By MARSHA MERCER
It’s a simple strategy for a congressional hopeful: Tie
the weight of what’s wrong with Washington around an incumbent’s neck and watch
him or her sink.
Sometimes the mere threat of being cursed as a
Washington insider prompts veteran members of Congress to fold their tents. Other
times, the strategy confirms the conventional wisdom that voters want to send
the Old Guard, and even the Middle-Aged Guard, packing.
Witness Rep. Eric Cantor’s demise in Virginia’s 7th
congressional district Republican primary. Winner Dave Brat is a college
professor and local tea party favorite unencumbered by legislative experience
or a voting record.
Cantor, first elected in 2000, could have played up his
experience and given people a reason to vote for him again. But that would have
meant acknowledging that Washington does some things right, an anathema to
Republicans these days.
People prize experience in other fields: surgeons who know their way around the body,
hairdressers who can wield scissors, pitchers who throw strikes. Why not
legislators who can get laws passed and, yes, bring home the bacon? It’s only
pork when it goes elsewhere.
We want the federally funded roads and bridges that make
our commutes and our kids’ school bus rides safer. Could I see a show of hands
of those willing to sacrifice the current economic boost of their nearby military
base for the delayed pleasure of debt reduction? I thought so.
It has dawned on some incumbents that they make a fatal
mistake when they fail to defend – and even tout -- their Washington
experience. It’s smart to make a virtue of necessity.
And the strategy may be especially appealing in the
South, which has long believed in electing candidates young and keeping them in
Washington. The practice has paid dividends in many, many federal facilities
with high-paying jobs.
On Tuesday, Sen. Thad Cochran, 76, won the
Republican primary runoff for Senate in Mississippi by focusing on what he and
Washington had done and could yet do for Mississippi.
Cochran went to Congress in 1973, the same year his
opponent, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, was born. McDaniel argued the courtly
Cochran had stayed in Washington too long.
After Cochran narrowly won the primary and faced a
runoff just three weeks later, he started talking about the billions of federal
dollars he has brought his state for highways, bridges, education, research
facilities and to rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. McDaniel, a tea party favorite, would cut the
very programs Mississippi relies on, Cochran warned.
Cochran made his pitch not just to Republicans but
also to independents and Democrats, particularly black voters, in the open
runoff, increasing turnout by 66,000 votes over the primary. Cochran won with 51
percent of the vote to McDaniel’s 49 percent.
In Louisiana,
Sen. Mary Landrieu, a vulnerable Democrat first elected in 1996, isn’t shy
about telling voters about the bacon she’s brought home. She’s proud of getting
an additional $3 billion in federal funds for her state after Hurricane Katrina
and of her role as chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which
she casts as an asset for the state’s 300,000 oil and gas workers.
“The voters over 18 years have established great
clout in Washington,” Landrieu says in a campaign ad. “It doesn’t belong to me;
it belongs to them.” The people of Louisiana “sit at the head of the table with
the gavel,” she says, adding, “The state has clout that it should really think
carefully about before giving up.”
Landrieu told The
Washington Post: “People may be mad at Washington, but I think they look at me
and they say, ‘You know, she’s an exception, she’s actually been able to
produce major pieces of legislation…she doesn’t vote with the Democratic Party
all the time.’”
In Virginia, freshman Democratic Sen. Mark Warner,
who faces Republican Ed Gillespie in November, is also trying to turn his Washington
experience into a plus.
Former Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia told
a forum in Charlottesville June 20 that Virginia needs Mark Warner’s seniority
– especially after the loss of Cantor.
“Seniority helps this state,” said John Warner, who
served in the Senate for three decades. “That should be the factor that people
should consider in the voting box.”
(c) 2014 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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