Posted on 01/25/2004 8:25:15 AM PST by Indy Pendance
Just shy of 20 years on the job, Milwaukee congressman Jerry Kleczka is contacting friends today with a stunning message: He's calling it quits at year's end.
The 10-term House Democrat, a born-and-bred south-sider who observers believed had a lifetime lock on the 4th District, will not seek re-election this fall, he told the Journal Sentinel.
The surprise announcement leaves the seat open for only the third time since 1948 and seems certain to set off an election free-for-all with a broad ripple effect across the local political landscape. A primary in the 4th District is only eight months away and likely will be the decisive contest in the district, which is dominated by the Democratic Party.
"Some people call it shocking," said the 60-year-old Kleczka. "You can go out feet first, and that's not my desire, or you can say, 'I think we've served with distinction, and this is the time to go home and seek a new challenge.' "
The son of a factory worker, Kleczka won a crowded congressional election in 1984 to succeed south side legend Clement Zablocki, who suffered a heart attack in his Capitol office in 1983 and died days later at the age of 71.
Kleczka's public life began in the state Legislature at age 24. He has triumphed in 17 elections without a loss and is doing well in an another battle: against the alcoholism that became public in 1995 after a second drunken-driving arrest.
He talked about personal and professional reasons behind his decision in an interview in Milwaukee. He seemed at ease and displayed the blunt, unvarnished style that has marked his public life. He said the decision was made over a six-month period with counsel from almost no one but his wife of 25 years, Bonnie.
He wants quality family time and a chance to pursue public policy-related work, although he has nothing lined up. The couple will move from Alexandria, Va., to live in Milwaukee or in Madison, where Bonnie's family resides, he said.
Kleczka said he had grown tired of the unsavory chase for campaign funds necessary to remain competitive, calling it "the most embarrassing thing I've had to do in my life - calling strangers and begging for money."
"There are members who come to Congress in January after the election, coming out of marginal seats, who are saddled with a million dollars in debt," Kleczka said. "The first thing they do is seek out the Democratic National Committee so they can get a phone and a cubicle and start calling."
He said he has not groomed a successor nor could he name anyone he thought immediately would be a front-runner for the job.
"Everyone has a fair shot," he said. "That's why I chose to announce now instead of waiting until March or June." Colleagues shocked
The announcement caught even Kleczka's closest allies off-guard.
"I can't believe it," U.S. Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.) said Saturday after hearing from Kleczka. "I think it's a big loss, because Congress is getting more and more 'yuppified,' and he's one of the few of us left from a blue-collar background who gives a hoot about blue-collar people."
Kleczka, Obey said, is right smack in the middle of Wisconsin's populist, progressive tradition.
"He's got a barrel of guts and doesn't mind sticking his chin out," Obey said. "There are so many people in this place who will genuflect to those with economic power. It's been nice to know there's been someone else in that foxhole every day."
His departure creates a rare opportunity.
If the next 4th District representative follows the path Kleczka took, contenders could come from a group of Milwaukee-area Democrats that include state Sens. Tim Carpenter, Gwen Moore and Spencer Coggs, and state Reps. Shirley Krug, Sheldon Wasserman, Jon Richards and Peggy Krusick, just to name a few.
The timing of Kleczka's announcement, just weeks after the filing deadline for local races, raises a what-might-have-been question for some.
For example, would some Milwaukee mayoral candidates, including Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., Tom Barrett - a former member of the U.S. House - and Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, have been interested in a bid for Congress if they had known of Kleczka's intentions? Might any of them still be if they lose the April mayor's race? Seat solidly Democratic
Kleczka's move is particularly surprising because post-census redistricting removed the Waukesha County portion of the 4th District and added Milwaukee's north side. That made it rock-solid Democratic turf: the entire city of Milwaukee and a handful of Milwaukee County suburbs with blue-collar roots - West Milwaukee, Cudahy, St. Francis, South Milwaukee and part of West Allis.
No congressional district in the country underwent a bigger partisan change, some national observers say.
In the old district, Kleczka had seen his winning percentages drop against Republican challengers in the mid-1990s. The new seat is safer-than-safe; he attracted no GOP opponent in 2002.
"If this were a marginal seat, I'd probably question leaving at this time, but I feel very confident that my successor will be a Democrat," Kleczka said.
Always a reliable Democratic vote in Congress, his record received high marks from groups representing labor, social justice, civil liberties and balanced budgets, and low marks from pro-business groups, conservatives, taxpayer organizations and the Christian Coalition.
In stepping aside, he gives up a spot on one of the most coveted House committees, Ways and Means. He said living under Republican rule in the House was not a factor in his decision, although Obey noted that Kleczka "was very turned off by the way the House is being run and managed. There's never any ability to plan a personal life."
Kleczka has stayed in touch back home, providing constituent services reputed to be top-notch, and flying back every other weekend in off-election years and every weekend in campaign years. Personal battle
He fought off occasional Republican challengers, but his biggest challenge was overcoming a personal demon - a drinking problem.
A 1995 arrest for drunken driving - his blood-alcohol content was twice the legal limit in Virginia - led him to acknowledge his alcoholism and seek treatment. Friends say it softened his rough edges. He turned to God as part of his recovery and continues to meet regularly with fellow recovering alcoholics.
"My family and friends and constituents rallied behind me," he recalled. "I had tried to cut back for years, unsuccessfully."
He added: "At the treatment center, we were told how to ask God for some help, and he's been there with me over the last nine years of sobriety. It's a gift that I have that I don't intend to give up because I'm leaving Congress."
His brash early days in the state Legislature as a young man earned him the label "Assembly's No. 1 brat" from one reporter; his taste for Madison's night life was punctuated by a fistfight with a lobbyist outside a tavern.
After settling down, Kleczka rose quickly in the Assembly and later the state Senate, acquiring a reputation as a tough, hard-working lawmaker. He was named chairman of the powerful Joint Finance Committee and served as assistant majority leader.
The south side kid then took the leap to Congress in 1984, turning back Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, then-state Sen. Lynn Adelman and other Democrats in a crowded primary before easily winning the general election. Critical decisions
In nearly two decades, Kleczka has faced momentous votes on two wars and a presidential impeachment. He voted against giving the elder George Bush authority to wage the Gulf War in 1991 and also opposed the younger Bush's invasion of Iraq.
Both wars, he felt, were unjust. The first was for oil, he said, and the second was based on false information about the potential threat to the U.S.
"It's easy for 535 legislators in D.C., miles away from their homes, to do this, knowing full well, they ain't goin'," Kleczka recalled of the war votes. "I knew full well if I supported it, I'd be sending your kids, not mine."
He considered the Bill Clinton impeachment a GOP effort to humiliate Clinton and believed the president's offenses did not warrant removal under the Constitution. He voted no.
Kleczka termed the recently passed Medicare bill "a bad deed" because he believes the prescription drug benefits for seniors were "puny" and the law will privatize Medicare and enrich providers.
"In the Medicare bill, everyone says it's $400 billion for the drug benefit, but that's (expletive)," Kleczka said. "A hundred billion is for increased payments to providers - hospitals, drug companies, doctors. What pushed that bill to passage was the lobbying on the part of all those groups."
When asked what he considered his top accomplishments, Kleczka cited local issues such as getting $150 million for new C-130s for the Air Force Reserve's 440th Tactical Airlift Wing based at Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee. He remembers helping Allis-Chalmers retirees fight for their pensions.
On the national level, he won passage of legislation aimed at easing tension in high-rise public housing between elderly residents and younger disabled residents.
He also won changes that restricted Supplementary Security Income benefits for alcoholics and the drug-addicted.
His biggest disappointments include his inability to get Congress to pass a privacy protection bill aimed at shielding Social Security numbers to prevent identity theft. He thought an amended version of Hillary Clinton's universal health insurance proposal should have passed in 1993.
"The problem ain't getting better," Kleczka said of the rising number of uninsured. "Congress in my lifetime will be forced to address it again." The next chapter
Kleczka said his wife, who works as an office manager at a medical clinic in Washington, was leery about him leaving a job he loves. Will he be unhappy?
"I said, 'No, Bon, the time has come.' And I'm not being pushed out. There's nothing else; it's just my decision to make."
Having never lost an election, "I prefer to get out while I'm on top," he said.
Kleczka noted that Wisconsin's two Senate seats are filled by Democrats with no apparent plans to leave. He said if he were 15 years younger, he would consider running for governor. But now, running for another office isn't in the cards, he said.
"I've been elected and re-elected 17 times," he said. "What more could a public servant ask for? I've indeed been blessed."
On the strength of the parts of Milwaukee County no longer represented by RATs in Congress (his native Wauwatosa, Franklin, Oak Creek, Greenfield and a couple points in between). I think the Pubbies should put up a candidate on the not-so-off-chance that Gwen (Drama Queen) Moore wins the RAT nomination.
Except carving up Oak Creek in redistricting to give the population advantage back to South Milwaukee (not that I would have been too opposed to that as I probably would have been put back into Jeff Stone's district and picked up a Pubbie Senator instead of keeping East Side Plale).
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