Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) was the fourth quarter's fundraising champ among House Energy and Commerce Committee members hoping to be reelected this year, according to POLITICO's review of the latest Federal Election Commission filings. The Environment and Economy Subcommittee chairman raised a total of $368,218 with help from donors including BP, Koch Industries and Ohio-based coal company Murray Energy Corp., which each tossed in $5,000 toward the cause. (Murray Energy owner Robert E. Murray and five employees also contributed an additional $8,400.) His campaign account ended the year with $1.4 million in the bank.
Tapas with the Four Horsemen: South Carolina's Most Influential Conservatives on Newt's Brain, Romney's Personality, and 9 1/2 Weeks' Best Scenes
By Marin Cogan
Published: January 20, 2012
It's still unclear to me whether "the four horsemen of South Carolina" is a nickname they gave themselves or one that their constituents gave them. But why they earned it is clear: In 2010, these freshmen-Reps. Mick Mulvaney, Tim Scott, Trey Gowdy and Jeff Duncan-decimated the state's congressional delegation, winning four of the state's six seats and yanking it firmly to the right. Not that their constituents seemed to mind.
These guys wake up in the equivalent of a political blast furnace each day, with their Tea Party constituents not just watching how they vote or what bills they cosponsor, but what time they vote-if you're not voting early enough, these constituents figure, you might be waiting see how badly leadership needs your help before you vote. In other words, you're squishy. The intense pressure has bonded them into a raucous, funny, fraternal, slightly competitive group of friends, a group that best represents the political dynamic in South Carolina.
There is probably at least one future governor and one future senator in this group. Like their current senators, Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint, there's tremendous pressure to endorse a candidate for the GOP race. Mulvaney endorsed Rick Perry early, when he was leading in the polls (two days after this interview, Perry would drop out and endorse Gingrich). And Tim Scott, the even-keeled, quietly ambitious Charleston pol who's by now been identified by every news organization on the planet as a rising star, is still on the fence.
I sat down with them in DC's Jaleo, a tapas bar, a day after the Fox-WSJ debate to talk shop about the pressure to endorse, South Carolina stereotypes, and whether or not Newt believes he's smarter than the founding fathers. Somehow, the movie '9 1/2 Weeks' also came up.
Trey Gowdy, who represents the 4th district, upstate, arrives late. He's a drawling, quippy Southern prosecutor, a first-time elected politician who looks like a grown-up Draco Malfoy. He immediately plunks down, apologizing for being held up by "the Occupiers" and loosening his flamboyant silk tie.
"Take your pin off, would you, Congressman? You're killing me," Mulvaney says. I don't know it yet, but I'm pretty sure Mulvaney has already taken over my interviewing duties. Mulvaney, of the 5th district, is a compact man with intense blue eyes, the type who will, later in this dinner, scoop the remaining piece of chocolate mousse off the plate with his bare fingers and devour it one bite.
Gowdy says, "I'm sitting there Sunday, my wife, my mom and my three sisters, and we're all talking about how attractive Tim Scott is. We were debating who would you pick to be the speakers at the Republican National Convention and where would you put him? And my mom, who is in her 70s ... said on looks alone..."
"Was she far-sighted? Near-sighted?" asks Scott.
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From Iraq to the Senate?
Ohio state treasurer Josh Mandel takes on Sherrod Brown
Kate Havard
August 29, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 46
It’s a sticky afternoon in August and a storm is brewing. Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel is the featured speaker at a rally for Mike Wilson, who’s planning to run for the Ohio general assembly. We’re under a tent, but as the lightning flashes, the crowd eyes the wiring on the speaker system nervously. Still—Mandel is winning them over. When he tells his story, it’s clear he’s wasted no time getting things done.
Mandel looks maybe half of his 33 years, but he’s already accomplished more in his decade-long career in public service than many politicians have in a lifetime. He’s a Marine Corps veteran who served two tours in Iraq. A former city councilman in Lyndhurst, a suburb of Cleveland, he led the fight for the first property tax rollback in the county’s history. As a state legislator, he won landslide victories in a heavily liberal district. When he ran for state treasurer, he got more votes than Governor John Kasich.
Now he’s set on unseating incumbent U.S. senator and prominent liberal Democrat Sherrod Brown. A career politician, Brown was in the Ohio House of Representatives before Mandel was born. And after 35 years at the top, Mandel says, Brown is out of touch.
By contrast, if you were his constituent in northeast Ohio, Josh Mandel probably has sat in your living room—maybe more than once. Mandel estimates he’s knocked on more than 25,000 doors in various elections, and worn out multiple pairs of shoes doing it. He plans to knock on another 100,000 doors over the course of his Senate campaign. He’s going to have to buy some new shoes.
Mandel tells the crowd how he ended up on stage: In 2000, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. While still in law school, he ran for city councilman. He won in a landslide. Then, shortly before he took office, the Marines called.
Mandel had a “gut check” moment. But he knew what he had to do. In February 2004, Mandel deployed to Iraq as an intelligence specialist attached to a light armored reconnaissance battalion. When Mandel returned to Ohio, he quickly got back to work. Soon, he was leading the charge for a Lyndhurst property tax rollback.
“The other councilmen said, ‘Kid, we’re going to embarrass you on this, we’re going to vote this thing down one to six,’ ” Mandel recalls.
He didn’t back down. He went to the public. Hundreds of people showed up at a city council meeting to support his proposal. The measure passed six to one. It was the first tax break of its kind in Cuyahoga County.
Then, in the middle of his first term, the Marine Corps called again. It was September 2007, and they needed him for the surge in Iraq. “I ultimately decided that my duty to my country came first,” Mandel said. He returned to war, and after his tour he was reelected. Then, Mandel ran for state treasurer.
“When I got into office, there was this guy whose job it was to drive checks from Columbus up to Cleveland to deposit them,” he says. Every month, this person was driving 143 miles on I-71 in an unsecured vehicle with $234 million of taxpayer money. Mandel switched to online banking and saved a hundred thousand dollars a year.
Commonsense changes like ending unused phone lines, lowering minutes on cell phone plans, and ending costly plant-watering contracts allowed Mandel to end his first fiscal year in the treasurer’s office with a $400,000 surplus and a budget reduced by $1.2 million.
That record will be key to the success or failure of his Senate run. Mandel is confident that he can win in 2012. Though other Republicans have expressed interest in the race, Mandel does not anticipate a primary challenge. Brown, he says, is too extreme for moderate Ohioans.
Mandel, on the other hand, has strong crossover appeal: His conservative principles will go over well in southern Ohio, and in liberal enclaves up north, like Cleveland, he’s an admired and well-known figure.
Though the latest Quinnipiac poll shows Mandel trailing Brown by 15 points, it’s still early. Even some die-hard conservatives in southern Ohio aren’t familiar with Mandel yet—which is about to change.
In the last fundraising quarter, Mandel raised 40 percent more than Brown and spent hundreds of thousands less to do it. “Forget fundraising,” Mandel says to the crowd. “What’s important to me is that we’re going to go next year and beat Sherrod Brown. And by beating Sherrod Brown and running strong, we’re also going to help the eventual nominee at the top of the ticket beat Barack Obama.”
That line gets the most applause of the night.
Kate Havard is an intern at The Weekly Standard.
Rep. Kristi Noem: Head of the Class
By Emily Miller
Posted 02/14/2011 ET
Updated 02/14/2011 ET
[This story was originally published in the February 11 edition of HUMAN EVENTS newspaper.]
Kristi Noem has a unique position in Congress as a member of both the influential freshman class and the powerful House leadership.
Noem was chosen by her 86 fellow freshmen to make sure their voices are heard inside the small House Republican leadership. The South Dakota Republican bridges the largest freshmen that came to change Washington and the so-called establishment leaders who are trying to enact their legislative agenda.
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Rep. Kristi Noem: Head of the Class
By Emily Miller
Posted 02/14/2011 ET
Updated 02/14/2011 ET
[This story was originally published in the February 11 edition of HUMAN EVENTS newspaper.]
Kristi Noem has a unique position in Congress as a member of both the influential freshman class and the powerful House leadership.
Noem was chosen by her 86 fellow freshmen to make sure their voices are heard inside the small House Republican leadership. The South Dakota Republican bridges the largest freshmen that came to change Washington and the so-called establishment leaders who are trying to enact their legislative agenda.
The Republican House leadership is a small and powerful group of 12, which includes Speaker John Boehner (Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Tex.), and the two freshmen elected by their class, Noem and Tim Scott (S.C.).
The leadership meets weekly to determine its legislative agenda, strategic plan, and work through problems in the various conference factions that would provide roadblocks to getting votes.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Noem looked confident and comfortable as she walked with the other Republican leaders departing the Speaker’s office. She shuffled the Diet Coke, papers, and Blackberry she carried herself before heading outside to go back to her office across the street. Noem was wearing black pants, an unstructured gray jacket, and a ruffled peach blouse.
Noem was also wearing cowboy boots. The long halls of Congress are marble, so finding comfortable shoes is a frequent topic of conversation. She said that after her first week on Capitol Hill, her feet hurt so much that she asked her press secretary for advice
“Do you think I could wear cowboy boots out here?” she asked her aide. “He said ‘sure’. But I said, ‘I don’t see anybody else wearing cowboy boots.’” In the end, Noem decided to buck conservative Washington and wear her regular footwear. “I usually wear them on the days that I travel. If you’re from South Dakota, it works.”
When asked if she would pull up her pants leg a little to see the top of the black boots, Noem paused a moment. She then shyly pulled up her cuff to expose cowboy boots made of bright turquoise leather with a cactus design scrolled up the side.
The Freshmen Class Leader
Noem says that her fellow South Dakota Republican in Congress, Sen. John Thune, encouraged her to seek a leadership position. After the election, she called Boehner, Cantor, and McCarthy to line up their support for her to run for a position. She decided to run for freshman representative because she thought the job would have the most impact.
“I wasn’t really interested in filling a position that was more of a figurehead. If I was going to serve in a leadership position, I wanted to do something that would help me be more effective, but also help the freshman class stay united as a group,” she said.
The huge Republican freshman class, which came to Washington this year in a wave after the midterm elections, wields enormous power. When the members convened together for the first time at the November freshmen orientation, they decided that the size of their class warranted two representatives at the leadership table. Boehner granted their request, and the class elected Noem and Scott to represent them.
Freshman Rep. Steve Stivers (R.-Ohio) was supposed to nominate Noem for the election. “I had my nominating speech for her ready, but in the end, no one ran against her. I helped slam the vote shut and said, ‘Let’s elect Kristi and Tim Scott by acclimation,’ which we did.”
“I think the fact that no one was willing to run against her speaks volumes,” Stivers told HUMAN EVENTS. “The message she was talking about is exactly the message I want to come from Washington: Change business as usual, make government more effective, listen to our constituents, and help make sure we have a constitutional republic again.”
Noem’s role is to be a bridge between the 87 energetic freshmen and the 12 established leaders. She and Scott spend a lot of time calling and meeting with the freshmen so that they can “have a sense of what the freshman class is feeling before we go to that leadership table, so we can speak with a unified voice.”
She keeps in close contact with the freshmen to know what they are thinking and saying. She has all of their cell phone numbers programmed into her Blackberry and calls them often. Noem also talks to her fellow freshmen when they are together on the House floor for votes, in committee meetings, and walking back and forth between votes and meetings.
“All of these people were elected to represent their districts,” said Noem of her fellow freshmen. “So they need to come up here and fight for what they believe is right, to talk about what they think is important, and what their priorities are.”
How does she keep the rowdy, energetic freshmen organized? She emphasizes that they focus on the big picture and long-term goals.
“The only thing that I offer to them is that we keep our eye on the ball. We can talk all we want to, but it’s a serious situation. We need to accomplish something. We need to pass a budget. We need to cut our spending,” Noem said.
“We need to look down the road as well,” she added. “We need to make sure that we’re smart in how we are proposing this, so that we can actually accomplish our goal.”
Noem believes that the House leaders understand what is driving the freshmen this year.
“That’s one thing that we’ve been able to provide—that reminder that we didn’t come here to fall into line. We came here to change how Washington, D.C., does business,” she said.
“They appreciate just how serious the freshmen are. These freshmen are just normal, everyday people running their businesses, living in their communities,” she pointed out. “They have it fresh in their minds exactly what the people in this country want us to do.”
Noem has also found so far that the leaders are open to hearing from them. “This leadership team really does want to hear from us, the freshmen liaisons. They are letting us get into the process too,” she said.
Noem gets high marks from her fellow freshmen for representing them well so far.
“Kristi is doing a great job. She’s constantly soliciting opinions from the members of the freshman class and taking those back to the leadership table. She’s very open, and members don’t hesitate to express their thoughts to her. Kristi is the kind of person people feel comfortable around,” freshmen Rep. Cory Gardner (R.-Colo.) told HUMAN EVENTS.
Stivers says that Noem’s greatest achievement so far has been getting so many freshmen assigned to the most important committees
“Every major committee has representation from the freshmen class, which is a testament to Kristi and Tim Scott at the leadership table,” Stivers said. “Kristi was an effective advocate so that we were able to serve on committees that freshmen don’t typically serve on.”
As a former state representative, Noem also sees her job as helping the freshmen understand the legislative process.
“We have a freshmen class that has a lot of members that have never held public office before,” she said. “The legislative process is a difficult thing to grasp, and to have the patience to work through it, and be smart about how to approach it, if you haven’t been through it.”
As for the House leadership, it already values the information Noem can bring to the table.
“Kristi has a strong backbone. She knows what she believes and why,” Boehner told HUMAN EVENTS. “She’s been a substantive member of the leadership team so far and I expect even more good things from her in the future."
“Kristi is an ideal representative at the leadership table from the freshman class,” McCarthy said to HUMAN EVENTS. “Her enthusiasm, experience, and ideas are having a significant impact on the House Republican Conference.”
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Republicans Boost Ayotte as New Face of Party
By Steve Peoples
Roll Call Staff
Jan. 12, 2011, Midnight
She was difficult to miss. And perhaps that was the point.
Less than 24 hours after being sworn into office, New Hampshire’s newest Senator stood alongside six of the most powerful Senate Republicans as they faced the Washington, D.C., press corps for the first time this year.
“As the mother of two small children that joined me yesterday at the swearing-in ... I’m deeply concerned about the nearly $14 trillion debt that we have right now. That is going to be the focus of the coming year,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte said as the cameras clicked, her bright coral blazer flanked by six dark suits.
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Republicans Boost Ayotte as New Face of Party
By Steve Peoples
Roll Call Staff
Jan. 12, 2011, Midnight
She was difficult to miss. And perhaps that was the point.
Less than 24 hours after being sworn into office, New Hampshire’s newest Senator stood alongside six of the most powerful Senate Republicans as they faced the Washington, D.C., press corps for the first time this year.
“As the mother of two small children that joined me yesterday at the swearing-in ... I’m deeply concerned about the nearly $14 trillion debt that we have right now. That is going to be the focus of the coming year,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte said as the cameras clicked, her bright coral blazer flanked by six dark suits.
Not only was Ayotte the only woman at the front of the room, she was a quarter-century younger than the first two speakers — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.). The 42-year-old former state attorney general was also the only one born north of Kentucky.
Last week’s event was a coming-out party of sorts for the New Hampshire native, who some believe is the Senate’s only “true conservative” woman, or at least the one most in the Republican leadership’s good graces.
Get used to seeing her in the spotlight.
Ayotte is expected to become a weapon in the Grand Old Party’s push to become more female-friendly heading into the 2012 cycle. It’s no secret that female voters were critical to President Barack Obama’s success in 2008 and just as critical to the House Republican takeover in 2010.
“What Kelly brings to our caucus is the diversity of being a mother of two young children, the wife of a small-business man, she’s a woman and she’s from the Northeast,” Alexander told Roll Call after last week’s event. “For all those reasons, she brings more diversity to our party.”
Alexander, the third-most-powerful Senate Republican, added that Ayotte’s value extends beyond demographics. “We’re looking primarily to her brains and her ideas,” he said. “She’s proved herself as a tough prosecutor and the attorney general in New Hampshire, and she has her feet on the ground. She’s been quickly accepted here.”
But it’s worth noting that Ayotte was the only one of 13 Republican freshman Senators invited to attend last week’s high-profile event. And the previous week, even before she had been sworn in, she delivered the GOP’s first national radio address of the year.
“The GOP has not elected any new women to the Senate in recent election cycles, so they finally have an opportunity to showcase one. That’s what it is, though — showcasing,” said Jennifer Lawless, director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University.
Ayotte was the only new woman elected to the Senate in 2010. She is one of five Republican women in the new Senate and the party’s first new female Senator since 2002. She is uniquely positioned relative to her female peers.
The Republican leadership has long clashed on policy with the moderate Maine GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. GOP leadership’s decision to oppose Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s successful write-in bid after she lost the primary has soured the party’s relationship with Alaska’s senior Senator. And uncertainty surrounding Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s 2012 re-election bid, not to mention her 17 years of service, prevent Senate Republicans from using her as a fresh tool to help woo female voters.
Republican pollster Gene Ulm, a principal at Public Opinion Strategies, describes Ayotte as “a very scarce breed” who could help the GOP build on improvements with women in the 2010 cycle.
“I think it’s a powerful benchmark that Republicans have gotten gains back from independents and women, who we’ve been struggling with certainly for the last decade,” he said. “It’s no shock that Republicans do well amongst white men, but it’s what they do amongst white women and married women that wins most races. Kelly Ayotte is living proof of that.”
“She’s just an exceptional candidate,” Ulm said. “I think she’ll become a shining star.”
Women certainly made the difference for Obama, who won that demographic by 13 points in 2008, according to exit polling. But women broke evenly for Republicans and Democrats in the 2010 midterms, a huge shift, Ulm said.
“It’s women who gave Republicans the majority in the House,” he said.
Ayotte’s office declined repeated interview requests for this article.
But National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn wasn’t shy about praising the newly elected Senator and what she brings to the caucus.
“I think she’s an outstanding face and voice and presence for the Republican Party, as a mom, as a spouse of a fellow in the Air National Guard and a small-business owner,” the Texas lawmaker told Roll Call. “I think you’ll be seeing a lot more of her going forward.”
American University’s Lawless was critical of Republicans parading Ayotte around to reporters, but she acknowledged that it’s all part of the political process, especially given the leadership’s relationship with the other four Republican women.
“I would find it hard to believe that he would have even mentioned the parental or marital status of a male member of Congress,” she said of Alexander’s comments, which were echoed by Cornyn.
Still, Ayotte seems to be embracing the role.
“For Republicans, the start of the 112th Congress on Wednesday will mark the opening of a new chapter for our country and our party,” she said in the GOP’s first address of the year. “As the mother of two children, I’m like parents across the country who worry that our nearly $14 trillion dollar debt threatens America’s economic future, and our children’s future. Republicans are ready to lead that fight.”
Roll Call/Noem Gets Early Star Treatment
Rep.-elect Kristi Noem has all the makings of a fresh-faced rising star in GOP House leadership. The 38-year-old South Dakotan is photogenic, well-spoken, and able to draw a crowd and stay on message.
But Noem, who has already secured a seat at the leadership table in the next Congress, said she’s not worried about being pigeonholed as a token female in Republican leadership.
“When people start to spend a lot of time with me they realize that I’m a hard worker,” Noem said in an interview Tuesday at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel downtown. “I work hard on policy and issues. ... I’m a contributor and not just there to fill a seat.”
Dressed in a tailored taupe suit with knee-high snakeskin boots, the state Representative exuded all the confidence of a polished politician despite the fact that she’s a Washington neophyte.
Her rapid rise to become Assistant Majority Leader in the South Dakota House two years after being elected in 2006 underscores Republican leaders’ high expectations for Noem.
Nicknamed “South Dakota’s Sarah Palin” on the campaign trail, Noem was singled out as an up-and-comer almost immediately after defeating Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D) last month. She campaigned hard for one of two spots for freshmen in elected leadership and became the second female in GOP leadership, joining Conference Vice Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.).
Incoming Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) said he’s been impressed with Noem in leadership meetings.
“You would never suspect her to be a freshman when she is sitting in the meetings,” McCarthy said.
Noem is following in the footsteps of a fellow South Dakotan, Sen. John Thune (R). Thune served for two years as the representative of his class on the leadership team after being elected to the House in 1996.
He was one of the first people Noem talked to about seeking the freshman leadership slot.
“I encouraged her to seek a seat at the leadership table as a way to help represent South Dakota and the interests of rural Americans,” Thune said. “I think she’ll do an excellent job.”
While being a member of leadership gives Noem a broader platform than most freshmen, she said that wasn’t the allure of the post.
“My goal in coming out here to Washington, D.C., if I was going to be away from my family, away from my businesses, that I wanted to be as effective as I possibly could,” Noem said.
Sticking with that mentality, she has already made two strategic picks for staff with home-state ties in Jordan Stoick and Joshua Shields. Stoick, a former aide to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Shields, a former aide to Thune, will serve as her chief of staff and communications director, respectively.
“You want them to hold you accountable to your goals as well, but you also want to hit the ground running and be effective while you are here, too, and not spend a lot of time getting up to speed on procedures,” Noem said of the hires.
Still, Noem may run into trouble with keeping her promise to reduce the deficit and toe the GOP line of forcing spending cuts, particularly when it comes to key issues for South Dakota such as agricultural subsidies. Noem played it safe when asked whether she would take definitive measures on changing the funding mechanisms in the upcoming farm bill.
“It’s going to be a big topic of discussion,” Noem said. “I think all in all, every person that is going to be here and is serious about reducing our debt and deficit has to be willing to have the conversations on even those tough topics.”
Noem has said she is interested in spots on the Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Natural Resources committees.
She said she would be effective working on issues important to South Dakota even if she doesn’t get on one of those committees.
“We’ve got a pretty diverse state. With a lot of committees, the work they do impacts South Dakota,” Noem said.
Rep. Kay Granger (Texas) noted that Noem’s election showcases the increasing diversity of the House Republican Conference and the talent in the freshman class.
Granger, who served in leadership in the 110th Congress and was the only woman on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s executive board in the 2010 cycle, said the addition of Noem to the leadership table was “very significant.”
“I think she’s great,” Granger said. “She’s very articulate, very principled and high energy.”
She said Republicans “need the creativity” that Noem and her freshman colleagues bring to the table as the GOP gets set to rewrite the rules and change the way Congress operates.
Noem said she has looked to GOP women such as McMorris Rodgers and Rep. Lynn Jenkins (Kan.) for guidance. Jenkins talked to Noem throughout her campaign to help encourage her.
“It will be great to get here in January and have more time to spend with them,” Noem said. But getting ingratiated in Washington politics, Noem said, isn’t her biggest priority.
“I tried to stay true [to myself] from the beginning,” Noem said, noting her mother’s refrain: “My mom said, ‘Kristi, people don’t want somebody who is perfect. ... They want somebody who works hard for them, and just be yourself.’”
Jackie Kucinich contributed to this report.
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Top 10 Rising Power Players in the New Congress
Real Clear Politics
12/7/10
#3 – Kelly Ayotte
While other Republican women running for Senate came up short this year – in California, Connecticut, Delaware, and Nevada – Kelly Ayotte romped to victory in New Hampshire, defeating Democratic Congressman Paul Hodes by more than 23 points. As a result, Ayotte is poised to join a very select group, becoming one of five sitting GOP women Senators in the 112th Congress.
Perhaps more importantly, Ayotte’s rising influence in the Republican Senate caucus (and in the party overall) will be determined by the fact she hails from the nation’s first primary state. Ayotte may or may not take a high profile publicly over the next two years, but she will undoubtedly play a key role behind the scenes, as the representative of one of the party's most influential constituencies. As the 2012 race kicks into gear early next year, her endorsement will likely be among the most sought after.
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Meet the GOP Freshmen, From Cotton Farms, Funeral Homes and the NFL
By Patricia Murphy
Capitol Hill Bureau Chief
Politics Daily
More than 80 new Republican lawmakers are heading to Washington as a result of last Tuesday's "shellacking" of the Democrats in the midterm elections.
But the first thing to know about the soon-to-be Capitol Hill insiders is that many of them are truly outsiders. Of the 80-plus incoming GOP freshmen in the House, a whopping 35 have never served in any elective office in their lives. With six medical doctors, three car dealers, two funeral home directors, a former FBI agent, a pizza restaurant owner and a Northwest Airlines pilot in the ranks, they will be the most unconventional group of citizen-legislators to head to Washington in decades.
Beyond their broad range of careers, the new group will also be the most diverse GOP class in House history, with five new Latino members, two African-Americans and at least seven women adding to the ranks of the current Republican House.
Add in the son of a former vice president, a 1990s reality show star, and a guy named Bob Dold, and the freshmen of the 112th Congress are sure to change not only the the face of Congress, but also the GOP. Here are the class of 2011's rising stars:
* Tim Scott, South Carolina. Along with Allen West of Florida, Scott will be one of the first two African-Americans to serve in the House since J.C. Watts retired in 2002, giving the party a much-needed dose of diversity in Washington. A charismatic member of the South Carolina state House of Representatives, Scott soundly defeated Paul Thurmond, the son of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, in the GOP primary and went on to win the general election with 67 percent of the vote. Scott was the first black Republican in the South Carolina Legislature since Reconstruction and will be the first black Republican to represent the state in Congress. Look for Scott to be front and center in the national GOP's messaging in their efforts to expand their base and win new voters.
* Kristi Noem, South Dakota. Noem is one of at least seven new women coming to Washington to join the House GOP (two more women, Ann Marie Buerkle and Renee Ellmers are awaiting their results). But the 38-year-old mother of three, who is described by friends as having "a backbone of steel," promises to be a breakout star for the GOP. Not only did the telegenic cattle rancher knock out the incumbent, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, for South Dakota's at-large House seat, her previous job as the assistant majority leader in the South Dakota House of Representatives makes her more than just another mama grizzly.
* Jon Runyan, New Jersey. The former Philadelphia Eagles lineman, 36, is a political novice, but used his outsider status to trounce the local tea party candidate in his GOP primary with 59 percent of the vote, then defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. John Adler in November. "People always question my experience in politics," Runyan said in his victory speech after the GOP primary. "Yes, I have no experience raising taxes over and over again. Yes, I have no experience increasing the debt. Do you really think the people who created these problems are going to be able to solve them?" Runyan follows in the footsteps of former NFLers Jack Kemp, Steve Largent and current Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) in the gridiron-to-Washington career path.
Read more: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/11/08/meet-the-gop-freshmen-from-cotton-farms-to-funeral-homes/
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