The name Barney Frank is well-known in his home state of Massachusetts, and nationally. Frank was alongtiem Democratic Congressman who made his mark in many ways in Congress, including the legislation that followed the 2008 financial crisis called the Dodd-Frank Act.
But in 1982, when I first met him, Frank was a freshman, about to run for his second term — facing a longtime Republican lawmaker named Margaret Heckler, thanks to a rapportionment map that threw them both into the same district. . .
Was he scared of losing. I asked?
In 1981, Congress gave itself a generous and controversial tax break for things like, meals. Barney Frank voted agsinst it.
When we talked in the fall of 1982, Barney Frank was facing that uiphiull battle against eight-term Republican Margarer Heckler.
But Frank beat Heckler that fall. She later becmae Secretary of Health and Human Services. and U.S. ambssadior to Ireland. Frank went on to serve 15 more terms in Congress. He did not seek re-election in 2012, and retired from Congress.