Devolution, Disgust Lure Congress Members to Statehouse Bids

No freshman senator arrived on Capitol Hill in 1993 more obsessed than Dirk Kempthorne. No matter what the issue, the Idaho Republican had but one mantra: Return power to the states.

That’s precisely what the GOP-controlled Congress has been doing on an array of matters. And now a small but growing number of senators and representatives are seriously eyeing the prospect of returning home to run for governor in 1998, with Kempthorne leading the charge.

“I relish the chance to be at the center of that action,” said Kempthorne, who already has declared his intention to run for the top job in Boise.

He’s not alone. Four members of Congress have made the same decision--and many others, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), are giving it serious consideration.

The lure of becoming chief executive reflects factors other than the historic devolution of authority that is empowering governors as never before to manage high-profile issues like welfare reform and expanded health insurance for children in low-income families.

Capitol Hill’s increasingly nasty partisanship, coupled with its grueling and unpredictable hours, have left many members of Congress disenchanted. (Thus, even as many yearn for more meaningful public service back home, at least four senators and 11 representatives will be calling it quits--period.)

Further fueling the sense of disillusionment is the growing perception that many Americans consider Washington less relevant to their lives. It’s “a marginalization of politics on the national level,” in the words of Thomas Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution.

“The legislative process in Congress is very slow, very cumbersome. You take forever to settle even small issues,” said Rep. Glenn Poshard (D-Ill.), who is leaving the House after a decade to run for governor. “Being governor gives you a lot more opportunities for problem-solving.”

Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.), a former governor, concurred: “You can create parklands, a junior college system, a bike path, improve your state’s industrial climate--really get some things done.”

With the approach of another election year, the continuing transfer of power from Washington to the states is cited repeatedly as the top attraction by those who are tempted by the thought of becoming governor.

“Being governor has become the best political job in the country, bar none,” said Raymond Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors Assn.

Still another powerful incentive is the 2000 census. The sitting governors will get to preside over reapportionment and the redistricting of their states.

Indeed, that was the main reason California Gov. Pete Wilson quit his Senate seat seven years ago to take up residence in Sacramento in time for the 1990 census.

Today, after weathering more than 20 major natural disasters and a devastating economic recession, Wilson--who faces a two-term limit--longs for more time in office.

“I wish, frankly, that I could have another term,” he said. Thanks to devolution, being governor is “an even more attractive proposition” today than in 1990, he noted.

Although only four members of Congress have announced 1998 gubernatorial campaigns so far, more are expected to do so in the coming months, particularly with the flow of power from Washington to the provinces all but certain to continue.

“We’re still early in the game of running,” said Thad Beyle, a University of North Carolina political scientist. “There’s going to be more people coming out to say they are running for governor or mayor of a large city.”

Attesting to the growing lure of the statehouse is the fact that two of the House members who are openly running for governor are forsaking seats on the powerful, tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. It is perhaps the most coveted panel in Congress, and a perch to which campaign donations generously flow.

“It was just a natural decision,” said Rep. Jon Christensen (R-Neb.), one of the two. “I believe so strongly in returning power, money and influence to the states and the communities that I’m willing to do what it takes to make that happen.”

The other Ways and Means Committee member running for governor is Rep. Barbara B. Kennelly (D-Conn.). “My impact will be more decisive at home,” she stated flatly.

“The sense of excitement, that you can really make a difference in people’s lives, is no longer there [in Congress],” said Norman Ornstein, a congressional analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. “There’s no deficit-reduction crusade anymore. But as chief executive, you can entertain the expectation that what you do can make a real difference in people’s lives.”

In the Senate, some are contemplating a similar career change, although several have decided for personal and family reasons to stay put, at least for now.

“I really wanted to run and to be governor,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). “With more and more power going back to the states, governors now have a lot of power. And if you’re an activist and you’ve got some ideas on how to move education, infrastructure, man, you can do a lot as governor--and quickly.”

Like Harkin, Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) was sorely tempted to run for governor--even though before coming to the Senate in 1987, he already had served as governor for eight years.

“There are a lot of new opportunities now--from economic development to welfare to environmental and transportation policy, where proportionately more of the decision-making will be made at the state and local level,” Graham said, adding that he intends to continue working in Congress to devolve power to the states and localities.

The most visible Senate fence-sitter is Feinstein, who remains officially undecided about her 1998 intentions. But she seemed to leave little doubt during a recent interview about which way she is leaning, characterizing life in the Senate almost entirely in negative terms while speaking downright covetously of “the big lures” of being governor.

“You don’t have to put together 51 votes [in the Senate] and 218 votes [in the House], and go through a conference committee, and then get a presidential signature,” Feinstein said. “You can just run the government.”

Meanwhile, she said, “the mean edge of partisanship [in Congress] . . . is a real turnoff.”

One of the few dissenting voices on the benefits of being a governor is offered by Sen. John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV (D-W. Va.), who finds it more rewarding to serve on Capitol Hill.

“The issues are more long term and much larger,” Rockefeller said of his Capitol Hill experiences. “For instance, I spent eight years as governor trying to raise the drinking age from 18 to 21. I finally got it to 19. In Washington, during my first year, Congress raised it to 21. Boom, it was done.”

But Kempthorne has no second thoughts about his career move.

“This is a unique opportunity,” he said. “More and more, it’s the statehouses of the nation where critical solutions are going to be found and where our nation will come to terms with the solutions to education, health care, welfare reform, crime, corrections, infrastructure and natural resources.

“In Washington,” he continued, “key legislation gets sidetracked because of extraneous issues . . . sometimes for four, six years. Well, a lot of problems back home can’t wait that long. I like the idea that you can make things happen very fast.

“The bottom line,” Kempthorne said, “is I never caught Potomac fever.”