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In Fight for Control of Congress, Tough Skirmishes Within Parties

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September 12, 1999, Section 1, Page 1Buy Reprints
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The battle for control of Congress in 2000 has set off a furious tug-of-war among House and Senate leaders within both parties who are competing to recruit the best candidates with hard-sell appeals and enticements like choice committee assignments and fund-raising help.

Traditionally, the parties have viewed the House as the prime stepping-stone for future Senators. But with Republicans controlling the House with the slimmest majority in about half a century, House leaders are imploring incumbents to stay put rather than place their safe seats in jeopardy.

Although it is more likely that the House will change hands than the Senate -- where Republicans hold a larger majority -- Senate leaders have not been reticent about trying to raid the other chamber for candidates. They have aggressively encouraged some House members to give up their seats to run for the Senate, telling of the increased influence and prestige in representing an entire state.

''Both House and Senate leaders sense a chance of a victory -- and if only one institution can have a majority, we want it to be ours,'' said Senator Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. ''It's a civil war being fought in the family. The weapons are committee assignments, campaign assistance and a lot of pleas of personal friendship.''

Representative Thomas M. Davis 3d of Virginia, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said his party's House leaders were ''trading all kinds of things'' to persuade House incumbents not to try to bolt to the Senate. He said there have been ''payoffs from not getting into the Senate race,'' but that publicly, ''we don't like to talk about those things, obviously.''

This behind-the-scenes jockeying over the past several months has drawn little publicity. But it may be vitally important in helping determine the outcome of the House and Senate races more than a year from now.

Thus far, both Republican and Democratic House leaders have enjoyed great success in retaining their members. Only a handful of House members have announced that they will definitely run for the Senate next year; roughly a dozen in each party have decided to stay after sometimes tortuous deliberations.

House leaders become unsettled when incumbents threaten to run for the Senate because incumbents have a far better chance of winning re-election to the House than newcomers from the same party have of winning the open seat.

''Dick Gephardt has tried to post a big 'no hunting' sign on his chamber,'' said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster. ''There has never been as much pressure on House members to stay put.''

In encouraging lawmakers to stay, House leaders note that control of the House is in far more doubt than control of the Senate, so their decision could make a difference. They also point out that it is less risky for a House member to stay put -- and move up in seniority -- than to gamble on a statewide run that would mean trying to amass daunting sums of money. By contrast, Senate leaders argue that their chamber is more prestigious and carries greater national influence. And Senators have to run only every six years.

Mr. Davis said he and House Republican leaders were particularly aggressive in persuading Representative James E. Rogan of California to stay in the House. He said ''no one else'' in the party could have retained that seat. His pitch to Mr. Rogan, he said, was that as a House manager of President Clinton's impeachment he was a target of Democrats, but re-election would be the ultimate revenge.

''We let him know that it was going to be a very tough Senate run for him,'' Mr. Davis said. ''But being the No. 1 target in the country, he could be a hero winning that seat in the House.''

He tried a different pitch with Representative Mark Foley of Florida, who eventually decided against running for the Senate. (Representative Bill McCollum is seeking the seat.) ''I took Mark Foley aside and said, 'Mark, we just put you on Ways and Means -- it's a huge investment,' '' Mr. Davis said.

The intraparty struggles over recruits are not over. The decision last week by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey not to run for the Senate nomination next year has opened new tensions between Senate and House interests.

Mrs. Whitman had been viewed as the favorite, but her decision has left two House members, Bob Franks and Frank A. LoBiondo, toying with running for the Senate. Now, Republican House leaders are scrambling to persuade them to stay. Mr. Franks and Mr. LoBiondo are considered to have safe seats that could turn Democratic if they give them up.

Another lawmaker who is being lavished with attention is Representative Bernard Sanders, an independent from Vermont who usually votes with Democrats. Mr. Sanders is weighing a challenge next year to Senator James M. Jeffords, a Republican. Mr. Sanders's wife, Jane, said he was assured by Senate Democratic leaders that he would be treated like a Democrat if he were elected to the Senate. But if Mr. Sanders stays in the House, leaders there said, they promise to help him with fund-raising.

''He's gotten assurances from Senator Daschle that he would be treated the exact same way he has been treated in the House -- as an equal as opposed to being frozen out because of his independent status,'' Ms. Sanders said. ''He's gotten assurances that he would maintain his seniority and his status in the House, and if the Democrats gain control he would be up for a chairmanship on a banking subcommittee.''

House Democratic leaders are also pleading with Representative David Minge of Minnesota not to give up his seat to take on Senator Rod Grams. Mr. Minge, among others, explained the House Democrats' tag-team approach: Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, comes on strong, urging House members not to defect. Then Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the Democratic leader who is hoping to become Speaker, tries a paternal approach.

''Pat is more direct,'' Mr. Minge said. ''He said, 'I hate to see you make a mistake here. I'm glad you're planning to drop the idea of running for the Senate.' With Dick, it's more of a fatherly visit. He said he doesn't want me to be intoxicated with the prospect of serving in the Senate because it's not easy to take on an incumbent -- and there are a lot of opportunities here in the House.''

In this case, House members seem more eager to keep Mr. Minge than Senate leaders are to persuade him to run. Several Senate officials said that while Mr. Minge is well-suited to his district, he may be too conservative to win a statewide contest.

Senate leaders acknowledge that their failure to recruit the traditional roster of House incumbents to try to jump to the Senate has resulted in a less impressive field of Senate candidates.

The greatest disappointment thus far for Senate Democrats is in Ohio, where Representative Sherrod Brown was viewed by party leaders as the most potent challenger to Senator Mike DeWine next year. Mr. Brown said he decided to stay in the House after frenzied lobbying on both sides. For now, Mr. DeWine has no opponent.

Mr. Brown recalled how he was wooed by Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Senate Democratic leader, and Mr. Torricelli: ''I was flattered when Torricelli and Daschle came over off the Senate floor in the rarefied atmosphere. Torricelli and Daschle were very persuasive. They made the case of everything from quality of life in the Senate to that I would be one of 100'' members instead of one of 435 in the House.

''Brown we wanted very badly,'' Mr. Torricelli said.

But Mr. Brown said Mr. Gephardt reminded him that if Democrats win back the House, ''I would be chairman of one of the best subcommittees in the Congress: health and the environment.''

Had he played out his agonizing longer, Mr. Brown said, ''Who knows? Maybe I would have gotten more help on appropriations projects in my district and all that. But I'm not a good enough poker player to say, 'I'm very interested in the Senate race, talk me out of it.' ''

In the end, Mr. Brown said, if the fight for control of the House were not so close he might have bolted. ''The probability of Democrats taking the House played a major role in my staying,'' he said.

In fact, the pressure for lawmakers to stay in the House does not come only from their leaders.

''There is a lot of peer pressure -- this is not just leadership pressure,'' said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster. He said that if lawmakers with safe seats quit the House, that could ''leave their colleagues very much in the lurch.''

Had he quit the House, Mr. Brown said, that might have been detrimental to several of his colleagues because he has such a safe seat he can afford to travel to help the party.

''I do a lot of stuff to help other Democrats,'' he said. His departure, he said, would have created ''a bigger hole than just one seat.'' Another House member from Ohio, Representative Ted Strickland, also opted not to try for the Senate.

Some House members could not resist the temptation to run for the Senate, like Mr. McCollum, a Republican, and Democrats Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Ron Klink of Pennsylvania. Others, like Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., a Tennessee Democrat, are considering running for the Senate next year.

For some members who decided to stay in the House, the decision was not so much for the good of their colleagues, but because of a practical realization that their efforts to advance to the Senate may be futile.

Representative Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat, had considered a Senate run. But he decided to stay: ''In order for me to run I had to be convinced that I could win the primary, and I wasn't at that point. It was still a very chancy thing.''

As an added inducement, party officials said they floated the idea to Mr. Pallone that he might eventually take over the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 1, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: In Fight for Control of Congress, Tough Skirmishes Within Parties. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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