Even after death, congresswoman could help elect New York Democrat
A few months before 88-year-old Rep. Louise Slaughter passed away in March 2018, a town supervisor from a neighboring congressional district in western New York drove alone to Washington, D.C. to speak with the lauded congresswoman.
But Nate McMurray, then weighing a potential challenge to Rep. Chris Collins in New York's 27th Congressional District, said he got more from the "demure" octogenarian he was expecting.
"If I said '88-year-old woman' and we did word association, none of those words would apply to this woman," McMurray said.
Recounting their 2017 conversation to CBS News, McMurray said Slaughter asked him to make one promise to the 16-term Democrat. "I need you to fight like hell," said Slaughter, who was twice his age.
With her sly Kentucky-born accent, McMurray said Slaughter then flashed the spirited bluntness she was known for. "No, I mean step on his neck!" Slaughter quipped.
"She was kind of putting the fear of God into me," McMurray remembered.
McMurray duly launched his long-shot campaign against Collins. And by entering the race, McMurray was also being drafted into Slaughter's own battle.
As the congresswoman explained to McMurray in their first meeting, throughout 2017 she was on a mission to smoke Collins, the Republican who represented the district next to hers, out of Congress.
Between January and September 2017, Slaughter penned five letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney's Office, and the Office of Congressional Ethics asking each to investigate Collins for his stock market trading.
On January 12, 2017, Slaughter sent her first set of letters requesting an investigation on the potential connection between an Australian pharmaceutical company where Collins was on the board of directors and then-Rep. Tom Price's stock trades.
"Over the past seven months, I have been closely monitoring the troubling developments surrounding the personal financial activities of Congressman Chris Collins," Slaughter wrote six months later while also flagging similar activity for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Slaughter, who successfully led the charge to pass in 2012 the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act which forbid congressional members from trading on nonpublic information, continued to hound the congressman throughout that summer.
"She was obsessed with the idea of making certain that insider information wasn't used to bulk us up individually," her friend Rep. Paul Tonko, D-NY, told CBS News.
"When someone didn't respect the [House of Representatives], watch out because Louise is going to crank up the volume and make certain justice prevails," Tonko added.
She also closely followed the development of a drug from the Collins-connected pharmaceutical company and raised questions to the SEC that she thought "demand answers."
Rep. Collins defended himself and his stock trades. But after the congressional ethics committee found they had "substantial reason to believe" Collins indeed shared nonpublic information, the congressman zeroed in on his antagonist.
"She's on a witch-hunt," Collins told Fox News in October 2017. "She's a despicable human being."
Ten months later on August 8, 2018, the Department of Justice indicted Collins, his son, and another man for insider trading and making false statements.
Today, Rep. Collins continues to profess his innocence, insists he will be exonerated, and remains on the ballot for re-election to the dismay of some local Republicans.
Eric County Republican Chairman Nicholas Langworthy announced at a September press conference the party felt like a "jilted groom at the altar" when they learned of Collins' decision to stay in the race.
Langworthy explained he was told "it's no longer in the best interest of [Collins'] legal team and legal defense" to remove himself from the ballot.
McMurray has centered his campaign on the advice he received almost a year ago and splashed it on his campaign merchandise: "Fight Like Hell."
Two weeks ago the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) added McMurray to their "Red to Blue" program highlighting close races in Republican districts. Last week, former Vice President Joe Biden visited the area to campaign for McMurray, calling him "bright as hell."
Even the New York Post, owned by conservative media icon Rupert Murdoch, endorsed McMurray as their lone Democrat this cycle over Collins, who was the first congressman to endorse President Trump.
With days until the midterm election, a handful of polls indicate the race, which also includes a third candidate, is within a few points.
But even with federal indictments hanging over Collins' campaign, a win for McMurray remains far from guaranteed.
The district is one of the reddest areas in the Yankee-blue state and President Trump won here by 25 points in 2016.
Jake Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the University of Buffalo, told CBS News "I still think the Republican advantage is the rest of the story."
"It is a heavily Republican district in an era where polarization has taken root and I think individuals make the bargain that they would rather see somebody in office who agrees with them in policy than maybe someone who doesn't have any skeletons," Neiheisel said.
Win or lose, the trial for Collins is scheduled to begin February 3, 2020, well into the next congressional term.
