The Lonely Life of a Freshman Democrat

When Zoe Lofgren battled through a tough primary campaign in 1994 to win the Democratic nomination for the 16th Congressional District in San Jose, the future looked exceedingly bright.

The general election would be a cakewalk, and perpetual reelection seemed assured in the Democratic fortress that retiring Rep. Don Edwards had overseen for 32 years.

One tiny thing.

Lofgren didn’t see the Republican takeover of Congress coming.

“It never occurred to me that I would be in the minority party,” Lofgren recalled this week. “It was election night and I was watching the returns and I said, ‘Oh, my goodness, [Rep.] Henry Hyde [R-Ill.] is going to be chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Newt Gingrich [R-Ga.] is going to be speaker. This is going to be different.’

“I had advisors planning out what I would do as a freshman member, and suddenly all of that went out the window.”

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Furious attention is being heaped on the vaunted 73-member Republican freshman class as--pick one--the implacable force behind the GOP’s revolutionary policy goals or a mindless herd of callous government-bashers.

But Lofgren is a member of what is arguably the least powerful and most overlooked of all the subgroups on hierarchy-mad Capitol Hill: freshman Democrats.

The rambunctious GOP group is the second-largest freshman class in recent congressional history. Democrats managed a measly 13 nationwide--one of their smallest hauls ever.

Lofgren, California’s lone freshman Democrat and the only one elected west of the Rockies, jokingly says she caucuses with herself each morning and usually runs into half of her fellow freshmen during the course of a normal legislative day.

“We don’t need to rent a hall to get together,” Lofgren said. “All we need is a corner on the House floor or a booth [in a restaurant]. Sometimes we just have pizza or Chinese takeout in someone’s office.”

So loosey-goosey were the handful of freshman Democrats during their “organizational” meetings that Lofgren suggested that the office of class president be divvied up among all the members who had expressed interest in the post.

That works out to a rotating three-month tour of duty to tend to freshman class responsibilities--a hugely undemanding task that Lofgren logged last year.

Meanwhile, the GOP freshmen are going on a retreat in Baltimore this weekend, amid heavy media scrutiny over every nuance of every utterance.

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As for clout in Washington, Lofgren and her Democratic freshmen colleagues might as well be on the dark side of the moon.

But she is hardly a political naif.

A Stanford graduate with a law degree from Santa Clara University, Lofgren, 48, worked in Edwards’ Washington office, headed a nonprofit low-income-housing organization and practiced law--specializing in immigration.

She spent 14 years on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Strongly pro-abortion rights and the mother of two, Lofgren attracted attention after state election officials ruled that she could not describe herself as “county supervisor/mother” on the primary ballot for Edwards’ seat. They allowed only “board of supervisors.”

She went on to score an upset over San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery and had big plans for her career in Washington.

All that is shelved.

She has compiled a moderate to liberal voting record but has signed on to some of the less-controversial elements of the GOP’s “contract with America,” such as congressional accountability and unfunded mandates legislation.

But she’s not envious of her triumphant GOP freshman brothers and sisters.

“Observing the Republicans over the past year is a lesson in how not to do it,” Lofgren said. “As a group, too many have no idea about what they’re doing. They’re like bulls in a china shop. They are cohesive, but there’s not much room for individuality or insights. That’s not appealing to me.

“If I were a freshman being led by a group of people who were outsiders for so long that they don’t know how to run anything, that would be a very alarming thing.”

After a year in the political desert, there have been some small accomplishments.

“I haven’t introduced a lot of bills because they’re not going anywhere. But when there’s an apparent willingness on the majority side to work with me to improve something in a rational way, then I try to do that.”

Lofgren says she faxed 40 amendments to Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the immigration subcommittee, seeking changes in the major immigration bill wending its way through the House. The positive news is that he accepted some of them, said Lofgren. But she had to vote against the overall bill in the Judiciary Committee, on which she sits.

“To the extent that I was able to take some action and make the bill better, that’s not an opportunity everybody gets to have,” said Lofgren, seeming to convince herself on this point.

She has filed for reelection and thinks the Democrats have a “large” chance of regaining majority status in the House.

But will she hang around if her party fails to make a comeback in November?

“You can’t just bail out. You owe something to the people who helped you get here,” she said. “But I didn’t come here with a 15- or 20-year agenda. I’ll just play it year by year.”