A pair of former House members will be back in Congress in 2019, but this time rather than being colleagues with other lawmakers, they’ll be answering to them.
Ex-Rep. Van Hilleary is set to join the office of Rep.-elect John Rose, R-Tenn., as his chief of staff for the freshman congressman, the Herald-Citizen reported Tuesday. Hilleary served in the House 1995-2003 and was the Tennessee GOP gubernatorial nominee in 2002.
“I have nothing but the utmost respect for him and his family, appreciate the friendship we have formed over many years, and am honored to have the opportunity he has extended to me to again serve the people of Tennessee,” Hilleary told the newspaper. “I look forward to supporting his efforts in any way I can to help him be the most effective member of Congress possible and an agent of consequential, positive change for our state and nation.”
Hilleary is at the least the second former member of Congress returning as an aide in 2019.
Former Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., will serve as district director for Democratic Rep.-elect Ann Kirkpatrick, Roll Call reported in November. Barber, who was injured in the same 2011 Tucson shooting as then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., represented Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District from 2012 to 2015.
But Barber is familiar with the district director role, having previously held the position with Giffords in the state’s 8th Congressional District. He then replaced Giffords as the district’s member of Congress in 2012 following her resignation due to her injuries.
The incidence of former members of Congress accepting staff roles has happened occasionally before.
Former Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., worked for his old friend, one-term Rep. Chip Cravaack, R-Minn., as an interim chief of staff from 2011-2012. In 2004, former Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va., similarly tapped departing Rep. Edward Schrock, R-Va., to be his top aide managing his House Government Reform subcommittee responsibilities. Schrock, a two-term congressman, did not seek re-election in 2004 after it was alleged he had secretly solicited sex from other men in a phone chat room.
