Tom Carper - U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. House of Representatives

It took a considerable amount of persuasion on the part of U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and others to convince Carper to leave his obscure, but safe, position as Treasurer and compete for Delaware's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982. Thomas B. Evans, Jr., the incumbent Republican was running again, and although he had been caught in a compromising "association" on a golfing trip with the young lobbyist Paula Parkinson, he was still a formidable and well-connected politician.

The campaign was going well for Carper until three weeks before Election Day, when the New York Post published an article claiming that the "dirtiest campaign in the country is being waged in tiny Delaware." Retelling the well-known story of Evans' golfing trip, it went on to accuse Carper of abusing his wife and stepchildren. But the story actually ended up working to Carper's political advantage when suspicions spread that the allegations had been planted by an Evans supporter and when public opinion seemed to conclude that the allegations were inappropriately exploiting a private issue.

Carper went on to serve five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He won his second term in 1984, by defeating Elise R.W. du Pont, the wife of former Governor Pierre S. du Pont, IV. He then enjoyed easy victories over Republicans Thomas S. Neuberger in 1986, James P. Krapf in 1988 and Ralph O. Williams in 1990. A U.S. Representative, he was a member of the U.S. House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs and the U.S House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. He chaired the House Subcommittee on Economic Stabilization. In these positions he worked to allow banks into the securities business and to discourage the dumping of sludge into the ocean.

During his years in the U.S. House of Representatives Carper sought to gain better control of the Democratic Party organization in Delaware in hopes of someday becoming Governor. Heavily Democratic and with over half of the population of the state, New Castle County was the key. Its Democratic organization was controlled by Eugene T. Reed, a former ironworker, and an old-time political party boss who was then among several politicians in both parties implicated in illegal money raising practices. To address this corruption and rescue the reputation of the Democratic Party, Carper recruited Joseph E. Reardon, a DuPont Company chemist, as a candidate for New Castle County Democratic Party chairman. By early 1989, he had succeeded in getting Reardon elected, and Reardon replaced Reed at the head of a newly reformed party organization. In 1990 Carper faced a primary challenge from a Reed ally, Daniel D. Rappa, but crushed him convincingly and went on to win election to his fifth term as U.S. Representative.