Soon-to-be-former members of Congress - whether through retirement or defeat - are unlikely to be in the local unemployment line, says the Associated Press. But many of them won't become lobbyists, either.
The AP: They lost their House and Senate seats, in some cases after keeping them warm for three decades. Others up and left on their own. But do not feel too sorry for some of these soon-to-be former lawmakers. The future is bright for ex-members of Congress. No welfare cheese for them and little if any time among the ranks of the unemployed. Some already have settled on new careers. Or old ones, as the case may be.
Some will return home to their pre-political careeers or to a comfortable congressional-pension retirement. Others, inevitably, will hang around Washington DC, as lobbyists, consultants or think-tankers, says the AP. Departing Republican lawmakers face less-welcoming job prospects in DC now that the Democrats have taken Congress.
The AP: Some departing lawmakers insist they will go back home when they are sitting congressmen no more, after their successors are sworn in Jan. 4. This, despite the lucrative lure of joining the influence industry in the capital as a lobbyist or consultant.
"This has been a nasty and brutish place for some time," said Norman Ornstein, a congressional analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. "I think for many people, they're tired of it, even if they've been a part of it, and they'd like to get at least a breather away from it."
Lawmakers are more inclined to leave families home these days and sink fewer roots here than in the past. Beyond that, most of the departing members are Republican, and job prospects in the capital may be less-than-stellar, with Democrats taking control of both houses of the new Congress.
"The ability of Republicans to make money in the short run is less than it is for Democrats right now," said L. Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. "I don't think the doors are as wide open."
Few ex-lawmakers go begging in the capital. Those who become lobbyists cannot approach their former colleagues for a year, under current rules, or two years if a Democratic proposal takes effect, but can lobby the administration right away.
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