David Seidemann, Jewish Star columnist, mulls run for Congress

UPDATE on March 5, 2010: Seidemann has informed The Jewish Star that he will NOT run for Congress. A story will appear in the newspaper next week, the issue of March 12, 2010.

By Michael Orbach

Issue of February 19, 2010/ 6 Adar 5770

Growing up in Ohio, David Seidemann had two dreams. He wanted either to be a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns or a United States congressman. Seidemann, slim and on the tall side of 5’6”, recently gave up one of his long cherished dreams.

“Cleveland was just not committed to winning,” he said dryly. Which left him with his other choice, which thankfully has no height or size requirement.

Seidemann, a successful trial attorney and, for the past three years, an acclaimed columnist in this newspaper who has won awards from two journalism associations, recently filed with the Federal Election Commission and now is mulling over whether to challenge Congressman Carolyn McCarthy, who will seek reelection in November.

McCarthy is a Democrat; Seidemann would run on the GOP ticket.

“I am ready for a different challenge,” said Seidemann. “My goal is to have the other people in Congress say, ‘Wow. So that’s an Orthodox Jew.’”

The possibility of seeking elected office coalesced after he wrote a column in the Jan. 13, 2010 issue of the Star called “Erase the conflict within.” The column was about the need for the Jewish community to identify and run qualified candidates for Congress and the US Senate. It was passed around to a number of politically influential people and, to Seidemann’s surprise and chagrin, he was approached about running for office himself.

“They thought this would be an appropriate idea for me and now was a good time,” he said. “This comes at a time in my life where a lot of my life, a lot of political philosophies, are being crystallized and being tested.”

His leaning towards the GOP comes from his father, once the welfare director for the state of Ohio.

“He was a very strong Democrat and over the years, as he saw the way government and bureaucracy worked, he became more of a Republican; believing smaller government is better encouraging at people to do more for themselves,” Seidemann explained. “That is not to say that welfare is a bad institution - it’s very necessary - but job creation is just as necessary.”

Seidemann is happily married to Jane, his wife of fifteen years (“they asked me if I had any military experience; I said I’ve been married,” Seidemann quipped), and the proud father of “four beautiful girls.” He said that he would plan to bring listening to Washington.

“I think most of my decisions in life are based on a combination of my talking and my listening,” he said. “A lot of career politicians know how to talk but I don’t know how many will listen. I’m not saying they don’t, I’m saying that is the sense I get when people tell me the government feels out of step. That’s just a standard complaint against people that are in office. I feel that more listening needs to be done in Washington. We don’t want Washington D.C. to stand for Washington Doesn’t Care.”

While Seidemann declined to address specific campaign issues, he described himself as “issue-driven” and willing to work with both sides of the political aisle. There is one issue he’s not willing to compromise on, however.

“I am adamant about national security. You don’t hold terror trials in Manhattan,” he said. “There’s nothing to be gained by it.”

Nor did he have anything negative to say about McCarthy, his potential opponent.

“She’s a wonderful woman,” Seidemann said. Then, in a Woody Allenesque burst, he added, “I just like me better.”

Seidemann said he would make a final decision within the next three weeks on whether or not to launch a full campaign.

While McCarthy is not considered particularly vulnerable, anything is presumed to be possible after Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown’s upset win in the race to succeed Ted Kennedy.

Were he to run and win, an aide to House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) has already pointed out, tongue in cheek, that Seidemann wouldn’t be the shortest person in Congress.

Regarding what it would be like to be an Orthodox Jew in Congress, Seidemann wondered whether he could make the long Shabbos walk to the Capital that Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) has made on several high-profile occasions. Seidemann would not plan on moving his family to Washington, D.C.

“I’m not a big walker,” Seidemann lamented. “I’ll probably sleep in my office. I’ll have a crock-pot in my office. I already told my buddies in Lawrence we’ll serve cholent and kishka in Washington every Thursday afternoon.”