Racing The Clock: A Day in the Lives of Smith and Sununu
WASHINGTON – Breakfast at the White House, appointments with constituents, racing from committee meetings to hearings, votes, floor debates· serving in Congress is a balancing act, and now two New Hampshire lawmakers have one more thing to juggle – a primary contest for a Senate seat.
Although Rep. John E. Sununu, R-NH, and Sen. Bob Smith, R-NH, are heading for a showdown next year over Smith’s Senate seat, their Washington schedules offer little hint of the approaching primary.
What does emerge from their day-to-day dealings is a distinct contrast in style between the two Granite State lawmakers. Three-term Rep. Sununu, 37, is the studious and quiet, conservative “rising star,” and Smith, 60, the “outgoing” and slightly maverick 17-year veteran of Washington politics.
Smith, as the Senate incumbent, says he’ll win support by continuing to serve New Hampshire as he has for years. “My constituents are my boss,” Smith says. “Therefore do a good job and they’ll hire you again.”
The one time high school history teacher describes himself as a “blue collar guy’ who “fights for the little guy.” He fancies himself a real life Jimmy Stewart in his role in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” which was Senator Smith’s first ever campaign slogan. An autographed copy of the movie poster hangs in Smith’s office.
“I think people know who I am,” Smith says. “They know what I stand for.” But the man once known as a stalwart conservative confounded many colleagues with his sudden interest in environmentalism, and his break from the Republican party last year after a brief run for President.
However, the wall in the reception area of Smith’s Senate office is covered to the ceiling with framed, signed photos of GOP political luminaries: Smith with President George Bush, President Ronald Reagan, and Bob Dole and Smith’s wife Mary Jo smiling next to first lady Barbara Bush.
Sununu has his share of high-level political contacts as well. It could be said that politics is in his blood. His father, John Sununu, was governor of New Hampshire, and chief of staff to President George Bush.
But Sununu says it is his MIT engineering degree and Harvard business school background that sets him apart from his House colleagues, and helps him serve his small business driven state. The books and collectibles stacked on tables in his office are a tribute to the congressman’s background: “A Budget For America,” “A Taxpayers Guide to Federal Spending.” And a little NASA model spaceship.
Fellow New Hampshire Republican Rep. Charlie Bass says Sununu is “intelligent, awfully academic. It’s part of his personality.”
Smith’s forte, on the other hand, is his flair for getting along with people, according to Bass. He describes Smith as “very easygoing” and “good to work with because he is very easy to communicate with”. Smith’s “the kind of guy everybody likes.”
Sununu rides into work from his suburban apartment in Crystal City on the Metro, D.C.’s public subway system. On a recent morning he was called to the White House for a breakfast meeting but his office staff is already hard at work. Three staffers sit in the foyer typing diligently.
“We start around 8:30, could be earlier depending on what’s going on” his press secretary Barbara Riley says. The main staff office room is jammed with desks, congressional records, printers and copy machines. Riley’s first order of business every morning is to compile news clippings her boss should see.
“He’s a very well prepared congressman,” says Bass, adding that the best word to describe Sununu is “thorough.”
Sununu says a big challenge is to “simply move effectively from issue to issue, to remain focused, and to make sure you have the most current information possible.”
Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass, who entered Congress at the same time as Sununu, agrees with Bass that Sununu is a hard worker. The liberal Democrat added that even though Sununu is a conservative Republican, he’s someone Delahunt can trust.
“He has an ability to see the humorous side of what we do, which is important.” Delahunt adds. “He has his own brand of humor. He’s dry.”
Sununu can be notably sarcastic. “Nice Sambas,” he says, with a mock stern look at a young photojournalist wearing sneakers to his office. “You heading to soccer practice after this?”
But Delahunt says he has “no doubt” Sununu would make a promising Senator. Sununu has garnered quite a bit of support including from some of Smith’s Senate colleagues. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, and Sen. Kit Bond, R-MO, have endorsed Sununu and recently held a fundraiser for him. But the other members of the New Hampshire delegation, Bass and Sen. Judd Gregg, are so far staying neutral.
Smith drives in to the Capitol in the morning, usually leaving his Virginia home at 6:30 to beat the traffic. “Sitting in traffic is unproductive,” Smith says. He’d rather use his morning hours to respond to constituents and to those who have expressed praise for him in letters to the editor.
“I probably write two or three hundred handwritten notes a week,” Smith says. On this particular Thursday morning he pens between 30 and 40 before his formal day begins.
“Everyone in the office helps me plan my schedule,” Smith says. “When you come in, you know some things are going to happen. You don’t know other things. I didn’t even know we were going to offer the amendment today.”
Smith has spent most of the morning pushing an amendment on the Senate floor, waving his arms and shaking a finger at his colleagues, as he urged them to support his amendment allowing courts to more easily deport aliens suspected of terrorist activities.
He returns to his office around noon to meet with staff members and get briefed about what’s up for that afternoon. There’s another vote scheduled, and Smith says the preliminary staff briefings are important to “make sure there are no surprises.”
Smith says that it’s difficult not to schedule every five minutes of his life. “You have to have time to go to the bathroom, or take a look at the news of the day,” he laughs.
“It’s tough to deal with a lot of the personal stuff. I’ve been putting off for two months getting a cap on my tooth· I can’t get time to go to the dentist.”
“When I leave the Senate,” Smith says, “I’m not going to have a schedule. I can tell you that!”
Smith at least has a senior senator’s advantage of having a secret hideaway office in the Capitol building. Smith said another getaway is the Senate reading room, where no one else but a student page with a message can enter.
But there is very little time in Smith’s day to slip away. In between meetings and votes there are always constituents to greet, like a group of high school students from New Hampshire who are in Washington to participate in the National Youth and Leader Conference.
Smith’s past as a teacher is obvious. “So, what’s on your minds,” he asks gently. Even when a bell goes off calling him to vote, Smith doesn’t rush their questions about war in Afghanistan.
Sununu has a more businesslike style. “Sununu is, number one, very smart. Number two, a good example of a workaholic. And three, has the level of motivation to cut through the maze of the legislative process and understand what’s going on,” says Rep. Van Hilleary, R-Tenn, who works with Sununu on the Budget Committee.
“It’s no accident that he is vice chairman of the budget committee,” says Hilleary, adding that if Sununu goes on to become Senator, he would be missed in the House.
“I think he’s a rising star,” Hilleary concludes. “He’s what we call in the South, the cream rising to the top.”
Next for Sununu is a working lunch with Scott Douglas, deputy chief of staff and White House Liaison for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In between bites, they discuss funding for relief efforts at the World Trade Center.
After lunch it’s a few interviews with local New Hampshire television stations. After the ritual small talk with the cameraman about last night’s Yankee game, and quickie interviews for Channel 9 and WNDS, Sununu is back in his office to finish up some telephone calls to radio stations.
He can’t sit still for long. Waiting for the radio stations to get ready, Sununu organizes and then reorganizes his wallet, and straightens the ink blotter and papers already in right angles on his desk.
Although his responses are prepared, Sununu answers without referring to any written notes, all the while pacing, gesturing and glancing into a mirror, as if delivering a speech to himself. Riley sits nearby, carefully recording his responses to keep everything in check.
Smith also has late afternoon press calls to make. Sitting in his dark, rolling chair, Smith puts the call on speakerphone. The reporters don’t understand his amendment. Wouldn’t deporting aliens simply suspected of terrorist activity violate their rights to due process?
“No!” Smith’s tone grows frustrated, as he reiterates points from his press release. He glances at his press secretary Eryn Witcher. She nods reassuringly as he rereads and explains what his amendment does until the reporters seem satisfied.
Next for Smith is a meeting of the Environment and Public Works Committee which he used to chair until the Democrats took back control of the Senate last spring. On the way from his office he greets people with a smile, wave, sometimes a pat on the back.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is on the EPW committee with Smith, pulls the senator aside after the meeting. The liberal Democrat has nothing but praise for Smith this afternoon. “Thank you so much,” she nods vehemently. She says she couldn’t have passed her amendment without him.
Smith says he likes to think of himself as a fighter. This is how he passes amendments. This is how he will defend his Senate seat. “If you don’t fight for something and you don’t earn it, then it’s not worth it. That’s just the way I am.”
But nothing, Smith says, is worth more than his family. “All the criticism in the world doesn’t matter,” as long as he’s got their approval, he says.
Smith is heading home this Thursday evening to be with his wife Mary Jo in New Hampshire. “Right now we have a kind of split existence,” Smith says. She and the family used to live in Virginia with him before their three children grew up. But now she’s living in New Hampshire, “working all day long on behalf of the campaign.”
Sununu and his family also live apart during the week. Sununu flies home to see his wife Kitty and three young children most weekends. He says his young family has no thoughts of moving to Washington if he becomes Senator.
“Travel is part of the job,” Sununu says. “You learn to take advantage of the more quiet times of the year. Thanksgiving. Christmas.”
Despite their differences in style, the work Smith and Sununu are doing is quite similar, as are their political philosophies. But for the next year they will both attempt to convince the voters of New Hampshire that they are the best man to take on Governor Jeanne Shaheen in the November election.
