Deserting the House

GOP class of 2010 is deserting the House

By Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan

They came to Washington from places like Frog Jump, Tennessee; Sherwood, Wisconsin; and Kinderhook, New York, looking to turn Congress on its head.

The House Republican class of 2010 — 63 farmers, small-business owners and state legislators — made John Boehner speaker, drove Democrats into the political wilderness and drastically changed the trajectory of Barack Obama’s presidency.

But now, much of that class is leaving the House behind.

In the past few months, 12 of the 45 remaining members of that historic class have announced they’ll forgo election in November, marking a substantial exodus of the lawmakers that gave the GOP the majority. When the next Congress is sworn in in January 2017, the class will be just half the size it was when it was sworn in in 2011.

Thanks to redistricting, there is little likelihood Democrats can win back the House, even if Donald Trump or Ted Cruz is the Republican presidential nominee.

However, the rapid turnover of such relatively junior members is important, and is telling on several fronts. Serving in Congress simply isn’t as much fun as it used to be. Even as this Republican majority turns the corner toward greater productivity, it still faces intraparty battles and has had to contend with a president of a different party. The exodus of junior members also gives more influence to the leadership. Experience matters on Capitol Hill, and the more new members there are, the more powerful the leadership becomes. And then there’s fundraising. The constant dollar dash is tiresome for members. They work all day and raise money all night.

Two dozen departures seems drastic, but Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is not surprised.

“They came here on a mission, not to make a career. They came here to make a difference,” Walden said in an interview on Monday. “In nearly every case, they feel they have, and they’re ready to go return to their [previous] lives, go back and do something else.” Walden also noted that “40 percent of the class had never held office” before being elected to Congress.

Of course, they’re all leaving for different reasons. Reps. Joe Heck of Nevada, and Marlin Stutzman and Todd Young of Indiana are all running for Senate. Should they win, they’ll join Cory Gardner of Colorado and James Lankford of Oklahoma, also members of the 2010 class who’ve escaped the House for the Senate.

But the others who are leaving are saying it plainly: They simply don’t want to be in Washington anymore. The most recent retirement came Monday, when Tennessee Rep. Stephen Fincher, the farmer from Frog Jump, said he wouldn’t run again in November. He was nearly certain to win — in 2014, he won with more than 70 percent of the vote. He said in a statement he “never intended to become a career politician.”

Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.), a roofer from Green Bay, announced that he was retiring on Saturday, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. He briefly toyed with a run for governor, but said he would not run against the incumbent, Gov. Scott Walker. Ribble said with a new president coming in, he feels like he’s achieved what he came to D.C. to do.

“We all came in with some stated objectives, frankly,” Ribble said Monday evening in an interview. “One of those was to capture the majority. We were the class that turned it over … And to restrain discretionary federal spending. And we’ve been able to do that.”

He did add that his phone has been ringing off the hook since announcing his retirement. As it turns out, there are lots of Wisconsin-based businesses looking for his services.

For some, an easy transition could be in store. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) is retiring, but his brother Brian is now running to replace him.

Others are sounding a familiar trope: The gridlock is simply too paralyzing. Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) said he was unhappy with the bitter partisanship that has taken hold in Congress, complaining that it had prevented members from being able to work across the aisle to find solutions to serious policy problems.

“Can I look back and say we collectively accomplished something of substance, and was it time to come home?” Rigell said in an interview with The Virginian-Pilot. “We have separated ourselves into groups that truly don’t reflect where the American people are.”

“I don’t know if there is a trend per se,” said Rep. Rich Nugent (R-Fla.), who announced in November that he was leaving Capitol Hill at the end of this term. “For me, it’s just personal. I basically term limited myself when I got into it … I truly believe some members are here too long.”

Nugent, a sheriff in Hernando County before he was elected to the House, noted that serving in Congress can be tough on lawmakers’ personal lives, despite the public perception that Congress is never working.

“I missed one of my grandkid’s first birthday parties,” the 64-year-old Nugent said in an interview Monday. “Got to go to one, didn’t get to go to the other one within a month’s time just because the way the [House] schedule worked out. I’ve been in public service between law enforcement and [Congress] for 40 years. It’s time. Your priority has to be family first.”