Old-bull Democrats to defend seats

The old bulls of the House Democratic Caucus aren’t ready to be put out to pasture, vowing to run for reelection and expressing confidence they will soon be back in the majority.

Reps. John Dingell (Mich.), John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Henry Waxman (Calif.), Charles Rangel (N.Y.) and Alcee Hastings (Fla.) have said they will seek another term.

{mosads}All of these legislators endured the House minority from 1995 through 2006, and most of them became chairmen in 2007. 

After a party grabs control of the House, it’s common for long-term members in the minority to call it a career. But not this year. 

Waxman said lawmakers consider a myriad of factors when mulling another term, including personal and family concerns, redistricting and majority versus minority status. 

“But, even in the years when we are in the minority, we didn’t lose that many longstanding senior members. They came back and eventually we got the majority,” he said.

Democrats say they won’t be waiting a dozen years this time around.

“I believe we’re going to get the majority in 2012,” Waxman said.

Conyers shares Waxman’s optimism.

“Sure we’ll win, and we can take back the House,” he told The Hill last week. He noted that President Obama wasn’t on the ballot last year and “if you study the victories of newcomer conservatives, there are many who only won by a few points.”

Democrats need to pick up 25 seats to win back the House.

Dingell, the longest-serving member of the House, committed to seeking a 30th term in January, claiming that an expected redistricting shakeup in Michigan will not deter him. 

The decisions of the old bulls may not sit well with some of the younger Democrats, however. Over the past couple of years, some have complained that the House Democratic Caucus has not embraced term limits for committee chairman/ranking member positions. 

Tired of toiling in the minority, Rangel in 2006 said he would retire if Democrats didn’t win control of the chamber that year. They did, and Rangel grabbed the gavel of the Ways and Means Committee, only to relinquish it later because of ethics controversies. 

Rangel, now 80, announced his bid for a 22nd term earlier this year. He expressed cautious optimism that Democrats can rebound next year, saying the GOP doesn’t have a clear presidential candidate. 

Frank, who crafted the Wall Street reform law in the last Congress, said, “I felt that the new majority might be trying to undo some of the things that we did last year, and I wanted to be able to defend that.”

The GOP targeted Frank last year, but the former chairman of the Financial Services Committee won his contested race by 11 percentage points. 

“Am I confident we’ll win [the House] back? No,” Frank said. “Do I think we can win it back? Yes.”

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), a close ally of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), has not stated definitively that he will run again, though he said he assumed he will.

Asked about the Democrats’ effort to wrest the majority back, Miller responded, “It’s way too early, but … I feel more optimistic about it now than I did when I started the last journey toward the majority from the minority.” 

Hastings, who is serving his 10th term, isn’t so sure: “I think it’s going to be exceedingly difficult, with the state of play, to win the House of Representatives.”

According to Rangel, 2012 may be a do-or-die election for House Democrats to harness public sentiment and the power of an incumbent president.

If a Democratic majority is not attained in the coming election, “then it means that the people made a decision that’s based on more than I thought, which would be frustration, unemployment, all that,” said Rangel. “I’m not saying it’s next year or never, but it’s next year or a long time.”

Meanwhile, Frank said his days are likely numbered in the House.

“By 2012, I’m getting to the point where I think it’s highly unlikely that I would serve more than one more term, because I will be too old,” he said. “I’ll be 71 in two weeks. I don’t want to be here when I’m 77 years old.”

Asked about his plans beyond the 2012 election, Conyers, who was born during the Great Depression, said he hadn’t yet thought that far ahead. But the former Judiciary Committee chairman has no plans of leaving, saying, “I don’t think in terms of retiring. I happen to like my job.”

Miller also left open the possibility of running in 2014: “Yeah, what the hell, I’m having fun.”

Hastings said being a member of Congress is not what the media make it out to be. 

“Realistically, the public perceives that there are tremendous perks of the job, and the real truth is, it is a horrible job. It really is; there’s no fun. It used to be a little bit fun, but there’s no fun here anymore,” he said.

“I will run again in 2012 and I have every reason to believe that I will run again in 2014,” Hastings added.