Posted on 10/30/2014 9:22:53 AM PDT by Parmenio
With projections of a GOP win growing daily, nervousness in Senate committee offices has turned to panic as an army of Democratic staffers braces to be fired, replaced by a Republican majority and their aides.
The spoils of political war? Estimates are that 300-600 Democratic committee and personal staff jobs would be on the chopping block if the Republicans pull off the expected victory.
“There will be a mass exodus of Senate Democrat staff from committees,” said one insider.
And Republicans will get to hire hundreds more aides. A loss on Tuesday that keeps the Democrats in charge of the Senate will cost no GOP jobs, other than those working for retiring lawmakers.
Under a Senate deal cut by Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the funding and staff breakdown on committees is about 60 percent for the majority, and 40 percent for the minority. It had been two-thirds majority, one-third minority, but the GOP cut the deal in order to keep their minimum funding at 40 percent.
Also getting hit would be the offices of Reid and other Democratic leaders.
For Democratic staffers, the potential layoffs couldn’t come at a worse time. According to officials, some will find jobs in the Obama administration, but those openings are few and will last only two years. And Hillary Clinton’s team is already loaded up with long-time aides, leaving few policy jobs for outsiders.
"There will be nowhere in the downtown private sector to go. Maybe 10 percent can find a slot in the Obama administration. It will be ugly," said a former White House aide now working on K Street.
That's because many lobbying firms are full-up with Democrats.
And there are already a sizable number of Democratic staffers already looking for work since their bosses are retiring.
“It could be a lot of individuals. And that’s not even counting all the people looking for work now with a retirement coming up,” said a key Senate Democratic staffer.
Sorry to deflate your balloon, but when RINO Scott Brown assumed the Senate seat formerly held by the guy that put the blonde in the pond, he kept most of the staffers.
The number of people willing to live six to a flat on the Green line and work for relatively niggardly wages is more finite than most people think.
Yes, we have a problem with the politicization of senior civil service, but an outright return to the spoils system would scare me. In truth, I think it would be a quick road to large scale violence.
Most of them today are Democrat political appointees who were moved into Civil Service as the Democrats were moving out of power. The notion that Civil Service is the non-partisan band of dedicated public servants is as antiquated as the vacuum tube radio in the living room
Isn’t this zero net? You have approximately 1000 aides. 60% Democrats, 40% Republican. If the rats pick up let’s say 5 more seats, more republican aides will be fired.
This happens every election. Nothing to see here.
Yea, I can imagine being cast out of work. Thanks to the policies of Barack Obama and Jennifer Granholm, my job was eliminated and I had to move 600 miles away, only seeing my wife and kids for one Saturday every few weeks for 8 months until they could make the move. My sympathy level is ZERO.
Every single one of them will funnel into some government agency.
Count on it.
Might as well!
Right now, they are all commie rats working against us.
So, a spoils system would at least change that when we have a repub president.
When a rat is president, it’ll just be the same as it is now.
That is problem with rat warrens, when you get rid of one, they turn up somewhere else.
If you do not kill all the rats in given population, they just move into someone else’s neighborhood.
Just part of life- recognize the problem and try to mitigate to keep them from getting numerous.
I doubt that they would be fired. They would lose their jobs, however. When your employer goes out of business you lose your job.
Bravo!
and how many R’s would keep them? ...........sadly, some will. They must think that the staffer’s experience is worth it. Then the Dem sabotages the new boss. ....stupid party again.
Oh, goody! The depression finally hits Washington, DC.
Unemployment to be happy about!
How is it that seven Democrat Senators losing their seats would result in 300-600 staffers losing their jobs? That comes to somewhere between 42 and 85 staffers per Senator.
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