter’s death. Said Taubman: “I and my wife really got to love this woman. Aside from what I think she has meant to the country … she became a very good friend. I’m going to miss her.”

Accomplishments

The list of Rep. Slaughter's legislative accomplishments is lengthy.

She was instrumental in the passage of the STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge), which blocked Congress, congressional staff, and other government employees from using nonpublic information to benefit themselves through stock trading. She worked for years to champion the bill and was finally joined by colleagues after a 60 Minutes expose revealed how congressional representatives were benefiting from information that the public did not have.

She fought tirelessly to secure federal funding for infrastructure investments and to bring high-tech companies to Monroe County.

Rep. Slaughter co-authored the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, legislation credited with decreasing the annual incidence of domestic violence by more than 67 percent. She was also instrumental in securing vital funding for health care research, including the first $500 million in federal funding for breast cancer research at the National Institutes for Health.

A longtime advocate for better, faster passenger rail service, Rep. Slaughter was fond of pointing out that passenger trains set a faster pace crossing upstate New York in the 19th century than they do today. She also was instrumental in the planning and construction of a new Amtrak station in her hometown. The downtown station, for which Rep. Slaughter helped secure $18 million in federal money, opened in October 2017. Slaughter was there to help cut the ribbon.

“Congresswoman Slaughter was an ardent and vocal longtime supporter of passenger rail in upstate New York and across the country," said Bruce Becker, a vice president of the Rail Passengers Association who lives in the Buffalo area and met Slaughter often at upstate railroad events.

Becker called the new Amtrak station “a testament to her vision for a modern and passenger‐focused rail network."

Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter said Rep. Slaughter had been an indefatigable supporter of veterans when he headed the Veterans Outreach Center. He recalled meeting with her, and how she told of the significant number of World War II casualties her Kentucky town suffered.

“She tried to explain to me how she’s a staunch supporter of veterans but despises war,” said Baxter, an Army veteran.

Rep. Slaughter constantly fought for improved veterans services locally, Baxter said. When the late Tom Cray was confronting cancer, the Veterans Administration was not backing an experimental treatment he believed would be beneficial. Rep. Slaughter stepped in, and Cray, who founded the VOC, received the treatment, Baxter said.

SLAHMAN@Gannett.com

BDSHARP@Gannett.com

GCRAIG@Gannett.com

Includes reporting by staff writers Steve Orr and Patti Singer.