Freshman Representatives Get Involved in Another Election: The Big One
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 — As a freshman member of Congress, Raúl M. Grijalva has little experience in presidential politics. But on a balmy night in early September, Representative Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat, boarded a sleek campaign bus and rode to the University of Maryland to appear before hundreds of screaming college students alongside the man he hopes will win the White House: Howard Dean.
Representative Candice S. Miller, a freshman Republican from Michigan, took her own political ride recently, in a limousine with her candidate of choice: President Bush. Mrs. Miller, who was the co-chairwoman of the Bush campaign in her home state in 2000 and expects to be "very engaged" next year, accompanied the president last week in Detroit. Asked if they talked politics, she smiled diplomatically and sealed her lips.
Election Day 2004 may be more than a year away, but inside the Capitol, presidential politicking is picking up. Democrats are lining up to take sides; so far, more than 100 Democratic lawmakers have declared their presidential preferences. Republicans are angling for roles in the Bush campaign, hoping to hitch their stars to the president.
The maneuvering, says Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University, carries both benefits and risks. Mr. Grijalva and Mrs. Miller, whose first year in office is being chronicled by The New York Times, provide a snapshot of how members of Congress are placing their presidential bets.
Mr. Grijalva signed on with the Dean campaign in August, becoming the third House Democrat to do so. That puts him on the ground floor of a campaign that appears to be taking off, though it will not do him much good if Dr. Dean does not become the nominee.
Some House Democrats are playing it safe and withholding their endorsements, but Mr. Grijalva says he was eager to jump in.
"It's not my style to sit around and be coy," he said.
For Mrs. Miller, who often describes herself as a "George W. Bush Republican," a campaign job will offer a chance to cement her relationship with the president. Mr. Bush is known to demand loyalty, and Mrs. Miller was an early supporter, joining up with Mr. Bush long before it became apparent that he would win the Republican nomination in 2000.
"I was one of the first birds off the wire," she said. "I just saw in him the intangible quality of leadership."
Mrs. Miller does not yet have a formal campaign title, and she declined to discuss whatever negotiations might be under way. But it is widely expected that, notwithstanding her status as a freshman, she will have some prominent role.
As a former Michigan secretary of state, Mrs. Miller is hugely popular in her home state, which makes her an attractive catch for the Bush campaign. The risk is that if Mr. Bush loses Michigan, as he did in 2000, the congresswoman could be held partly accountable.
If Mrs. Miller has any worries about this, she does not betray them. "I know what it takes to win statewide," she says, noting, as she often does, that she won every county in Michigan when she ran for secretary of state.
Still it is clear that she has been doing some political calculations. "Michigan will be a critical state," she said. "The president does not have to win Michigan in order for him to be re-elected, but a Democrat can't win without Michigan."
She said she had "no personal agenda other than to get the president elected," and felt that by campaigning for Mr. Bush "I can have an impact, almost, on the world." Recently, she donated $1,000 to the campaign, in keeping with the advice of the speaker of the House, J. Dennis Hastert, who has urged House Republicans contribute as much as they can.
At this stage, few Republicans will talk openly about their efforts to sign on with President Bush. "A lot of members are posturing for key positions in their state in the Bush campaign," a senior House Republican said. He said campaign officials were slowly weeding through the requests and "taking a very deliberative position," offering positions only to those they believe will enhance the president's prospects.
The Democratic contenders, by contrast, cannot afford to be picky; if there is any deliberating going on, it is among those granting the endorsements, and not those seeking them.
Mr. Grijalva said the Dean campaign solicited his support early on. He shopped around first, looking closely at, among others, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts and Representative Richard A. Gephardt, the former House Democratic leader.
Mr. Gephardt has drawn more support from House members than any other Democrat; both the current Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, and the party's whip, Steny H. Hoyer, are supporting him. But as a freshman, Mr. Grijalva has little history with Mr. Gephardt.
That he settled on Dr. Dean is not surprising. A devoted liberal whose father, a Mexican immigrant, once worked as a ranch hand, Mr. Grijalva believes Americans are hungry for a clear alternative to President Bush. In Dr. Dean, he sees a candidate who will confront the president "in a direct and forceful way."
He rejects the contention of party centrists that a candidate who runs to the left in the primary will lose the general election. "If we take their advice, we will never provide the voters a choice," Mr. Grijalva said. "It all becomes: `How much money can we raise? How can we be Bush Lite?' "
Although they come from vastly different worlds, and have met in person only a handful of times, the Arizona congressman and the former Vermont governor do share a political style. Mr. Grijalva won his seat in Congress with the help of a ragtag band of volunteers who called themselves "A Whole Lot of People for Grijalva," a fact that has not escaped the notice of Dr. Dean, whose fund-raising took off by word-of-mouth and the Internet.
"He built his organization himself," Dr. Dean said. "He didn't owe anything to anybody, and therefore, he is able to say exactly what he thinks."
Their fledgling political marriage was in full view during the rally at the University of Maryland earlier this month. Mr. Grijalva's aides had planned to drive him there, but Mr. Dean's aides insisted the congressman ride on the bus, in a show of solidarity with the candidate. They hustled him on board like he was a visiting head of state. When Dr. Dean stepped on, he grinned broadly and gave the congressman a hearty clap on the arm. "You're the star of the show," Dr. Dean said, although everyone knew that he, and not Mr. Grijalva, was the star.
The congressman seemed a bit bewildered by it all, and confessed he had no idea what he was going to say at the rally, where he was scheduled to perform a two-minute warm-up act for Dr. Dean.
Words did not fail him when the moment arrived. Standing in the dusk, with huge spotlights bouncing off the brick walls of the campus buildings, the congressman from Tucson declared that "the American people are looking for a voice and a vision." As a band of Republican hecklers tried to shout him down, he led the crowd in an impromptu chant about President Bush: "Says one thing! Does another!"
He had never used that line before, he said afterward. But the Dean camp seemed to like it, and someday soon, he just might use it again.
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