Freshmen face tough future

The House Republican freshmen — raucous, unpredictable, unmanageable and hell-bent on changing Washington — are about to face their biggest test: becoming sophomores.

Now they have a trail of votes, have been privy to backroom Washington compromises and have to run on their actual records rather than on the anti-Washington stance that swept them into office in 2010.


POLITICO sat down for photo shoots and interviews recently with five of the highest-profile freshmen and discussed how they’ve approached their jobs and how they plan to run for reelection. Virtually all of them faced hurdles in the first 15 months in office — and they all have election challenges ahead.

Inside, a look at what they had to say.

MICHAEL GRIMM

Rep. Michael Grimm of New York was seen by many as a rising star in the Republican Party when the former FBI agent from Staten Island showed up in the Capitol in January 2011.

But over the past few months, he’s been under siege.

Reports of Grimm’s less-than-savory business ties and allegations that he was involved in a fundraising scandal have followed him around for months now, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has its sights squarely set on reclaiming his seat.

Grimm has called the allegations against him “deeply insulting” and has denied them. Despite the bad news consistently being printed about him, Grimm has focused on his constituent work, and it seems to be paying off a little. He has racked up a few key endorsements for reelection, including one from the New York State Independence Party.

“If I can’t do the job, then I shouldn’t be here, and I don’t want to be here,” he said.

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Grimm has found parts of his first term in office “frustrating,” due, in part, to some of the big partisan fights that have dominated this Congress.

“There have been some great times where you really feel like you are part of a solution and then some very frustrating times where the bureaucracy is just so difficult to overcome that you sometimes wonder if you are going backward or forward,” he said. “There’s way too much politics in Washington. People are more worried about their reelection than this country.”

A former FBI agent and Marine, Grimm credits the skills he learned in those positions with his ability to take on Washington and be a successful politician, and he says it gives him motivation to keep going.

“Having served overseas, having served in combat, I’ve seen some of the darkest places in the world, and I’ve seen the look in people’s eyes when there is no humanity, when there is no hope, when there is no liberty. … What we have is fragile; our liberty, our freedom is taken for granted everyday.”

RENEE ELLMERS

Rep. Renee Ellmers came to Congress after beating out seven-term Democratic incumbent Bob Etheridge in an extremely close race in North Carolina. The House leadership quickly adopted her as one of their favorite freshmen, making her chairwoman of the Small Business Committee’s Healthcare and Technology Subcommittee, while placing her on the high-profile House and Senate payroll tax conference committee.

“I’m one to speak my mind, and over time, I have been able to establish that,” she said. “I don’t speak on every issue; not every issue is my issue. I’m not the one to get up every week at conference and speak at the microphone, because when I do, I want people to listen to what I’m saying. … I wish more of [the] members would follow that.”

But one issue she has no problem speaking out on is health care. The issue is near and dear to her heart as Ellmers is a former nurse, and her husband is a surgeon. Like many of her freshman colleagues, she came into office running on anti-“Obamacare” sentiment and still lists repeal of the health care law has her top priority.

“I’m a member of the [Republican] Doctors Caucus, and we’re very active in putting together different pieces to put into place … a free-market patient-centered program,” she said. “We just assume the Supreme Court will strike the law down, so from the legislative side we have to be ready.”

She says she’s proud of the work the House has done to repeal and defund chunks of the law, and she believes House freshmen have been able to “change the dialogue” in Washington.

“We’re talking about cuts, cuts, cuts all the time and spending and size of government where that wasn’t the discussion before,” she said. “Before, the discussion was earmarks and deals, and we don’t have that anymore. Everything we vote on now is on policy. I feel very good about that.”

Ellmers will face off against three Republican challengers in the North Carolina primary in May, and two Democrats are facing off for her seat, as well.

NAN HAYWORTH

New York’s Rep. Nan Hayworth said her run for Congress seemed “almost like a calling” after working for years as an ophthalmologist.

“In December of ’08, I was quite distressed,” she said. “I had hoped President [Barack] Obama would have taken his unprecedented political capital to implement some long-term reforms that we desperately need, but I feared that wouldn’t be the case.”

After listening to her “frequent commentary” on politics, Hayworth said her husband suggested she run for Congress in 2010.

“Only after the election did he say, ‘You know, I was just kidding,’” she said. “So be careful what you wish for.”

Although Hayworth has some more progressive views on climate change and says she supports abortion rights, New York tea party Republicans embraced her.

“I appreciate the support I got from tea party groups because we share a reverence for the Constitution and what it represents,” she said.

One of Hayworth’s main opponents, Democrat Rich Becker, has argued to The New York Observer that Hayworth is trying to have it both ways by calling herself a “moderate,” but the votes she’s taken in the House have been “extreme,” especially on Medicare. The DCCC sees Hayworth’s district as one they could take back.

Hayworth says she doesn’t make apologies for being a “staunch fiscal conservative” and notes that while she is “not as far to the right” as many of her colleagues, she said the freshmen received a mandate in the 2010 election to change Washington, and it’s something she takes seriously. She said she’s tried to find a balance between doing what’s right for the country and doing what’s right for folks back home.

“It’s a mandate you can never take for granted,” she said. “We have to represent our local concerns at the federal level … but at the same time, you have to make sure folks back home in the district realize that doing something for the whole country will benefit us as well.”

ALLEN WEST

For a guy who really doesn’t like Washington, Rep. Allen West has really enjoyed his first term in Congress.

“Congress has been great. Think about the fact that five years ago, I was in the deserts of Kandahar, and look where I am now,” he said. “It’s why I feel so privileged and honored to be here having served 22 years in uniform, protecting institutions just like this, and now I get to serve inside one of them.”

But since coming to town, West has been openly disdainful of a lot of what happens in Washington and a lot of his colleagues on the Hill. And he’s become one of the most controversial members of the House, with incendiary rhetoric that makes him a target.

“I think there are people very comfortable with lying here, and I think a little bit of the media helps to perpetuate that. There is a disconnect with reality once you cross the Potomac,” he said.

Last summer, West wrote an email to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) that was leaked to the press, and in it, he called her “vile, unprofessional and despicable”; “a coward”; “characterless”; and “not a lady” because she had targeted him during a floor speech over Republican Medicare proposals.

West describes himself as a straight-talker who says he’ll “challenge anybody in the arena of ideas,” and he isn’t fazed by any Washington mudslinging.

“I tell my constituents the truth. I’m a very transparent guy. Just as when I was commander, I worked for those soldiers, and I work for my constituents so they know everything I’m doing and they know everything about me.”

Florida Democrat Patrick Murphy is challenging West in the 2012 election with the support of Wasserman Schultz and DCCC Chairman Steve Israel. Murphy has posted a list of votes and quotes that his campaign has dubbed “The Extreme Worst of Allen West,” targeting, among other things, West’s votes on Medicare and remarks he’s made about gay rights.

“Intellectually, I’m not being challenged,” West said of the race. “There is someone that is running, but I’m not being challenged.”

DAVID SCHWEIKERT

Unlike quite a few of his freshman colleagues, Arizona Rep. David Schweikert has had a long career in politics, having served in Arizona’s state Legislature from 1991 to 1995.

“Congress is my legislature on steroids,” he said. “The 112th Congress has been a wild ride. A lot of new members are learning what’s possible and what’s not possible. I’m actually a little heartbroken we haven’t been able to get more done.”

But Schweikert won’t let his own chamber take the blame for gridlock, putting it all on the Democrat-controlled Senate.

“This United States Senate has been the absolute barrier, the absolute impediment to progress,” Schweikert said. “Coming from the legislative process at the state level, if we had a disagreement with the Senate, a disagreement ideologically, you fixed it by doing two versions of the same concept, and you’d negotiate it. This Senate’s been incapable of even getting to the conference committees.”

He’s hoping he’ll have the opportunity to stick around and see some progress: Schweikert will be running against fellow freshman Rep. Ben Quayle to try to hold onto his seat in the Arizona’s 6th Congressional District.

It’s sure to be a closely watched race as Quayle has become a favorite freshman of House leadership and Schweikert is seen as a “tea party favorite and cable TV fixture who’s unafraid to throw bombs and rattle his party’s brass,” as POLITICO’s Jake Sherman put it in a February story on the race.

Schweikert realizes he may not be the teacher’s pet when it comes to his own leadership.

“There’s no question that there are those that are favorite children and those that aren’t. And I’ve actually been a little surprised about that, how blatant it is. In some members getting help in ways that almost border on inappropriate,” Schweikert said in a not-so-veiled swipe at Republican leaders.

On his reputation as a rabble-rouser, Schweikert admitted he can be “annoying” to the party establishment if he sees something he doesn’t like.

“If I believe we are going in the wrong direction, I’m going to do everything I can to try and correct the course of the ship.”