“What do you mean by that?” I said, but I knew the answer. Term limits have changed things in Lansing, but we have one of the oldest and most senior congressional delegations in the nation.
Consider this: John Dingell is, most people know, the longest-serving congressman in the nation’s history. He was elected four times before President Obama was born.
John Conyers, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was first elected to Congress the year the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show – 1964. Carl Levin has now been in the U.S. Senate longer than anyone in Michigan history. His brother Sandy, now chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, was already a political fixture in Lansing when he became the Democratic nominee for governor … forty years ago. Dale Kildee, who represents Flint, was first elected during the Ford Administration.
Currently, none of the Republicans have been around quite that long, though when John Engler gave up the governorship, it was his first time out of office in thirty-two years.
I don’t know quite why our politicians seem to last so long, though I suspect it’s due to a variety of factors. Perhaps there is comfort in being led, or at least represented, by familiar faces in times of great and uncomfortable change and upheaval.
Some of this is due to legislative gerrymandering. For example, it is impossible to imagine a Republican being elected to Congress in Dingell or Conyers’ districts. It is equally hard to imagine a Democrat winning in the districts that Pete Hoekstra or Dave Camp represent.
Some of this is due to the fact that incumbents find it easy to raise vast sums of money, enough to usually scare off any primary challengers. At any rate, we’ve had a lot of continuity.
But now, we are going to have some fairly rapid change. Two years ago, Michigan got two new congressmen, when one freshman – Tim Walberg – and one longtime incumbent – Joe Knollenberg – were defeated. This year we will, at a minimum, get at least three new congressmen. Pete Hoekstra of Holland is giving up his seat to run for governor. Vern Ehlers in Grand Rapids, a quiet man who got a lot done behind the scenes, is retiring.
Democrat Bart Stupak announced last week that he, too is leaving; those three men will have each served 17 to 18 years.
More change is coming too. At least one other Michigan congressman could be defeated for re-election this year. The census results are expected to mean Michigan will lose another seat in Congress – the fifth we will have lost since the 1970s.
And the sad but sobering truth is that a decade from now, our most powerful and longest serving congressmen are all but certain to be gone, thanks not to the voters, but Father Time.
Dingell, after all, is 84 this year. Conyers and Kildee, 81. Sander Levin turns 79; Carl Levin, 76. They can’t be around forever.
We are facing a new economy and new challenges, and before long, will be relying on a crop of new leaders in Washington.
Whatever happens, that’s bound to be different.
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