By any standard of acceptable behavior, they should be dead men walking. | AP Photos Good year for bad boys of Congress

For the bad boys of Congress, 2014 is shaping up to be an awfully good year.

As they endure humiliating headlines, damaging federal investigations and tough scrutiny of their personal lives, scandal-tarred lawmakers aren’t just surviving this midterm year. In many cases, they’re thriving.


By any traditional standard of acceptable behavior for politicians, they should be dead men walking. Instead: Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), a physician who was revealed to have once impregnated a patient and then asked her to get an abortion, won his primary and is a virtual lock to win reelection.

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), whose public skirmishes with his ex-wife persist five years after he copped to having an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman, doesn’t even have an opponent.

Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.), the “kissing congressman” whose make-out session with a 20-something female aide was caught on camera, reversed his decision to retire, and polls show him in a tight race.

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Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), who faces a 20-count federal indictment tied to his past management of a health food restaurant, is slightly ahead of his Democratic opponent, according to private polling conducted by both parties. He may actually win another term.

Rep. Joe Garcia (D-Fla.) remains locked in a competitive reelection race, even as federal officials intensify an investigation into his 2010 campaign.

There’s no single explanation for their success. Some have sought and received mercy from a forgiving electorate. Others have benefited from fading memories of their misdeeds as time passes by. Still others are simply good fits for their districts, warts and all.

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“Many voters recognize the imperfections in people. They recognize that people make mistakes,” said former GOP Rep. Vito Fossella, a onetime holder of Grimm’s seat who in 2008 was busted for a DUI and later admitted to having an out-of-wedlock child. “Voters consider an array of things when deciding whether to vote for a candidate. … Very often, they don’t want to condemn someone.”

The biggest key to Sanford’s political resuscitation, many in his orbit are convinced, has been his heartfelt campaign for forgiveness. In a special congressional election last year, he told voters that he’d gone through a dark period but was a better person for it. A onetime GOP rising star who’d long been considered a future presidential contender, Sanford had left the governor’s office in disgrace.

Sanford “executed a comeback strategy that’s worked for him,” said former Florida Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican who resigned in 2006 after it was revealed that he’d sent sexually explicit electronic messages to underage former House pages. “It was an extraordinary way of threading the needle between running for elected office and laying bare his emotions.”

It helps that Sanford’s affair is old news at this point, Foley added.

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“People have moved past that. They’ve said, ‘He was a wonderful congressman and governor, and now as a congressman again he’s put his head down,’” Foley said. “There’s a point where people say, ‘Enough already.’”

While Sanford is on a glide path to reelection this year, his personal life continues to generate headlines. On Friday, he announced that he’d split with his fiancée and former mistress, Maria Belen Chapur — a decision he blamed on an ongoing legal battle with his ex-wife, Jenny. Chapur disputed that version of events, saying Sanford kept putting off their wedding plans to tend to his political career.

Now, more than a year after the election, Foley believes that Sanford has completed his resuscitation and will be a force on South Carolina’s political scene, perhaps becoming a future candidate for statewide office. (Foley made the remarks before the latest revelations surrounding Sanford’s romantic life came to light.)

If time was on Sanford’s side, that’s also been true for DesJarlais.

After being written off by the political world, the Republican congressman clawed out a 38-vote win in his August primary. His opponent, state Sen. Jim Tracy, raised more than three times as much campaign money, and DesJarlais was ditched by the GOP establishment. But by the time voters cast ballots in August, they’d been hearing about DesJarlais’ personal life for years — enough time, at least for a slim majority of them, to get over any concerns.

DesJarlais reminded voters why they’d elected him to Congress in the first place, casting himself as a steadfast conservative who opposed President Barack Obama. Tracy’s TV ads stressed his “integrity” — a not-so-subtle jab at DesJarlais’ personal troubles — but it wasn’t enough.

McAllister’s scandal broke much closer to the election, but he’s also hoping that voters have moved on. After announcing in April that he wouldn’t seek reelection, the Louisiana Republican reversed course in June. By then, the firestorm that had greeted McAllister after his extramarital kiss was discovered had died down.

McAllister is now pitching himself to voters as a humbled man, showing up to campaign events with his wife by his side while acknowledging that he “made a mistake.”

It’s easy to forget that the scandal-scarred lawmakers aren’t running in a vacuum: Several have opponents with liabilities of their own. In South Florida, Garcia is confronting allegations that his 2010 campaign propped up a phony tea party candidate in hopes of siphoning votes from his Republican opponent. But Garcia’s allies are deflecting the negative attention by raising questions about why his GOP foe, Carlos Curbelo, has refused to disclose the clients of his family’s political consulting firm. Garcia’s staff has denied that he’s the target of the investigation; Curbelo’s campaign has called the Democratic attacks “frivolous” and has said he’s disclosed all the necessary information about the firm.

Grimm, meanwhile, is facing Democrat Domenic Recchia, a former city councilman who brings his own baggage to the race. Recchia’s Brooklyn residency — the district is centered in Staten Island — has become a major topic of conversation. Recchia also has close ties to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is unpopular in much of the district.

Grimm is hamstrung by a depleted staff and dried-up fundraising coffers. But strategists from both parties agree that Grimm’s unapologetic and hard-charging public image is very much in sync with the gritty style of his New York City district.

Grimm is telling voters that elites are trying to bring him down, betting it will resonate with a conservative constituency that’s elected him twice. Democrats, once confident that Grimm was toast, suddenly aren’t so sure; they say it may take millions of dollars in TV advertising to bring down the Republican congressman.

At least two congressmen tinged by scandal couldn’t overcome their troubles. Last week, nine-term Democratic Rep. John Tierney of Massachusetts lost his primary after years of scrutiny into his personal life. In 2010, Tierney’s wife, Patrice, pleaded guilty to helping her brother file false tax returns in connection with an illegal offshore gambling ring and was sentenced to 30 days in prison. John Tierney denied any involvement in his wife’s wrongdoing, but it took a political toll.

Another casualty was former Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.), who quickly resigned after being busted for buying cocaine last year.

While their circumstances differ, Foley said each of the compromised congressmen benefits from a similar dynamic. With the rise of Twitter and a media seemingly obsessed by scandal, he argued, voters no longer knew what to believe about lawmakers — and no longer expected them to be pristine.

“If voters only elected people with perfect values,” he said, “there’d be no one left to serve.”

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story stated that Foley sent sexually explicit electronic messages to House pages. They were former, not current, House pages.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Libby Isenstein @ 09/16/2014 01:55 PM CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story stated that Foley sent sexually explicit electronic messages to House pages. They were former, not current, House pages.