Bob Carr, who represented the Lansing area — including Livingston County — in Congress in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, has died. He was 81.
Carr, a Democrat, was part of the Watergate class of 1974. He lost reelection in the 1980 Reagan landslide but won his seat back in 1982 and held it until leaving Congress in 1995.
Carr had hoped to continue serving in Washington, D.C.. He won a competitive Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat but lost to Republican Spencer Abraham in the 1994 Republican wave. He is the last Democrat to lose a U.S. Senate race in Michigan though given the dynamics of that year – Republicans winning control of Congress for the first time since the 1950s and then-Governor John Engler winning reelection with more than 60 percent of the vote – it’s doubtful any Democrat could have avoided the same fate.
Carr’s district changed through the years but he represented parts of Ingham, Livingston and Genesee counties.
“We always knew we had someone in our nation’s capital who would fight tirelessly for our community each day with Congressman Bob Carr,” said U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint) in a statement. “Even after leaving Congress and battling cancer later in life, Bob remained committed to public service. He was passionate about mentoring the next generation of leaders through his Brookings Institute Fellows program. I was honored to work with Bob to help educate, train and prepare fellows through this program to make a real difference through policymaking and public service.”
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin said she was sad to hear of Carr’s death.
“He brought principle and passion to his time in Congress, and after his career as an elected official spent countless hours helping new members better serve their constituents,” Slotkin said. “I hope his family and friends find comfort in the significant impact he made on Michigan, and the country.”
Carr was diagnosed in 2006 with stage 3 multiple myeloma.
He championed research into the disease.
When he first arrived in Congress, Carr was known as one of the more liberal members with his opposition to the Vietnam War and support for civil rights. As time went on and other issues arose, Carr developed a reputation as a conservative Democrat on fiscal and regulatory matters.
His fellow Democrats were furious with him for voting against the Family Medical Leave Act in 1993. In a 2010 interview with Gongwer News Service, Carr explained he voted against the bill because he grew up as the son of small business owners who struggled with employees calling in sick and the battle between small and big business.
However, in that interview, he said his cancer diagnosis had shown he erred in that vote. He apologized to his former constituents for failing to understand the issue.
“I would vote the other way on FMLA, still recognizing that it would not be a choice between hardship and no hardship, but (a change in my opinion of) where hardship should be placed and who should assume the risk,” he said.
He said he probably would have survived cancer without the help of his wife but was thankful he didn’t have to go through recovery without her.
“Along the way I kept thinking (and still do) what would it be like to have a more virulent form of cancer, to be without access to health care, to be poor, to be uneducated, unconnected, and most of all, to be alone,” said Carr, who said he stayed up all night watching the 2010 vote to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which he supported. “I think about that every day.”
Carr was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, and earned bachelor’s and law degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He moved to Michigan in the late 1960s and served on the staff of the Senate minority leader and later became an administrative assistant to then-Attorney General Frank Kelley and then an assistant attorney general.
In the 2010s, Carr got involved in efforts to rein in the amount of money washing through campaigns.
“We basically ask the question, which is maybe on the minds of some who think about politics, and that is whether money in politics really supports or has come to a point of hindering democracy,” he told WKAR-FM in a 2015 interview when asked about the group of more than 100 current and former elected officials. “And we’re troubled. All of us are troubled.”
– By Zach Gorchow
