Posted on 10/31/2002 8:45:01 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
The Baltimore County executive, C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, knew the national Democratic Party was eager — or to put it bluntly, desperate — for him to win the open House seat here in Maryland's Second District. Even so, he was a bit surprised by what the party bestowed on him.
First, he started getting advice from Representative Elijah E. Cummings, who has represented parts of the urban core of Baltimore since 1996. Mr. Cummings told him to start running far more commercials on black radio stations and to have black political leaders record messages that can be automatically telephoned to African-American households.
Then Steny H. Hoyer, the longtime Maryland congressman, began tutoring Mr. Ruppersberger in the fine points of debate about Social Security and prescription drugs.
Finally, Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey, who represents the Paterson area in the House, showed up with a portfolio of campaign advice, suggesting it might not hurt if the 56-year-old Mr. Ruppersberger demonstrated his vigor on the trail, while not mentioning that his Republican opponent, former Representative Helen Delich Bentley, is 78.
"At first, I thought, do I really need three mentors?" said Mr. Ruppersberger, whose race appears to be very close. "I thought I didn't need that much help. But Bill Pascrell is one of the few people who's come from my background and gone on to Congress, and he's been a tremendous help to me. You think you know how the process works, but these are the guys who really know."
Members of Congress have always helped candidates with photo-opportunity endorsements and informal advice. But this year, in a first for a national election, the Democrats institutionalized this process, creating a formal mentoring program that assigned one or more representatives to tutor candidates in tough House races. More than 50 members of Congress are taking part, and while some declined because of the time commitment, the candidates who are being helped seem delighted by the free graduate education course.
The program is an overt reflection of the Democrats' frustration at their inability to regain control of the House after losing it to the Republicans in 1994. Richard A. Gephardt, the House Democratic leader who developed the idea, said that it had become increasingly painful to watch good candidates lose in 1996, 1998 and 2000 because of campaigns that lacked some necessary element of professionalism.
"You've got to have a good candidate and the resources and the right message, but you've also got to run a competent campaign, and that's what was bothering me the most," he said in a recent interview. "We knew we had to do a better job politically, but it's often hard to get the human talent we need to run a good campaign and win back those seats."
In politics as in baseball, the pool of good managers is limited and in demand, and often an itinerant campaign manager is unfamiliar with the peculiarities of a district or special type of race. Experience in nuance counts, for example, when a man and a woman run against each other, or a white candidate runs in black neighborhoods, or a candidate is the first Asian to run in a state.
After a few pep talks about the tantalizing proximity of Democratic control — and a little arm-twisting — Mr. Gephardt persuaded several dozen colleagues to join the program. That means more than just a few phone calls, because members are asked to repeatedly visit the candidates they are helping, to campaign with them and to help raise money. The demands generally limited participation to members in safe seats.
Representative Sherrod Brown of Ohio has been showing David Fink, a political novice who is running in the redrawn Ninth District of Michigan, how to approach a diner full of voters and gently interrupt their meals without seeming intrusive.
Tim Ryan, a state senator running for the Ohio seat vacated when the House expelled James A. Traficant Jr., has learned how to raise money from unions and other big givers from Michael E. Capuano, who won a tough primary in the suburbs of Boston in 1998.
David Wu of Oregon, chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, has provided tips to Stan Matsunaka, president of the Colorado State Senate, on how to be the state's first successful Asian candidate for Congress.
Mr. Brown, a popular incumbent who faces only token opposition to his election to a sixth term, talks by phone to Mr. Fink at least once a week and has made several appearances with him in suburban Detroit. He is also helping Mr. Ryan.
Mr. Fink said the advice he received went beyond the usual details of polling, buying broadcast time and mailing literature, which is what paid professional staff members do.
"There's a time when you need more than what a consultant can tell you, when you need someone who's been in your shoes," said Mr. Fink, a lawyer who faces a difficult challenge in unseating the five-term incumbent Republican, Joe Knollenberg. "You need someone who can warn you about the tough questions that you're going to face and how to handle them, and what's exactly the appropriate moment to approach someone and get their attention focused on what you're talking about."
Charles Jefferson, the director of the mentoring program and a former staff member for Mr. Gephardt, said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee tried to match people through region or background, looking for members who had been in similar election races.
Hispanics are often helping Hispanics, and in many cases, women are helping women — Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney of New York and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, for example, are working with Martha Fuller Clark in New Hampshire.
But some pairings are less predictable. For example, Harold Ford Jr., a black congressman from Memphis, is working with Jack Conway, a white candidate in a tough race in Louisville. Both share the conservative fiscal philosophy of the Congressional "Blue Dog" caucus.
Members are also showing candidates how to raise money, and are squeezing dollars out of fellow members to pass on to their pupils.
"It's been a huge help to me," said Mr. Ryan, 29, whose youthfulness has become a campaign issue in Ohio. "I don't know a lot of these labor guys, and Mike Capuano has been great about calling them and telling them to give me money. And he and Sherrod took me around to the Capitol twice and got other members to give me checks."
At this stage, it remains hard to discern whether the program has made a difference. Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said he had seen no evidence that the Democrats were more competitive this year, and he said that the Republicans have no plans to institute a similar program, finding its formality too limiting. Many Democratic candidates in the program are behind in their races, and most forecasters say the party's chances of retaking the House remain tenuous.
Democrats are convinced the program will give them a lift of one or two percentage points in many races, and Mr. Gephardt said he planned to continue it, possibly in expanded form, in future election cycles.
"I'd want to do this again," said Mr. Capuano. "I wish someone had mentored me back when I was starting out."
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