Member Moms

Members of Congress don’t always make the best neighbors. Just ask Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., who lives in the basement apartment of a Capitol Hill row house owned by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., his upstairs landlady. In the row house next door are three colleagues — Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., Melissa Bean, D-Ill., and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. Cardoza, who once owned a restaurant in his home district, has invited his three neighbors over for paella and a few other elaborate dinners that he has whipped up. But he jokes that he’s still waiting for them to reciprocate the hospitality.

      “They say that they will invite me,” Cardoza said. “And they have the best of intentions. But they are very busy.”

     Busy indeed. Maloney, Bean, and Wasserman Schultz don’t seem prepared to start throwing dinner parties anytime soon. Their refrigerator shelves are usually bare, stocked only when they place an occasional online order to Giant’s Peapod delivery service. Bean acknowledges that she doesn’t even know where the local grocery store is.

     Of course, many lawmakers have hectic schedules, juggling political and personal responsibilities while commuting between Washington and their districts or states each week that Congress is in session. And more than a few of them have chosen to share residences in the shadow of the Capitol while in Washington.

     The most famous of these is the “Animal House” in the 100 block of D Street SE. It is owned by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who has taken in numerous congressional roommates during the past two decades, including the current co-habitants, Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., and Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. In numerous stories in major newspapers over the years, the tenants have repeated their running gags about Durbin’s rat-killing escapades and Schumer’s steadfast refusal to make his bed. Comedian Al Franken even pitched a Hollywood sitcom based on their crash pad back in 2001.

     Just a block away is the lesser-known, feminine counterpart to the Animal House, the far-more-tastefully decorated abode owned by Maloney. At a time when Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has risen to become the first woman House speaker, and when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is waging a competitive campaign that could make her the first woman president, why not focus on this female power pad? What makes Maloney, Bean, and Wasserman Schultz especially interesting — and especially busy — is that each is a working mom whose husband and children have remained home in their districts throughout their tenures.

     Among the 87 women serving in Congress, 71 are mothers, but fewer than 10 of them currently have young children. Many of those who are mothers did not start their congressional careers until most or all of their kids were grown and had left home, for college and beyond. That’s the case, for example, with Pelosi, who gathered her six grandchildren around her at her January 4 swearing-in as speaker. When she was first elected in 1987, her youngest of five children was 16. Likewise, Chelsea Clinton was in college when her mom joined the Senate in 2001.

     By contrast, Maloney’s two daughters, who are now in law school and college, were 12 and 5 when she was first elected in 1992. As for her junior tenants, both of whom were first elected in 2004, Bean has two daughters, ages 16 and 13, while Wasserman Schultz has 7-year-old twins — a boy and a girl — and a 3-year-old daughter. The residents of the “Member Moms” row house contend that their dual roles allow them to bring unique — and vital — insight to the legislative table in Congress.

     “It’s important to have moms in Congress. Our perspective is different than that of dads with kids, or of women without kids,” said Wasserman Schultz, who is 40. “Our perspectives are different when we focus on issues like health care or education.”

     That’s not to say that Wasserman Schultz finds it easy to leave her children behind in the district each week. “Kids need their mom,” she said. “I am the homework person more than [my husband] Steve is. That’s not sexist. It’s just the way it is. Plus, there is an emotional bond that only a mother can provide.” When a mother decides to spend time away from her children as an elected official, she added, “the motivations are different than for dads who make the same decision. Dads arrive at the decision more quickly and believe that they can balance things more easily.”

     The difficult balancing act that the Member Moms face was evident when they met with National Journal for an interview in their living room on a recent Monday, as they prepared for the congressional workweek. The scene was frenetic: Wasserman Schultz was constantly checking messages on her BlackBerry, Maloney was blending vegetables for one of her trademark high-energy “green” juice drinks, and Bean was trying to eat a Subway sandwich in her lap while her visiting teenage daughters hung out on the roof deck with a photographer.

     Although their legislative schedules don’t allow the roommates to spend much time together at the house, they often hold late-night chats that they say provide valuable support. “We are friends, so we talk to each other. I get great advice from them,” said Maloney, 59. “Being a member of Congress is like having a fire hose in your mouth.”

     Bean, who is 45, said that the living situation gives the three women the chance to form lasting friendships — an increasing rarity in Washington these days. “This is such a fast-paced job that you don’t typically get the opportunity to know other members. So this has allowed us to get to know each other better,” she said. “Being moms with daughters has given us that common bond as well.”

     “I am accustomed to working in the private sector, where I outlasted everybody,” Bean added. “But my two roommates are so energetic. That motivates me even more. To be surrounded by these incredibly talented women is inspiring. We feed off of it. I love it.”

     The three women have taken divergent paths in the House. Maloney, the veteran of the group, is a policy activist who serves as chairwoman of a Financial Services subcommittee and as vice chairwoman of the Joint Economic Committee.

     Wasserman Schultz is a political animal — and a fast-rising one at that. As a freshman during the last Congress, she co-chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” fundraising program under Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. This year, she won appointments as a chief deputy majority whip and as an Appropriations subcommittee chairwoman, or “cardinal.” Bean has a much lower profile. A moderate “Blue Dog” from a Republican-leaning district, she has focused on maintaining her independence from party leaders during her two terms. “Members make different choices,” Maloney said. “Debbie likes politics…. If Melissa did what Debbie does, she would be defeated for re-election.”

     From their neighbors’ perspective, the Member Moms are doing a pretty good job of having it all. Cardoza said he often sees Bean or Wasserman Schultz poised on the front stoop of their house in the evening, dispensing homework advice to their kids over a cellphone. Berkley, who has two grown sons of her own, called them “incredibly good parents.”

     “If we are supposed to be ‘the people’s House,’ we need to look like America,” Berkley said. “Mothers with kids at home understand what other women deal with across the country.”

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

     It’s just a two-block walk to the House office buildings from Maloney’s place, which sits along a grassy park frequented by joggers and dog-walkers. Although many of the row houses in the area date to the 19th century, hers is newly constructed. Maloney used to live by herself a couple of blocks away, but she said she found it “lonely to live alone. I didn’t want to go home to an empty apartment.” So in 2004, Maloney purchased her home from a builder.

     In the November election that year, Wasserman Schultz coasted to victory, winning an open House seat without a serious challenge in either the primary or the general election. She’d had at least one roommate during most of her 12 years in the Florida Legislature, so Wasserman Schultz decided to contact potential roommates for Washington. When she looked at the list of incoming Democrats, it appeared that Bean — a businesswoman with no prior political experience who had just knocked off 18-term GOP Rep. Phil Crane — was the only obvious match.

     “I called her in Illinois before we arrived for [freshman] orientation,” Wasserman Schultz said. “We clicked from the first minute, and quickly decided to live together.” At a Washington reception for the freshmen soon after that, her husband, Steve, met Maloney, who said she was looking for two roommates. “That was it,” said Wasserman Schultz, even though she had never met Maloney.

     For her part, Bean agreed to move into the house, sight unseen. “I had a lot of decisions to make as a new member who had defeated a long-term incumbent,” she said. “I had no time to deal with living arrangements. So Debbie went to look at the house, she liked it, and I trusted her.” Bean added, “Carolyn is a bit of a den mother, who took us under her wing.”

     Maloney has the third floor, which includes her bedroom, all to herself; Bean and Wasserman Schultz share the second floor, where each has her own bedroom and bathroom. A housekeeper maintains George Miller’s dive, but the three female lawmakers say they clean their place themselves. “We clean stem to stern before each recess, and before our husbands arrive,” Wasserman Schultz said. In response to an observation that their home appeared well-maintained, Maloney replied, “You are not looking.”

     Maloney is the early riser, up by 6 most days to attend a tae kwon do class with a bipartisan group of male and female members at the House gym. “I need my exercise…. It makes me happy,” said Maloney, who added that she is the first woman in Congress with a black belt. The others prefer to sleep later. “We are not taking her up on that,” Bean said. The hyperactive Wasserman Schultz added, “I get my exercise running around the Capitol.”

     Once the three are out the door each day, they usually don’t return until late at night. Typically they have had dinner at the Capitol or at a work-related meeting or social event. Maloney often retires first, leaving Bean and Wasserman Schultz to chat about their exhausting days while munching on microwave popcorn.

     “The popcorn smell often gets to Carolyn,” Bean confided. “It becomes like a slumber party where we talk about our day” while sitting on the end of a bed, she said, adding, “Debbie and I are very simpatico.” For her part, Wasserman Schultz said, “Melissa and I at the end of the day commiserate and compare notes.” Depending on their next day’s activities, each also spends late-evening time at home with staff-prepared briefing books.

     One topic of conversation at the house revolves around the Financial Services Committee, where each of the women has spent considerable time, although Wasserman Schultz left the panel at the start of this year to join Appropriations. At home, “we talk about Barney,” Bean said, referring to the fast-talking and often provocative Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass. (None would elaborate much on that point!)

     Despite their packed schedules, the women have occasionally used their home for social purposes. In March, they hosted a bridal shower for Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D. Also last month, Maloney organized an early-morning reception at which about 20 other women members met with Hillary Clinton to discuss her presidential bid. Wasserman Schultz, an early supporter of Clinton’s, joined them. But Bean, who is backing the presidential bid of her home-state colleague, Sen. Barack Obama, agreed to depart before the Clinton entourage arrived.

     Each of the three women flies home virtually every weekend to be with her family, although Maloney sometimes travels by train. In separate interviews in their congressional offices, the three said that their husbands tend to have little direct involvement in their political lives and often resist suggestions that they become more active participants. “Steve is a background guy; he doesn’t like the spotlight,” Wasserman Schultz said. “He will go with me to events to be supportive. But he prefers to be left out.” Coincidentally, all three husbands work in the financial sector.

     Some members of Congress decide to move their families to Washington, but none of the women wanted to go that route. “It would be an undue burden on my family to move them here,” Bean said. “They didn’t want that.”

     They say they are well aware of the toll that the stresses of political life have taken on many marriages, and they maintain that their own marriages — all of which predate their careers in elected office — remain successful. “All three of us have a balance of personalities within our marriage,” Wasserman Schultz explained. “My husband does not step on other people. He’s not a Type A, like other guys I dated. If I had two Type A’s in my marriage, I could not have had this life…. Steve and I decided how to make this work. He emphasized that he could take care of the kids” with the help of day care facilities (but not a nanny).

     For his part, Steve Schultz said that his family’s situation is common to that of many others in which both parents work and at least one is often away from home. “It’s not different because Debbie is in politics,” he said. “It’s not easy raising three kids, but it’s not more difficult that she is away.” Schultz, 42, who regularly prepares meals and school lunches for the children, added, “Commuting is hardest for Debbie, especially to be away from her kids. Parents often miss their kids more than the kids miss their parents.”

     Bean said that when she first ran for office in 2002 (and lost to Crane, 57 percent to 43 percent), her husband was accustomed to her traveling for her business as a technology and sales consultant, and a political campaign was not radically different. “Dinners were still served, and clothes were cleaned,” she said. “Alan was very supportive of my doing this. You can’t do this job without a supportive spouse.”

     While they are in Washington, the women are in frequent cellphone contact with their children, often more than once a day. Unless they are giving a speech or are busy on the House floor, each will usually interrupt a meeting or a conversation to respond to a child’s phone call. Wasserman Schultz even communicates home via video over the Internet.

Having It All?

     Even if their lives are hardly normal, Maloney, Bean, and Wasserman Schultz, along with other women members of Congress who were interviewed, emphasized they want to send a positive message to young girls that they can serve in politics and also have something close to a conventional family life. That’s one reason why the three agreed to cooperate for this story. They view themselves as role models.

     “I want to show other young women that it can be done,” Wasserman Schultz said. She has made it a point to be the leader of her daughter Rebecca’s Brownie troop, and schedules its meetings on days that she expects to be in Florida.

     Only in recent years has Congress had any working mothers. The pioneer was then-Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo., whose two children were ages 6 and 2 when she was unexpectedly elected in 1972. Even then-Rep. Bella Abzug, D-N.Y., an outspoken feminist, “told me that I couldn’t do it,” Schroeder recounted in a recent interview with NJ. “A lot of members [of both parties] snickered, as if I was demeaning the institution, though they didn’t always say it to my face.”

     “Having kids is very relevant for a member of Congress,” Schroeder added. “I totally understood the need for child care. It was not a frill, as many then thought. It was the same thing with the Family and Medical Leave Act [of which she was a leading proponent]…. When I spoke with women’s groups, I found that a lot of them identified with me.” Schroeder, who has been president of the Association of American Publishers since 1997, added she has no regrets about her congressional career and the trade-offs she had to make with her family. “The kids kept me from getting so full of myself,” she said.

     Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., had her own young family — her daughters were also 6 and 2 — when she succeeded Schroeder in 1996. She and her husband, a lawyer, relocated the family to Bethesda, Md., during her early years in Congress. But DeGette said that they abandoned the effort because two permanent homes created too many complications.

     “During the week, I am in constant contact with my kids, with cellphone, text messaging, and e-mail,” she said. “On weekends in Denver, I avoid social events with friends. As a family, we agree to do certain things, as a bond.” DeGette has become a mentor to other mothers in Congress. “This is important to the House,” she said. “It helps our leaders to understand the pressures on families.”

     Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, has one of the more unusual situations for a working mother in Congress. Her adopted daughter, Caroline, died at age 9 after a long bout with cancer, and Pryce wanted another child. She adopted Mia, an African-American girl, when she was 3 days old. Pryce’s husband, Randy, objected to the adoption, and that became “a factor in our divorce,” she said. “Family is important to me. It was a very important decision.” While she is in Washington, Pryce has arranged for her parents, five nearby siblings, and a close friend to care for Mia, who is now 5.

     For her part, Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., says that parenting her two children, who are with her husband in Albuquerque, has become more challenging now that the Democrats are in control of the House and have scheduled longer legislative workweeks. “I do less community work, and I am less accessible at home,” Wilson fumed. “I resent it when my time is wasted.”

     Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., voices some ambivalence about her experience as a working mom. When she won her seat in a special election in 1989 after the death of her predecessor, her two daughters were 3 and 2. “I had a trial by fire,” she recounted. “Other members told me that it would work out to be part of the ‘Tuesday to Thursday’ club. But I had no orientation. And I had to spend an unbelievable number of hours in Washington during those first few years.” Ros-Lehtinen — whose husband, Dexter, is a prominent lawyer in Miami — said that other family members, especially her parents, who live across the street, were helpful in caring for her daughters while she was in Washington.

     Over the years, Ros-Lehtinen has become an active and respected member of the House, and this year she won an internal party contest to become the ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Her daughters are now undergraduates at Brown and Yale universities. But when asked whether it’s all been worthwhile, Ros-Lehtinen hesitated.

     “It’s difficult to balance it all. We are fed that myth that you can have it all, as a ‘Wonder Woman,’ ” she said. “I found that you can’t be the best mom and the best congressperson. You try to strike a balance. But you can’t do 100 percent…. You keep the balls in the air, and you hope for the best. There is great guilt and angst as to what is the proper way.”

     An even more sober assessment was provided by former Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Fla., Wasserman Schultz’s mentor, whom she succeeded when he lost a 2004 Senate bid. “There is nothing good from a family perspective about commuting” as a member of Congress, Deutsch repeated three times for emphasis. “The question is, how do you make it less bad?”

     Deutsch said he discussed his views with Wasserman Schultz before she became the front-runner to succeed him. “My advice to members with young kids is that they need to balance, and to know that it’s absolutely a challenge to be a parent and a member of Congress,” he said. After spending 12 years in the House, Deutsch settled with his wife and their two teenagers in Israel, where they have repeatedly extended what they expected would be a stay of a few months. He works professionally on behalf of several south Florida clients, and he makes occasional trips home to meet with them.

     Serving in the House is “an unbelievably intense” experience, Wasserman Schultz agreed. “A member of Congress is like an island, surrounded by staff and perpetually in motion…. The pressure never stops.” In contrast to serving as a state legislator, she added, “there is tremendous scrutiny,” and the effect can be “very isolating.” But she noted that she is strengthened by her new friendships with Maloney and Bean, “whose advice I can trust.”

Profiles on the members:

Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill.

Age: 45

District:
Includes the northwest Chicago suburbs in Cook, Lake, and McHenry counties. Its residents, mostly upper-income and professional workers, voted 56 percent for George W. Bush in 2004.

Previous experience:
Worked in sales and management for several high-tech companies in the Chicago area. After her daughters were born, she started an at-home business in which she advised many of those companies.

First election to Congress: Defeated 18-term GOP Rep. Phil Crane in 2004 after the conservative icon grew increasingly out of touch with his district.

Husband:
Married in 1984 to Alan Bean, who has his own at-home executive-search business.

Children: Victoria, 16, and Michelle, 13, attend school in their hometown of Barrington.

Compared with her two roommates, Bean has a much lower profile in the House. She chairs a subcommittee, but it’s the obscure Small Business Subcommittee on Finance and Tax, which has limited jurisdiction. Bean focuses more on the Financial Services Committee, where her priorities tend to parallel the interests of her fiscally conservative and socially moderate constituents. Key issues for her have included lowering fees for small businesses that obtain federal loans, encouraging women-owned businesses, providing greater privacy protections with data security, and educating parents about protecting their children from Internet threats.

As a second-term member from a Republican-leaning district, Bean’s trademark has been her independence, as she has deliberately kept her distance from Democratic dogma. A member of the moderate-to-conservative “Blue Dogs,” she split with her party on the Central American Free Trade Agreement in 2005, when she was one of 15 House Democrats to support the pact. On March 29, she was one of 12 House Democrats to vote against the party’s fiscal 2008 budget resolution.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.

Age: 59

District:
Includes the mostly upscale East Side of Manhattan and a working-class slice of Queens. Its residents voted 74 percent for John Kerry in 2004.

Previous experience:
Served five years as a leadership aide working on policy for the state Legislature in Albany before defeating an incumbent on the New York City Council and serving there from 1982 to ’92.

First election to Congress: Defeated eight-term moderate GOP Rep. Bill Green in 1992 with some help from redistricting.

Husband:
Married in 1976 to Clifton Maloney, a former vice president of Goldman Sachs who is now a private investor.

Children:
Christina, 27, expects to graduate this spring from New York University law school and will join the New York City office of the law firm Ropes and Gray. Virginia, 19, is a freshman at Princeton University.

In the House, Maloney is a policy activist who enjoys working on a diverse array of issues. As chairwoman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, she won House passage this year of a bill to overhaul federal rules for foreign investment in the United States. She has been working with other senior committee Democrats to investigate possible abuses by mortgage companies that offer subprime loans. In addition, she is vice chairwoman of the Joint Economic Committee.

Maloney’s activism extends to issues outside her committee. Since 1997, she has been the lead House sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment, which she recently refiled with 193 co-sponsors. Lower Manhattan’s recovery from the 9/11 attacks also remains a priority for Maloney. In 2004, she worked closely with Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., to help implement intelligence reform recommendations made by the 9/11 commission.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.

Age: 40

District:
Includes Fort Lauderdale and other large chunks of Broward County, plus a slice of the Biscayne Bay shoreline in north Miami-Dade County. The area is a combination of retirement communities and new subdivisions for young families. Its residents voted 64 percent for John Kerry in 2004.

Previous experience:
Spent three years as a legislative aide in Tallahassee, then served eight years in the state House, including two years as minority leader, plus four years in the Senate.

First election to Congress: Succeeded Democratic Rep. Peter Deutsch in 2004 when he ran unsuccessfully for an open Senate seat.

Husband:
Married in 1991 to Steve Schultz, who is a vice president at a Broward County community bank.

Children:
Twins Rebecca and Jake, who are 7; daughter Shelby, 3.

Wasserman Schultz has moved up the House Democratic leadership ladder faster than any member in recent history. As a freshman, she made a name for herself serving as a top lieutenant to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the past election cycle. Now Wasserman Schultz has a trifecta of plum assignments: She is one of nine chief deputy majority whips who work to round up support on House floor votes. She leads the DCCC’s “Frontline” program to protect the party’s most-vulnerable members in next year’s election. And she chairs the Legislative Branch Subcommittee at Appropriations, after gaining the unusual distinction of becoming a subcommittee “cardinal” during her first official meeting on the panel.

In chairing the subcommittee, Wasserman Schultz has shown her dogged thoroughness in demanding accountability about the over-budget and overdue construction of the Capitol Visitors Center. Even ranking member Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., is impressed. “She works real hard,” he said. “She has a strong work ethic and is driven.”

Copyright 2007