Morella, Constance A. (Constance Albanese), 1931-

<p>Constance Morella (/məˈrɛlə/; née Albanese; born February 12, 1931) is an American politician and diplomat. She represented Maryland's 8th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2003. She served as Permanent Representative from the U.S. to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2003 to 2007. She is on American University's faculty as an Ambassador in Residence for the Women & Politics Institute. She was appointed to the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) by President Barack Obama in 2010.</p>

<p>She was born Constance Albanese in Somerville, Massachusetts. After graduating from Somerville High School in 1948, she attended Boston University, where she earned an Associate of Arts in 1950 and a Bachelor of Arts in 1954. Although she was raised in a family of blue-collar Democrats, she became a Republican after meeting Anthony C. Morella, who had worked for liberal Republicans John Lindsay, Nelson Rockefeller, Charles Mathias, and others. After they wed, the couple moved to Bethesda, Maryland. After Connie Morella's sister died of cancer, Tony and Connie Morella adopted her six children to join their own three children.</p>

<p>Morella became a secondary school teacher in the Montgomery County, Maryland public schools from 1957 to 1961. She graduated from American University with an M.A. in 1967 and was an instructor there from 1968 to 1970, when she became a professor at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. She continued to teach until 1985, then her political career gradually displaced her educational one.</p>

<p>Congressional politics at the end of the twentieth century became more polarized, and for moderates, their plight became unenviable. Constance A. Morella was one of a shrinking group of moderate House Republicans who had been numerous during the 1960s and 1970s. From the outset, she built her career around her Maryland district, but the 2000 Census offered an opportunity to recast her constituency dramatically. At the same time she found herself tied more closely to her party after the Republicans took control of the House in 1995, making her vulnerable, as Democrats recruited stronger candidates to run against her.</p>

<p>Constance Albanese was born on February 12, 1931, in Somerville, Massachusetts, to Italian immigrants Salvatore and Christina Albanese. Her father was a cabinetmaker, and her mother worked in a laundromat. Constance Albanese attended Boston University, graduating in 1951, and marrying Anthony Morella in 1954. The couple moved to Maryland, where she taught high school. Eventually, they would have three children (Paul, Mark, and Laura) and help raise Constance Morella’s sister’s six children (Christine, Catherine, Louise, Paul, Rachel, and Ursula) after she died. After receiving her MA from American University in 1967, Morella taught at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, from 1970 to 1986. Morella also became active in community organizations and was soon serving in a variety of public positions, finding herself attracted to the Republican moderates, as represented by Governor Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller of New York. She was a member of the Montgomery County commission for women (1971–1975), and in 1974 she ran unsuccessfully for the Maryland general assembly. She was elected to the general assembly in 1978, serving through 1987.</p>

<p>Morella’s first run for a seat in Congress took place in 1980. She ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination against former Representative Newton Ivan Steers Jr. When incumbent Representative Michael Darr Barnes announced in 1986 that he was retiring from the House to make what later was an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Morella won the vacant seat over state senator Stewart Bainum Jr. with 53 percent of the vote. The district covered much of Montgomery County outside of Washington, with more than 60,000 federal employees and the center of Maryland’s technology industry. Having run on a platform of strong ties to the district, backing from women’s groups, and support for some elements of the Ronald Reagan administration’s foreign policy, this election was crucial in setting her style as a House Member. A moderate Republican had won election to Congress in a Democratic state. “[The 1986] election shows that Montgomery County voters are very independent,” Morella recalled. “It proves that party label is nothing that’s going to keep people from voting for a person.” High voter turnout in her hometown of Bethesda also gave her the edge.</p>