Leading candidates for the U.S. Senate proudly boast of their records in public office, but other hopefuls in the race are equally proud of their absence of elected credentials.
“We have 80 to 90 professional politicians in the U.S. Senate,” said American University professor Allan Lichtman, a Democratic candidate. “Do we need another one or do we need someone who?s fresh, who?s not tied into the old system?”
Lichtman said he usually gets “a very positive response to that” question. He compares himself with the career path of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, a college professor elected tothe highest legislative office in the land.
Josh Rales, another Democrat, proudly presents himself as a businessman who?s never been in office and refuses to accept money from special interests, partly because he has so much of his own. “It?s an anti-establishment message. ? There is an enormous amount of frustration and anger about leaders not addressing important issues” he says.
But what kind of chance does someone who?s never been elected to anything have to get into the Senate?
“The list was longer than I expected,” said associate Senate historian Donald Ritchie after he compiled the names. There are 14 current senators who do not list prior elected positions in their biographies, Ritchie reported, including some of the best-known.
They include Democrats Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, of New York. But there are more Republicans: Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee; Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina; Chuck Hagel of Nebraska; John Warner of Virginia; and both senators from Utah, Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett.
Many clearly had public visibility through Cabinet posts or family connections, but few fit the profile of Rales as a wealthy businessman in his first run for office, except for Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., founder and former CEO of ADP payroll services.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Ritchie said, there were more wealthy tycoons in the Senate, who often bought their seats in the state legislatures that elected them, leading to the push for direct election of senators by people.
If current Senate membership is any predictor, Rep. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and ex-Rep. Kweisi Mfume have the edge. Fifty-three members of the Senate served in the House, an all-time high, Ritchie said.
