One of the most common – and often devastating – attacks launched by non-incumbent candidates against their opponents is the charge of being a “career politician.” We saw it used effectively by Keith Fimian against Pat Herrity in the Republican primary, and it is one of the most common charges launched by Tea Party candidates who have no elected office experience as a way of turning what should be a benefit – having served before – into a negative. Most recently, I’ve seen many early supporters of recently announced U.S. Senate candidate Jamie Radtke argue that since she isn’t a career politician, she’s exactly what we need to help clean up the mess in Washington.
I guess my legal education has rewired my brain when it comes to these kinds of debates, so I can’t help asking: What exactly is a “career politician?” In fact, who is a politician? What does one have to do to become a “career politician?” And are they really that bad?
I think too many people place too much emphasis on the idea that in order to be a politician, you need to be in elected office. I don’t buy it. There are so many appointed positions in government that one can have an entire career in government service at a high level without ever having been elected to office. Look at President Obama’s cabinet secretaries – 7 of the 15 secretaries have never held elected office, and only one of the cabinet level job holders – White House Chief of Staff, head of the EPA, UN Ambassador, etc. – have held elective office. I think most folks would consider Arne Duncan, Robert Gates or Timothy Geithner to be politicians – as the Secretaries of Education, Defense and Treasury, you see them out on the talking heads shows and out defending the president and his policies all the time. That’s an inherently political job, and those positions are exempt from the Hatch Act requirements that bar civil servants from getting involved in politics. But none of those guys have held elective office. At the same time, many of their colleagues in the cabinet, like Hillary Clinton, Gary Locke and Hilda Solis, have held elective office. It’s entirely possible to have a rewarding career in politics without ever having won an election.
Even outside of government, there is an entire industry of folks – of which I am a part – who make their living on politics. Whether one is a lobbyist, public relations professional, political consultant, professional campaign manager, PAC administrator, or other Government Affairs type, you’re engaged in politics as a profession. I often referred to myself as a politician, even though I have not held elected office, because I am immersed in politics and have been for almost a decade now. I’ve made politics my career because I enjoy the work and I’m good at it. I characterize myself as a veteran political professional in the various bios of me floating around the web. That sounds a lot like being a career politician, doesn’t it? Would anyone argue that the big bosses in the 19th Century – the Boss Tweeds of the world – weren’t politicians? Or that party leaders like Pat Mullins or Brian Moran aren’t politicians because they aren’t elected to public office? I don’t think so. If you make money in politics, it seems pretty clear to me that you’re a politician. And if you make it your career, it seems pretty clear to me you’re a career politician, even if you haven’t sat in the Senate as long as Robert Byrd.
So when I hear Jamie Radtke on Fox News last night railing against “career politicians” and the “idea of building a career in politics” I really have to ask what exactly she considers herself to be. Look at her biography. Right out of college she went to work for Senator Jesse Helms on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She then spent 2 years consulting with the Virginia Department of Taxation. Then she became Political Director at the Virginia Conservative Action PAC. Then she started her own political consulting business, Sovereign Consulting, where she claims she won races against incumbent and moderate Republicans (although VPAP shows no vendor named “Sovereign Consulting,” only one donor named Sovereign Consulting who gave to Ken Cuccinelli, and no money going from candidates to Jamie, with only VCA PAC on record as paying her as a vendor). Then she joined the Tea Party movement and has been President of the Richmond Tea Party and Chair of the Federation of Virginia Tea Party Patriots. From her resume, it looks like she’s never held a job that wasn’t somehow involved in politics or government. How is she not a career politician? How do you complain about career politicians when you’ve never held a job since college that wasn’t government or politics related?
Pat Herrity got labelled a career politician for running for three offices in three years. Jamie Radtke has spent 10 years in politics in various positions – far longer than Herrity and even longer than my own career in politics. It makes no sense for her to act like she isn’t a career politician or that she has no ties to special interests – what else is the Tea Party but a special interest? It’s no different than the NRA, the AFL-CIO or any other group that organizes people for political reasons to lobby government and elect folks who agree with them. That they dislike politicians who they believe have sold out and are harming the country makes them no different than any other group out there, from Emily’s List to the Chamber of Commerce, most of whom would say the same thing about legislators they’re trying to defeat.
I can see why folks like Keith Fimian – someone who literally had no experience in politics, even at the local level, until he decided to run – complain and vilify “career politicians.” Not having spent any time in politics has earned him the right to complain about those of us who earn a living this way. I may disagree with him about it, but he can say it without looking like a hypocrite. It doesn’t make sense, however, for anyone who has made politics their career and held multiple jobs in and outside government and in the political arena to do so. That just looks hypocritical, opportunistic and self-serving.
As the old saying goes, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. I sincerely hope that Jamie Radtke drops the “career politician” nonsense because her glass house won’t last very long if she doesn’t.
