Reps. Frank Guinta, Dan Benishek and Bill Johnson, left to right, take similar approaches. | AP Photos GOP freshmen run from incumbency

The House Republican freshmen ran for Congress as the ultimate outsiders determined to clean up Washington. But they’ve been here two years now; things are still a mess; and now, they want voters to send them back for another two years.

What to do?


The answer, based on their early campaigning: Don’t acknowledge you’re an incumbent. But if you have to, do it with your nose plugged.

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As they kick off tough reelection battles, the GOP newbies are taking pains to distance themselves from a Capitol that remains toxic, casting themselves as the same insurgent forces that swept to power in 2010. Far from embracing the Congress that they promised to change, the freshmen are taking an ice pick to it.

Case in point: Ohio Rep. Bill Johnson.

In one of his first TV ads, Johnson says that he spent 26 years in the Air Force yet never mentions he’s one of the “politicians in Washington” he criticizes in the spot. He goes on to refer to his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Charlie Wilson, whom Johnson unseated in 2010, as “Congressman Charlie Wilson.” And the ad features an image of a smiling Wilson standing next to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the Capitol.

Judging from the commercial, one would never know that Wilson ever left the building.

“He’d like people to believe that I’m the incumbent and he’s the challenger,” Wilson said in an interview.

GOP Rep. Frank Guinta of New Hampshire takes a similar approach in his rematch with his ousted 2010 foe, former Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter.

“Hi. This is Frank Guinta, candidate for Congress, running against Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter,” the congressman says in a robocall call to voters. “I’m running to end the broken culture of Washington.”

The message is virtually identical to the one Guinta delivered in 2010 as a former mayor and state legislator hoping to make it to Washington.

Guinta looked into the camera for his first TV ad of that campaign and said: “You have every reason to be fed up with Washington. I know I am.”

Republican officials and strategists tasked with preserving the House GOP majority say the anti-Washington tack is designed to address a central conundrum for the historic 87-member freshman class as it faces its first reelection: how to convince voters it deserves a second shot.

“In reality, they came here because they were upset with Washington and so were their constituents, and they wanted to change Washington,” said Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, deputy chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “They’re still in the fight, and they want to change what’s happening here, and it’s hard. Big change happens over a couple of cycles, not one.”

Walden said Republicans would work to remind voters that while Republicans held the House, Democrats were still to blame for much of what ills Washington. The opposing party, he pointed out, still controls the Senate and White House.

But some of the first-termers are going to great lengths to distance themselves from their current employer. One strategy: talk about past jobs.

GOP Rep. Dan Benishek of Michigan dons his old surgical gear and a stethoscope in a new TV ad, noting that “people don’t trust politicians” without mentioning he is one.

“I never planned to run for office. I’m a doctor,” the physician says in the 30-second spot. “The career politicians won’t fix Washington, but together we can.”

Other GOP freshmen own up to being members of Congress, but they’re also quick to tweak the institution.

“I ran for the United States Congress for one reason: to continue the service to the country I love,” GOP Rep. Allen West of Florida, a tea party lightning rod, says in a one-minute TV ad before adding: “Washington is broken. But we will fix it.”

GOP Rep. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin has settled on another way to paint himself as an outsider: run as a nonpartisan voice of reason.

“I believe in attacking problems and not people,” Ribble says in a TV ad that doesn’t mention he’s a Republican. “And I believe in solutions and not sound bites.”

In an interview, Ribble said the idea of the spot was to communicate that two years into his tenure, he still isn’t satisfied with Congress.

“My cynicism hasn’t really been improved since I got here. I’m as cynical, maybe more cynical, as when I came,” Ribble said. “I do think the American people are disappointed in Washington, and I think it’s fair to say, ‘I’m disappointed, too, but here are the things I’m working on.’”

Democrats argue the GOP pitches amount to deception and say they’re determined not to let the incumbents get away with it. In recent months, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has hammered away at the freshmen for supporting congressional privileges like a taxpayer-funded gym and beauty salon.

“Facing record low public opinion, it’s no surprise that these vulnerable Republicans don’t admit that they are part of this Republican Congress,” DCCC Chairman Steve Israel wrote in an email. “Voters know if you break it, you own it, and tea party House Republicans came to Washington saying they would solve problems, but now, they are the problem.”

Democratic candidate Jamie Wall, a business consultant who is challenging Ribble, said he planned to target the congressman as a consummate insider who has done little but march in lockstep with party leaders like House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

“If you look at the ad, you’d think he’s never been to Washington before. But he has — and he’s been part of the problem,” Wall said. “What you see is that he’s running away from his record.”

Republican strategists pointed out that the ads are hitting the airwaves at an unusually early point in the election year — well before Labor Day, when general election-themed spots typically begin airing.

It’s an attempt by the freshmen to inoculate themselves from the oncoming Democratic barrage by defining themselves as outsiders before Democrats paint them as insiders.

“You build a little shield around yourself. You define yourself, and if you’re a new member, you’re building an understanding with your voters about who you are,” Walden said. “This is a really important time to get out there and say why you’re running and what your views are.”

Brad Todd, a veteran media consultant and top adviser to the National Republican Congressional Committee, said it wasn’t unexpected to see so many of the freshmen embracing a similar message. Many, he said, recognize they were each elected as part of the same backlash against the ambitious national Democratic agenda President Barack Obama pursued during his first two years in office.

Voter anger at Washington may have subsided some since then but not much. And now, the freshmen are on the inside looking out.

“It’s very important for freshman to remind their constituents that they have not forgotten the mission they were sent on. That’s the job of every freshman who won in a wave election,” Todd said. “Wave elections produce people who were elected on a mandate, and if voters suspect they are not honoring that mandate, then you will be fired.”