House Titan Gets a Rude Awakening

He is a Goliath of Congress: John D. Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, has spent 47 years in the House of Representatives, amassing vast power and using it to grill and intimidate corporate chieftains, Hollywood moguls and other powerful interests that testify at hearings before him.

But in a closely watched primary today, Dingell--the longest-serving member of the House--could find himself toppled by an unlikely David: Lynn N. Rivers, a fellow Democratic member of Congress 31 years younger, more than a foot shorter, with a legislative record that looks like a phone message, compared with Dingell’s telephone book.

Rivers is proving a surprisingly tough foe for Dingell in the fight for the Democratic nomination to represent a newly drawn House district that stretches from the academic salons of Ann Arbor to the union halls of Dearborn.

They stare at each other across a broad Democratic fault line. Dingell comes from the party’s old school, with strong ties to the labor movement and a solid base in the traditional political establishment; Rivers, first elected in 1994, is a newer breed of Democrat who draws strength from issue-oriented voters, such as the abortion rights, environmental and gun control groups that have sprung up as alternative political power centers in the last generation.

This family feud has become a magnet for national celebrities from Tipper Gore to Gloria Steinem, and campaign contributions have poured in from around the country. A “who’s who” of special interests has taken sides because national interests are at stake. Dingell’s defeat would be a big blow to the United Auto Workers and their employers and to the National Rifle Assn., whose causes he has championed in Congress. Rivers’ defeat would be a setback for feminist groups that have struggled to increase the number of women in Congress--including Emily’s List, a women’s political organization that has poured more than $350,000 into Rivers’ race.

The outcome of today’s primary will surely determine who represents that Michigan district, an area so heavily Democratic that no Republican is given much of a chance to win against whichever Democrat triumphs. There are also three candidates seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. The front-runner is Jennifer Granholm, whose coattails could help Rivers by increasing turnout among women, according to Ed Sarpolus, a pollster from Lansing, Mich.

“Dingell has to get men to the polls,” Sarpolus said.

The unusual matchup between two House incumbents is a byproduct of the once-in-a-decade process of redistricting, the revision of House district boundaries to reflect population shifts. Michigan lost one House seat this year, and the GOP-controlled state legislature took it out on Dingell and Rivers, crafting a district that drew roughly evenly from their old stamping grounds. For much of the campaign, Dingell has led in the polls. But as the primary approaches, some public polls show Rivers pulling even.

The contest is a rude awakening for Dingell, who at age 76 has not had a serious reelection challenge since Lyndon Johnson was in the White House. Serving in Congress is not just his career, it is the family business. His House seat was held by his father, John D. Dingell Sr., from 1933 until he died in 1955, when the junior Dingell won it in a special election.

As chairman of the Commerce Committee from 1981 to 1995, Dingell built a vast fiefdom--giving him a hand in writing health, environment and business legislation, a forum for major investigative hearings and a reputation among detractors as an arrogant bully. And even though the Republicans now control the House, Dingell remains a force to be reckoned with. In 1999, for example, he beat Republican leaders by winning House passage of a patients’ bill of rights. He joined with Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-La.) to sponsor legislation, passed by the House in February, that its supporters contend will bring faster Internet access to less populated areas.

And his support last year of the General Accounting Office’s investigation into industry influence on the Bush administration’s energy policy prompted the president to jokingly call him “the biggest pain in the ass on Capitol Hill.”

Rivers, 45, who’s just under 5 feet tall, was cut from a very different cloth. She came to politics by way of motherhood, running for the Ann Arbor school board as “a mom who got mad at the system” before moving on to the state Legislature. She was married as a teenager to an auto worker, had her first child at age 18, and put herself through college and law school while working part time. Her life story is a central part of her campaign pitch.

“I really have a firsthand knowledge of what people are struggling with in this country,” Rivers says in one of her campaign ads. “We certainly had days when I was looking around the house for pop bottles and hauling them back to make sure I had the money I needed to buy a gallon of milk.”

She also subtly tries to turn Dingell’s seniority from an asset to a liability, suggesting that while he is at the end of his career, she is at the beginning. “I’m just getting started,” she says in her ads.

Dingell’s voice drips disdain in responding to that argument.

“She’s just getting started. She’s going to be a voice,” he said in an interview. “It’s wonderful to be a voice, but it’s better to be a leader.... She has yet to get her first bill signed by the president.”

Although both are traditional liberals on most issues, there are differences on gun control and abortion--hot-button issues for party activists--that Rivers is seeking to exploit. “It is clearly a race for Democrats to look at as a choice between two kinds of Democrats,” she said.

Rivers contrasts her record on gun control to Dingell’s support for gun rights, which has made him one of the NRA’s most important allies in Congress. In 1999, he teamed up with Republicans to water down gun-safety measures that were barreling through Congress after the shootings at Columbine High School.

Rivers also votes more consistently in line with the abortion-rights lobby. Dingell is generally supportive of abortion rights but has voted for legislation to ban a controversial procedure known as “partial-birth abortion.” Rivers opposes the bill.

The national interest in their primary has made Dingell and Rivers among the year’s top House fund-raisers. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based nonpartisan campaign study group, they are on track to make this the seventh-most expensive House race in the country.

As of mid-July, Dingell had raised $2.4 million--52.9% of it from political action committees, according to the center. “He’s spending more on this campaign than he did on his first 20,” said Anita Dunn, a political consultant to the Dingell campaign. Rivers has raised $1.4 million, 9.9% of which is from PACs. But the $350,000-plus from members of Emily’s List has been a big share of her total and key to her ability to compete with Dingell’s vast fund-raising prowess, an important advantage of incumbency for someone of his seniority and clout.

In the end, the outcome may be determined by what voters decide should be the basis for electing candidates to office: who they are, or what they have done.

“We offer very different things,” Rivers said in an interview. “Voters will have to decide which is more important to them.”