Long Term U.S. Senators Rarely Visit Home: Worst offender Harry Reid
Nick Tomboulides, Executive Director of U.S. Term Limits (USTL), has sent out a very revealing chart showing that the longer a U.S. Senator is in office the less time he or she spends in their respective state.
Tomboulides writes, “I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. No, this line doesn’t just apply to Dorothy in the wonderful land of Oz. It’s also true about Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, who acknowledged in February that he doesn’t actually live in the state he was elected to represent. When Roberts visits Kansas, he stays with wealthy donors at their home on a golf course (really). The rest of the time, he’s in D.C.”
Roberts’ scant visits home were recently featured in research by the Washington Examiner’s Luke Rosiak, who analyzed congressional travel records to conclude that the longer a Senator stays in office, the less likely he is to travel home. Roberts, a 34-year Washington politician, was near the bottom with only 32 trips back to Kansas in three years. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was the undisputed champ of ignoring constituents, with only 11 trips home over the same period.
As USTL President Phil Blumel commented in the Examiner piece, “When they get up in age, folks like Thad Cochran, particularly in the Senate, you really don’t ever have to leave as long as you’re breathing because you’re going to get re-elected no matter what.”
“What Phil describes is really an iron rule of politics: A majority of politicians will only serve the public when that same action will also serve themselves. In an atmosphere of non-competitive elections, a public official’s interests only line up with the people’s interest about five percent of the time. That’s roughly the competitive slice of House elections each year,” notes Tomboulides.
Congressman Kevin McCarthy in a 2010 CNN op-ed wrote, “Washington isn’t listening. The disconnect between the American people and the agenda being advanced in Washington is growing by the day. When Americans have spoken up, their voices have fallen on deaf ears. Political expedience and partisan allegiances have repeatedly trumped the priorities of the American people.”
Time for Congressional term limits?
