On Capitol Hill, campaign rivals take orientation
By ERICA WERNER WASHINGTON
Election News, AP - 2 months ago
After the typical congressional campaign, the winner goes to Washington and the loser goes home.
Not so with two undecided open-seat House races.
Instead, both the eventual winners and the eventual losers from the contests in California and Ohio came to Washington this week for new-lawmaker orientation — though only one candidate from each race will ever get sworn in.
"I don't know as I'd say stressful, but certainly it's a little bit different circumstance than the other members here," said Democrat Charlie Brown, who is running narrowly behind Republican Tom McClintock to represent California's 4th Congressional District north of Sacramento.
Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy, who is neck-and-neck with Republican Steve Stivers in central Ohio's 15th Congressional District, said she and Brown have been commiserating.
"It's unfortunate, but that's how it's played out," Kilroy said. "At this point in time, I can't do anything about getting more people to the polls or anything like that. My job is just to get ready for a transition."
Results from two Senate contests also are pending, one of them an upcoming run-off in Georgia. The other is Democrat Al Franken's challenge to Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota. Democrat Mark Begich's contest against Republican Ted Stevens in Alaska was decided Tuesday night when Begich was declared the victor.
As an incumbent, Coleman has no need for new-member orientation, and while Franken is in Washington this week for fundraising, he's not attending official Senate events, saying that would be presumptuous. Begich also had planned to skip new-member events before his win.
Officially, Senate rules prohibit the expenditure of Senate funds before a candidate has been certified a senator-elect.
Rules are different in the House. After spending the past year pummeling each other over everything from taxes to veterans' issues, Brown and McClintock found themselves attending classes together this week on topics such as security and ethics, crossing paths in the Cannon House Office Building and greeting each other at a hotel.
They even posed together for Monday's group photo of the 111th Congress.
"It is obviously awkward not to have the full count completed," said McClintock, who led Brown by 592 votes out of 339,658 counted Wednesday. "But having been on the losing side of a close count, I can tell you from personal experience it's much easier being on the winning side of the close count."
McClintock narrowly lost a race for California state controller in 2002. A year later, he ran in the special recall election that elevated Arnold Schwarzenegger to the governor's office.
In Ohio, Stivers, who declined comment, led Kilroy by 149 votes. An estimated 1,000 ballots remained in dispute.
Also attending freshman orientation is Virginia Democrat Tom Perriello, who is running to unseat Republican incumbent Virgil Goode in Virginia's 5th Congressional District. Perriello is ahead by more than 700 votes but has not been declared the victor by AP.
However the House Administration Committee that oversees the orientation has designated Perriello an elected member, and unlike with Brown and Kilroy, Democrats are letting Perriello vote in House leadership elections this week.
One orientation tradition the California and Ohio hopefuls did not expect to be sharing: the freshman room lottery on Friday that decides the all-important question of what office space the lawmakers will occupy.
The House clerk was expected to do the drawing for both pairs of candidates.
"Which is actually probably a pretty good thing because I imagine the House clerk has a much better knowledge of the available rooms than either of us would have," McClintock said.