Maryland’s 6th district has been one of the less liberal and Democratic districts in the state, even with the redistricting from the 2010 census that made the area lean Democratic. From 1943 to 1959 it was represented by Republicans J. Glenn Beall Sr. and DeWitt Hyde, who were both moderate conservatives. However, 1958 was a pretty bad midterm for the GOP and they lost all three of the Maryland House seats they held. The only one they won back in 1960 was the 6th, and Charles McCurdy “Mac” Mathias (1922-2010) was their champion.
Moving to the Rockefeller Wing Early
Although Mathias criticized incumbent John Foley for voting with Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) (he had done so 8 out of 9 times in 1959 and 9 out of 9 times in 1960), it took him but a year for his record to move from that similar to his Republican predecessors to being in the liberal camp. While in 1961 he had scored a 30 by the ADA and 67 by Americans for Constitutional Action, he scored an 88 from the former and a 27 from the latter the next year. A portend for this development was that his third vote in Congress was to increase the House Rules Committee from 12 to 15, adding two Democrats and one Republican to counter the power of Chairman Howard W. Smith (D-Va.) and the conservatives on the committee who were blocking liberal legislation.
Mathias was a vote for the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, Medicare, and other Great Society programs. However, he did dissent from the liberal position on food stamps and Urban Mass Transit. Mathias was also a strong supporter of civil rights and played a significant role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1966, he attempted to broker a compromise on fair housing legislation through his amendment, which would impose no limitations on discrimination from the homeowner or for owner-occupied rental establishments but would impose discrimination prohibition on the real estate broker. The bill was defeated in the Senate, but fair housing would be the core of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Boot Brewster!
In 1968, Mathias decided to run for the Senate against incumbent Daniel J. Brewster. Brewster had been Mathias’ college friend and was at the time for Democrats a rising star, the “Golden Boy” of Maryland’s politics. He was, unfortunately, suffering from alcoholism and he would later face corruption charges at least mostly on account of the acts of a corrupt aide. Brewster ultimately would plead no contest to a charge after a new trial was going to be held after his first trial resulted in an acquittal. Mathias would win by a plurality in a three-way race, with Brewster in second and perennial candidate George P. Mahoney running in third.
Aggravating Nixon
Not since ideological turncoat Charles Goodell of New York had a Republican senator gotten the goat of the Nixon Administration. Mathias voted against both Clement Haynsworth of South Carolina and G. Harrold Carswell of Florida for the Supreme Court. He was a Vietnam War dove and his record only had gotten more liberal from his House years. As Maryland Senate President Thomas Mike V. Miller Jr., put it, “He was an enemy to the Nixon White House…He didn’t like the Vietnam War and thought the Nixon Administration wasn’t progressive enough on civil rights” (Borda). On the latter, this was over President Nixon’s opposition to busing as well as his effort to cater to the South by nationalizing coverage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Rowland Evans and Robert Novak (1971) also observed this development, writing that he was “the new supervillain…in President Nixon’s doghouse…not since [Charles Goodell] was defeated with White House connivance has any Republican so outraged Mr. Nixon and his senior staff as Mathias. The senator’s liberalism and tendency to bolt party lines have bred animosity in the inner sanctum”.
In 1973, he was one of the earliest Republican supporters of an investigation into Watergate. Mathias would during his next election quote Edmund Burke, “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment, and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion”, to which he added, “I would point out that Edmund Burke was defeated at the next election”, but which he rejoined with, “But it was still the right answer” (Clymer). This time was also perhaps the height of his liberalism, but he disputed the degree of it. Although Americans for Democratic Action had only scored him wrong on one issue in 1973 (confirming Gerald Ford VP), the following year he said, “I’m not all that liberal. In fact, in some respects I’m conservative. A while ago I introduced a bill preserving the guarantees of the Bill of Rights by prohibiting warrantless wiretaps. I suppose they’ll say it’s another liberal effort, but it’s as conservative as you can get. It’s conserving the Constitution” (Clymer). This argument would certainly get the agreement of such people as Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Thomas Massie today.
Thanks to his conflicted relations with the Nixon Administration, he was spared from the Watergate backlash in 1974. Mathias won reelection by about 15 points against future Senator Barbara Mikulski in a state in which Democrats outnumbered Republicans three to one in registration. Her vote overwhelmingly came from Baltimore, indeed the only county she won was Baltimore, but did so with only 51%.
Conservation
Mathias was a strong supporter of environmental legislation, and his most notable work involved preserving the Chesapeake Bay. His advocacy finally in 1984 resulted in the creation of the Chesapeake Bay Program to clean up and protect the bay under the Clean Water Act. He also successfully pushed for the passage of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.
Conflict with Reagan and Retirement
Mathias disapproved of the rising conservative influence in the party, and in 1976 outright considered running as an independent. This didn’t come to pass and in 1980 he made no such move despite his numerous reservations about Reagan. Although Mathias often voted with the Reagan Administration on taxes, he often was at loggerheads with him, and in 1986 he voted against elevating William Rehnquist to chief justice. Mathias also continued to back socially liberal positions and was opposed to much of Reagan’s foreign policy. He also continued his civil rights advocacy and played a significant role in the passage of the extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 1982.
Although it initially looked like Mathias might run for reelection in 1986, he chose to retire, and Barbara Mikulski won the election to succeed him. His lifetime MC-Index score was a 23%. Although he remained a Republican until his dying day, in 2008, he endorsed Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential election. Two years later, Mathias died of Parkinson’s Disease. To this day, Mac Mathias is the last Republican to represent Maryland in the Senate.
References
1966 Civil Rights Act Dies in the Senate. CQ Almanac 1966. CQ Press.
Retrieved from
https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal66-1301767
1973 ADA voting record. Americans for Democratic Action.
Retrieved from
https://adaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/1973.pdf
Borda, P.S. (2010, January 27). Sen. ‘Mac’ Mathias, statesman, leaves legacy in Frederick. The Frederick News-Post.
Retrieved from
Clymer, A. (2010, January 25). Charles Mathias, Former U.S. Senator, Dies at 87. The New York Times.
Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/us/politics/26mathias.html
Rowland, E. & Novak, R. (1971, December 5). Mathias: The New Goodell. The Washington Post, p. A2.
Rudin, K. (2010, January 26). Mac Mathias, GOP Senate Liberal From Maryland, Dies. NPR.
Retrieved from
https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2010/01/mac_mathias_gop_senate_liberal.html
Solyst, J. (2023, January 31). Celebrating 40 years of science, restoration and partnership. Chesapeake Bay Program.
Retrieved from
https://www.chesapeakebay.net/news/blog/celebrating-40-years-of-science-restoration-and-partnership
Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History 