Members of Congress are rarely serious candidates for president. Of the Members of Congress with aspirations, only former Member of Congress Beto O’Rourke registers on the presidential seismographs. Take a look at him and the others – at my best effort at attempting to understand what kind of managers they are and might be.
Even the most powerful Senators have fewer employees than a big city mayor or a Cabinet Member. Senators actual work with other people is rarely visible. Senators don’t implement policy, don’t manage a lot of employees. Nevertheless, everything they do involves managing other people.
One of the Presidential candidates has been criticized for how she bosses. Look at the presidential candidates. Can we tell what kind of bosses they have been? Consider a mix of accomplishments and the implications of those accomplishments for how they worked as boss. For a few candidates, the most visible place where they bossed people was as a governor or other state official.
One of the Presidential candidates has been criticized for how she bosses. Look at the presidential candidates. Can you tell what kind of bosses they have been?
Jim Hood is about as Mississippi as you can get. He has been the Mississippi Attorney General since 2003, the Democratic Attorney General. He is running for Governor in the November, 2019 election.
Lisa Neubauer is running to be on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She is now the Chief Judge of the Wisconsin Appeals Court. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and The University of Chicago Law School where she was a member of The Law School’s honor society. She served as a Clerk in the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin and was In private practice for twenty years in a Milwaukee firm. She specialized in Environmental Cleanup Litigation. Although judicial elections are non-partisan, Neubauer's election would allow her to replace a Democrat who is retiring and would leave the Court with a 4-3 Republican majority.
Jared Golden is the only Member of Congress to have been elected by Ranked Voting. He is the rare ex military newly elected Member of Congress who was an enlistee and not an officer. He is one of the even rarer Member of Congress to have been identified by the VA as having PTSD. He brings a distinctive and important voice to Congress.
Xochitl Torres Small was elected to Congress from NM 02 by less than 4,000 votes in 2018. The district is heavily Republican. She is vulnerable in 2020. She was a strong candidate. Wife of a state rep, a field rep for Senator Udall for three years, and an attorney whose expertise is water issues, she was well prepared for the 2018 campaign and is prepared for 2020. Her intriguing high school experience only adds to the strength of her candidacy.
Kendra Horn made the most of her return to Oklahoma. She put together a campaign for Congress. She focused on health care and on women’s issues. She discusses the importance of gun safety. Her other issues include education and job training and infrastructure. Her transition to being a Member of Congress is going well. She voted for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker, explaining the only other choice was Republican Kevin McCarthy. She got appointed to the Armed Services Committee, explaining the appointment will allow her to look out for Oklahoma’s military installations. She has been looking out for other Oklahomans. With two Oklahoma Republican Congressmen, she introduced a bill to fund the Indian Health Service, notwithstanding the government shutdown.
Before his election, TJ Cox focused on combinations of business and good works. He founded the Central Valley NMTC Fund -- a certified community development organization which uses the federal New Markets Tax Credit program for disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods. TJ Cox’s victory in 2018 was an adventure in and of itself. He originally planned on a candidacy for CA 10 – a district that had attracted nearly a dozen Democratic candidates. He was unlikely to be one of the top two in the non-partisan primary. He switched to CA 21 – persuading the 2016 losing Democrat to leave the race. Elected, he is on the Agriculture Committee. A good place for someone in California’s Central Valley. Addressing the government shut down, he introduced a bill to allow government employees not getting their paychecks, to borrow up to $6,000 from the government.