The surprising news about the death of former New York State Assemblywoman Florence Sullivan on June 21st was that she was remembered and loved by so many—28 years after she was last on the ballot.
Sullivan (who was 90 at the time of her death) gave up a secure Assembly (Bay Ridge-Sunset Park) seat to challenge Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1982. Although she would lose to the popular Moynihan by a margin of 2-to-1, she attracted widespread attention as part of a small sorority: female office-holders who happened to be conservatives.
Fiercely pro-life, pro-school prayer, pro-Second Amendment, and anti-tax, Sullivan rallied fellow conservatives and wrapped up the U.S. Senate nominations of the Empire State’s Conservative and Right to Life Parties.
(New York is one of five states that permits cross-endorsement--the candidate of one party appearing on more than one ballot line and the votes collected on all of the ballots counted aggregately for the candidate.)
In the Republican primary, she defeated two better-funded moderate hopefuls: former U.S. Attorney Whitney North Seymour and Muriel “Mickie” Siebert, first woman to own her own seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
A triumphant Sullivan characterized her nomination by Republicans as the “final conflict between what's left of the old Rockefeller-Javits segment of the G.O.P. and the new team of Reaganites.''
In taking the fight to Moynihan, the conservative hopeful slammed him as a liberal for his opposition to school prayer and opposition to a constitutional ban on abortion. Moynihan countered that he was “a moderate Democrat in the mold of John F. Kennedy,” and praised President Reagan for his Middle East peace initiative.
Defeated in November, Sullivan co-founded the law firm of Connors and Sullivan and devoted the rest of her life to the practice of law, her three daughters and their families, and attendance of daily Roman Catholic Mass.
The Brooklynite’s life was not that much different from many women of her generation. She attended St. John’s University but dropped out after marrying beau Cornelius Sullivan.
In the early 1970s’, Florence completed her degree at St. John’s and began to teach math and English at Fontballe Hall Academy. She also earned her law degree nights at St. John’s in 1974. After Cornelius’s sudden death in the mid-1970s’, Florence launched a new career as an assistant District Attorney of King’s County.
In 1978, she made her maiden political voyage by seeking an Assembly seat. New York City Councilman Sal Albanese, a Democrat, recalled how Sullivan defeated him in that race and tweeted after her death: “Although she was a member of GOP & I a Democrat it wasn’t a vicious campaign. She was an accomplished attorney & a kind person. RIP Florence.”
Arriving in Albany at a time when there weren’t many female legislators—let alone conservative legislators who were women—Sullivan quickly made a name for herself as a fighter against domestic abuse. The lawmaker founded one of New York’s first domestic abuse safe houses.
“She was very much about ensuring that young female attorneys, elected officials and female leaders were treated equally and received the same respect that was given to other elected officials,” New York Conservative Party Chairman Jerry Kassar told reporters, “And her life and career were examples of what the Conservative Party is all about.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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