Carey was a partner in the law firm of
Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey. Carey became involved in politics following his wartime service. In 1946, he was named co-chair of a
New York State Democratic Committee youth division that was intended to attract young voters to support Democratic candidates.
U.S. House of Representatives In 1960, running as a
Democrat, Carey was elected to the
United States House of Representatives from a district generally centered around Brooklyn's
Park Slope,
Sunset Park and
Bay Ridge neighborhoods, unseating Republican incumbent
Francis E. Dorn. Carey's seven terms in office coincided with major demographic changes in his district, as exemplified by
deindustrialization and the decline of the Sunset Park waterfront's longstanding
breakbulk cargo businesses; the concomitant emergence of
gentrification in eastern Park Slope; the coalescence of a nascent
Puerto Rican community in western Park Slope and Sunset Park; and the opening of Bay Ridge's
Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge (which spurred migration by many
working-class whites in his district to the more suburban borough of
Staten Island) in 1964. Although he has been erroneously characterized as the first congressman to
oppose the Vietnam War (a stance actually taken by
Morningside Heights-based congressman
William Fitts Ryan), he may have been the first member of the Brooklyn congressional delegation to speak out against the conflict following discussions with several of his children. In 1966, he was appointed Chairman of the Ad hoc Subcommittee on the Handicapped by
Adam Clayton Powell, then Chairman of the
House Education and Labor Committee. The sub-committee held hearings in Washington and New York City and Carey introduced HR 14. The "Carey Bill" provided, for the first time, a program of grants to the states for "initiating, expanding or improving education for children with disabilities. It also included other titles mirroring the structure of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, PL 89–10, which Carey had assisted Powell in passing as part of the Lyndon Baines Johnson initiative. Three parts of the Bill were picked up by the Senate: the grants to states, a new Bureau of Education for the Handicapped in the U.S. Office of Education and a National Advisory Committee. Carey's friend and mentor, John Fogerty of Rhode Island, the powerful Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee which provided funding for all Health, Education and Welfare programs, backed his legislation. The bill became Title VI of the ESEA, as Public Law 89-750, in 1966. Carey also sponsored and saw passed that year The Model Secondary School for the Deaf Bill, to be established on the campus of the
world's only liberal arts college for the deaf. In 1965, he and Fogerty had sponsored The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, which was awarded to the Rochester Institute of Technology. The Carey Bill and its grant program to the states began with a $2.5 million appropriation, to provide each state with $50,000 to plan for its implementation. The second year, the appropriation was $12.25 million, distributed to the states in proportion to their population. In 1975 Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Bill, PL 94-142 which today distributes approximately $11 billion to the states for this purpose. He served on the
House Ways and Means Committee and led the effort to pass the first Federal Aid to Education program. He was elected Governor of New York in 1974 and resigned his Congressional seat on December 31, 1974.
City politics In 1969 Carey ran briefly for the Democratic nomination for Mayor. He then agreed to run for City Council President on the ticket led by former Mayor
Robert F. Wagner Jr. Carey narrowly lost the primary to incumbent City Council President
Francis X. Smith. Then he briefly mounted an independent bid for Mayor, from which he withdrew after the death of his two eldest sons in a car accident.
Governor of New York In the
1974 gubernatorial election, Carey became New York's first Democratic governor in 16 years, defeating
Howard Samuels for the Democratic nomination and then unseating incumbent Republican
Malcolm Wilson, who had assumed the office after
Nelson Rockefeller resigned in December 1973 to serve on the
Commission on Critical Choices for Americans. Nationally, 1974 was dominated by the
Watergate scandal, which ended President
Richard Nixon's presidency and hurt Republicans nationwide. In 1974, Democrats also recaptured the
New York State Assembly. Carey is best remembered for his successful handling of New York City's economic crisis in the mid-1970s. Carey came into office with New York City close to bankruptcy and is credited with bringing business and labor together to help save New York City from the fiscal crisis. He managed to keep the growth of state spending below the rate of inflation through his frequent use of line-item vetoes and fights with the
New York State Legislature, which was at the time divided between a Republican-controlled
Senate and a Democratic-controlled
Assembly. Upon taking office, Carey cut taxes significantly, reducing corporate taxes from 14% to 10%, and capping personal income tax at 9%, and reducing capital gains taxes as well. His administration also offered tax credits to encourage new investment. As governor, he was responsible for building the
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center;
Battery Park City; the
South Street Seaport and the economic development of New York City's outer boroughs. He also helped provide state funding for the construction of the
Carrier Dome at
Syracuse University. He is also remembered for preventing conservative legislators from reinstating the death penalty and preventing such legislators from taking away state abortion laws. (R) meet with President
Gerald Ford at the White House in 1975 to discuss federal financial aid for New York City Carey signed the Willowbrook Consent Decree, which ended the hospitalisation of the
mentally ill and
developmentally disabled. His vision and leadership led to the community placement of the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, but also an increase of these people living on the streets. He also made major strides in community programs for the
mentally ill. Carey also pardoned Cleveland "Jomo" Davis, one of the leaders of the
Attica prison riots. Carey's tenure in office was marked by a growing awareness of the environmental consequences of New York's strong industrial base, including the designation by the federal government of the
Love Canal disaster area. Carey made environmental issues a priority of his administration. He was accused by Love Canal residents of being more concerned about the state's finances than the health of families living amidst one of the nation's most infamous environmental disasters. Along with Senators
Ted Kennedy and
Daniel Patrick Moynihan and
U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill, Carey led efforts to strengthen U.S. support for a political solution to the
Northern Ireland conflict. The four Irish-American politicians called themselves "The Four Horsemen." In 1977, he was an appellant in the
Supreme Court case
Carey v. Population Services International. Carey and his fellow appellants sought permission to continue enforcing laws prohibiting Population Services International (PSI) and others from distributing contraceptives to minors below 16 years old that had previously been struck down in a New York District Court. The Court upheld the lower court's determination that the law violated the
Due Process Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the rights of privacy afforded to individuals, including minors. Carey considered running for president in
1976 and
1980. Carey's first wife had died in 1974, and Carey later attributed his decision not to seek the
Democratic nomination for president in 1976 to her death. In
1978, he was challenged for re-election by State Assembly Minority Leader and former Assembly Speaker
Perry Duryea. After a competitive, sometimes negative campaign, Carey was the first Democrat re-elected in 40 years. In 1980, he decriminalized homosexuality in New York State. According to political scientist and author Daniel C. Kramer, "The Carey Administration had a hand in many important projects, the modernization of New York City's subways and the rescue of homeowners living in the Love Canal neighborhood being just two, before Carey committed several serious blunders which lowered voters' opinion of him that he decided not to run for reelection in 1982. Through it all, this man with the embarrassingly low poll ratings turned into a superb governor."16 On January 1, 1983, he was succeeded by his
lieutenant governor,
Mario Cuomo.
Later career In 1989, Carey announced that he was no longer pro-choice and regretted his support for legalized abortion and public financing of abortion as governor. In 1992, he joined other
anti-abortion leaders in signing the anti-abortion document "A New American Compact: Caring About Women, Caring for the Unborn." Later in his life, he was
of counsel at the law firm of
Shea & Gould. He continued to practice law as a member of the
Harris Beach law firm and sat on the board of
Triarc Cos., the
Nelson Peltz controlled holding company. == Personal life ==