Former Gov. Nelson Rockefeller gave his tacit support to Mr. Buckley [older brother of Wm. F. Buckley] in 1976 in exchange for the senator's promise not to endorse Ronald Reagan's challenge to President Gerald R. Ford whom the Republicans ended up nominating." Sen. Buckley won the primary but lost the general election. Peyser's elected years ended in 1982.
10/9/14, "Peter Peyser, Legislator Who Defied the G.O.P., Dies at 93," NY Times, Douglas Martin
"Peter
A. Peyser, who rose from mayor of a Westchester County village to
Congress, then defied the leadership of his Republican Party by
quixotically challenging Senator James L. Buckley of New York in a 1976
primary, died on Thursday at his home in Irvington, N.Y. He was 93.
The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, his son Peter said.
As
expected, Mr. Buckley swamped Mr. Peyser, who then switched to the
Democratic Party and again won election to the House of Representatives.
He served three terms as a Republican, from 1971 to 1977, and two as a
Democrat, from 1979 to 1983, representing districts that included parts
of Westchester and Rockland Counties and the Bronx.
He
had previously been mayor of Irvington, N.Y., which had a population of
around 5,000. First elected in 1962, he was paid $100 a month and kept
his job as an insurance executive in New York.
But
Mr. Peyser spent three-quarters of his time being mayor, he told The
Hudson Independent, a monthly newspaper, in a 2009 interview. He raised
taxes each of his eight years in office and built a new firehouse,
enlarged a park and started a recreation program.
In
1969 he decided to run for Congress. Entering the 1970 primary, Mr.
Peyser defeated three Republicans and then beat William Dretzin, a
Democrat, in the general election.
In Congress, he worked to broaden the student loan
program, modernize pension plans and increase aid to education. He was
one of the last members of the New York congressional delegation to call
for President Richard M. Nixon’s impeachment. In his 1970 campaign, he
had cast himself as a Nixon loyalist.
Senator
Buckley had been elected in 1970 as a Conservative Party candidate when Mr. Peyser
decided to challenge his bid for re-election. In
the primary campaign he made an issue of Mr. Buckley’s hard line
against federal aid for New York City during its fiscal crisis, and he
criticized the senator as a carpetbagger from Connecticut, where Mr.
Buckley, the older brother of the conservative commentator William F.
Buckley Jr., had a home in addition to an apartment in New York. He also
said that Mr. Buckley had regularly voted to help oil companies, one of
which his family owned.
Mr.
Peyser, who cast himself as a moderate running against an
archconservative, could not persuade 25 percent of the Republican State
Committee to support his candidacy, so he had to collect 20,000
signatures to get on the ballot. His family and largely unpaid
volunteers gathered 27,602, of which 24,649 were ruled valid.
He
still trailed badly in funds and the polls, but hoped he might get the
support of Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller, the former governor of
New York. While he was mayor of Irvington in 1968, he had written
letters in praise of Mr. Rockefeller, then a presidential candidate, and
sent them to every delegate at the Republican National Convention in
Miami Beach. Mr. Rockefeller and his family, in turn, contributed to Mr.
Peyser’s campaigns.
“Peyser
is a damn good man,” The New York Times quoted Mr. Rockefeller as
saying in what it termed “a further elbow in the Buckley ribs.”
But
Mr. Rockefeller gave his tacit support to Mr. Buckley in exchange for
the senator’s promise not to endorse Ronald Reagan’s challenge to
President Gerald R. Ford, whom the Republicans ended up nominating.
Mr. Buckley won by a 3-to-1 ratio but was defeated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the general election.
In
early 1977, Mr. Peyser announced that he was switching to the
Democratic Party. Gov. Hugh L. Carey, a Democrat, nominated him to be
chairman of the New York State Public Service Commission, which
regulates the state’s electric, gas, water and telecommunications
industries. But the Republican-controlled State Senate rejected him,
saying he had no experience in the field. He countered that he was a
proven manager who could supervise technicians. He attributed the defeat
to partisan politics.
Mr.
Peyser then ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1978 and won. He was
re-elected two years later. His most noted battles were his efforts,
only partly successful, to cut agricultural subsidies to big farmers.
In
1982, Mr. Peyser ran against Benjamin A. Gilman, a Republican, in a
district that had been redrawn. Many more of the voters were in Mr.
Gilman’s old district than in Mr. Peyser’s, and Mr. Gilman won easily.
Peter
A. Peyser — the middle initial does not stand for anything — was born
in Cedarhurst, on Long Island, on Sept. 7, 1921, and grew up there and
in Manhattan. He attended Colgate University, where he majored in
classical Greek and competed in hockey and tennis and was an intramural
boxing champion. He graduated in 1943 in a program that had been
accelerated to produce soldiers for World War II.
Mr.
Peyser enlisted in the Army and served in the infantry in Europe, where
he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was awarded several
decorations, including the Bronze Star. After the war, as a captain, he
commanded the National Guard infantry company stationed in the Yonkers
Armory.
Besides
his son Peter, Mr. Peyser is survived by his wife, the former
Marguerite Richards; his daughters, Penny Peyser and Safi Abheeti; two
other sons, James and Thomas; and five grandchildren.
Mr.
Peyser told The Hudson Independent that he had loved being mayor,
“chasing fires” and responding to unusual challenges. One night a police
officer called to report that five teenage boys and girls were swimming
nude in the reservoir.
“Now that’s a real problem,” he remembered saying. “I suggest you tell them to put their clothes on and go home.”"
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Comment: The above still exemplifies what passes for the GOP. A bunch of weirdos chasing their tails.
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