Representative Hodes: ‘Ultimate Reality Game Show’
Hodes
New Hampshire Union Leader
Greg Hellman
Boston University Washington News Service
2/05/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 – Welcome to Survivor Congress, starring 42 Democratic freshman representatives settling in a new territory—Washington, D.C. Leading the tribe is Rep, Paul Hodes (D-N.H.), Democratic Freshman Class president and New Hampshire’s rising congressional star.
Making the move from his law offices at Shaheen & Gordon just off Main Street in Concord to his congressional office on Capitol Hill, however, proved anything but smooth sailing.
“I have described this like an ultimate reality game show,” Hodes said.
“You get elected and you’ve got 60 days to find a place and set your office up,” he said, comparing it to the startup of a $1 million business.
Hodes wasted no time in making the transition, putting together a staff—led by Dana Houle, his campaign manager and an experienced Michigan political strategist—from campaign workers and outsiders alike after helping to review more than 3,000 resumes.
“The first few days are like being in a lifeboat,” Hodes said. “You have to make this transition and it’s complex, challenging and very exciting and luckily I started with a core of good people.”
While the move forced Hodes to live in a different city from his wife, Peggo, the vocal chair at Concord Community Music School, and son Max, a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, it brought him closer to his daughter Arianna, who studies at American University in Washington. He is living in a Capitol Hill apartment a five-minute walk from his office in the Cannon House Office Building.
“I just thought this would be an excellent chance for a youngster like me,” Hodes, 55, said of joining Congress. “I love my job, I mean, I really just love this job.”
Crammed inside his office, which has a view of the dome of the Capitol, his staff mans the desks, phones and computers even as they play with the office’s final arrangement and manage the congressman’s schedule, legislative research, visitors and the press.
“It’s fast and furious,” scheduler Luke Watson said. “There’s lots of work and long hours, but that’s to be expected. The support staff at the House is very good [at helping with the move-in].”
Watson scans his computer, pulling up a color-coded scheduler to separately keep track of Hodes’ commitments in both Washington and New Hampshire. He budgets every minute of the congressman’s day while organizing the events under categories such as speaking, political and dinner.
“That’s what it looks like if everything worked perfectly,” Watson said. “Ultimately, he decides which events he’s attending.”
Even as desks and chairs trickled into his own office, Hodes began making trips to the offices of his first-term colleagues, organizing policy discussions and encouraging intra-party cooperation. They responded by electing him to a six-month term as House Democratic Freshman Class president.
Under Hodes’ guidance, they will hold meetings and each be given the opportunity to speak at least once each week on the House floor to talk about issues concerning them, a reform to the rules of the last Congress.
“We may be able to reach consensus on issues and we may not,” he said. “There’s tremendous political diversity within the party. This is going to help give us some identity.”
Sometimes, just finding his way through the tunnels underneath Capitol Hill, however, can prove as daunting of a challenge as building a party message.
“What they really need is a fleet of Segways to take us from the elevator,” Hodes said. “One thing I really need is a government issued GPS. That would be the best advance they could make.”
While Hodes occasionally struggles to find his way through the Capitol Hill tunnels, he encountered no problems in finding his way onto the House Financial Services Committee as well as the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He said he plans to help restore congressional oversight and shift some power back to the legislative branch.
“I ran for Congress in part because it became clear to me that Congress was not performing its oversight functions,” he said. “We need to do what the people sent us here to do and perform the kinds of investigations to find fraud, abuse and waste.”
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