Presidential Candidates Torn Between Campaigns, Congressional Duties
WASHINGTON – New Hampshire residents are used to seeing a lot of presidential candidates around this time every four years. But what happens in the Capitol when six of the nine candidates -10 if retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark enters the race-are members of Congress?
The 2004 presidential election is nearly in full swing – New Hampshire’s primary is Jan. 27 — and critics are quick to point out the faults of the Democratic candidates challenging President Bush. And with so many of those candidates holding congressional seats, their absences during important votes have placed their campaigns under much scrutiny.
“It’s obviously complicated matters for Democrats in the House, and it’s even more complicated for Democrats in the Senate because you’ve got four candidates,” said Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank here. “And four candidates really, when you’ve only got 49 members, can make a difference.”
Balancing campaign appearances with congressional schedules is a complicated undertaking for most of this year’s Democratic candidates. “It’s not the first time this happened,” Ornstein said. “Of course, it happened when Bob Dole was running for president as [Senate] majority leader [in 1996]. You’ve got tremendous cross-pressures. When you’re campaigning for president, you’ve pretty much got to be campaigning night and day.”
Supporters say that the candidates must be on the road to reach out to voters, explain their positions and demonstrate their concern for favored issues.
“You can’t run for president and be in Washington every day for six months,” said Pamela Walsh, spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. “They’re trying very hard to balance those responsibilities. They’re running because they believe they can make a difference and make it better, and that’s why they ran to serve in Congress. And so they’re continuing to do that job, while working to make sure we have a president who is going to be doing that job.”
But detractors say the candidates are failing to act on their words when they repeatedly miss votes and lack a physical presence in Congress.
“The bottom line is these candidates are crisscrossing the country criticizing President Bush on every issue from the budget to tax relief to national security issues to prescription drugs,” said Julie Teer, communications and political director of the New Hampshire Republican Party. “And they need to start putting their money where their mouth is. And when these issues are on the floor of the Senate and the floor of the House for votes, oftentimes, they can’t find the time or don’t think that it actually is important enough to actually show up, do their jobs that they’re elected to do right now and vote on them.”
According to a Sept. 5 Republican National Committee tally, Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) missed the most votes — 90 percent — since he began his campaign. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is second, having missed votes 57 percent of the time. Other Democratic Congress members running for president are Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina, Bob Graham of Florida and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.
“There’s no question that votes are taking place that are close, and it’s almost inevitable that people who are simultaneously members and candidates end up being pulled in two directions,” Ornstein said.
It is when those votes are potentially close that the input of Democratic candidates is vital. Last week, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) successfully scheduled the vote for his overtime pay amendment so the Democratic candidates could be on hand. The Senate passed the amendment, which blocked any action to change current overtime laws, by a vote of 54-45.
However, according to Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), planning Senate votes around the four Democratic candidates has not been a common occurrence. That’s because the Republicans control the Senate – and its schedule.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Sununu said, “has made it clear that we have work that needs to get done. We need to continue to work to stay on schedule, and I don’t think that there has been or will be a great deal of accommodation based on their schedules.”
Scheduling conflicts aside, Dennis W. Johnson, associate dean of the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University, said what the Democratic candidates are doing in their campaigns should be of no interest to members of Congress, who have more vital issues to concentrate on.
“The economy and the war and the war effort are far more important as global issues for Congress and the way Congress behaves than what the presidential candidates themselves are saying,” he said.
Yet Ornstein says the opposite is true. The Democratic presidential candidates’ voices in Congress are not silent, especially when they speak out against Bush on such controversial issues as Iraq and the economy, through their campaigns.
“As the Democratic presidential candidates criticize Bush on Iraq, it gives more leverage to Democrats in Congress who are asking for hearings or asking questions at hearings or raising these issues as well,” he said.
Sununu added that because of the candidates’ opposition to Bush in their campaigns, the party lines are sharper in the Senate.
“They’re out there campaigning and to whatever extent demagoguing issues or criticizing the president, so naturally that creates a more partisan atmosphere and highlights some of the debates we’re having here in Congress,” Sununu said.
The question still remains: when New Hampshire residents go to the polls, will they care if the Democratic candidates missed votes in Congress?
To the GOP’s Teer, the voters will see it as an issue of sincerity. “I think that voters are asking and are going to continue to ask, ‘Why would we put somebody in the highest office in the land who can’t make a difference in their current job? she said. Why would you promote that kind of lack of leadership and lack of sincerity about the issues they’re campaigning on?’ ”
And on the other side, Ornstein said he does not see the lack of votes affecting the candidates’ success at the polls because the public understands that running for president and holding a seat in Congress are two full-time jobs.
Instead, the candidates’ reputations will matter most to the voters, Walsh said.
“I think what they’ve accomplished has earned them respect from a lot of people,” she said.
