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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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Session:         Page of 617

By this time I had become quite important and well-liked in the New York delegation simply because of my activities as a secretary, and people had a high regard for me, and a lot of them were saying, “Well, New York's going to get another member on the Ways and Means Committee.” They only had at that time one member. I can't even remember who he was, but he's no longer there. He was High Carey, who become governor. So we're going to get another member on there, and then the question became who would that be, and a number of people -- Jack Bingham particularly and Ben Rosenthal and a number of others -- said to me, “You should try for that committee because your point of view would be a good point of view.” I had a certain seniority. Seniority is no longer the determining factor, but it is considered to be an important factor. Charlie Rangel wanted to go on it, and he came in after me. He's not equal in terms of seniority with me. But I knew that as a black he would have an extra element working for him but I didn't know really how extra that would be, and I really was distressed that he in a vote in the New York delegation they voted for him by way of a majority. I can't remember the number -- it might have been something like ten to seven or something along those lines. I really was very upset, and I was upset even though it was a secret vote. Everybody knew how people voted, because they spoke and so forth. And you do remember that. I remember a couple of people and their names that bothered me about that.





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