Washington is ball and chain for lawmakers dreaming of a job as governor

Washington ties dash hopes for political promotion

WASHINGTON — Ah, the cruelty. Veteran lawmakers who toiled for years in Congress waiting for a chance at political promotion have discovered an inconvenient truth: This election year, Washington experience is a career-ender.

Four House members who abandoned their seats to run for governor have failed to survive their party primaries, and the list could grow in the coming weeks. Tennessee Rep. Zach Wamp was the latest to stumble in Thursday’s Republican primary.

Add these losses to the six incumbents who have been defeated in their re-election bids and it signals an electorate sour on Washington.

“People hate Congress,” said nine-term Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, who was pounded by rivals’ ads about Wall Street bailouts, money for district projects and rising debt in his losing bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. “It was a hurdle that had to be overcome, or it was some baggage that you had to carry.”

Recent surveys have shown Americans hold lawmakers in particularly low esteem: Just one in four people said they approved of Congress’ job performance in the most recent Associated Press-GfK poll. Job losses and spiraling debt have left a significant number of Americans certain the country is on the wrong track. The fierce partisanship in Washington has convinced many that a broken government can do little to solve the country’s woes.

The disfavor is evident this election, and both parties have suffered from the anti-establishment sentiment. Four House incumbents and two senators have lost primaries to keep their jobs. Another five have lost bids for governor, including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who unlike her House counterparts didn’t give up her day job.

Two former congressmen — Republican Nathan Deal of Georgia and Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii — are battling to win party nods for governor. Deal faces Karen Handel in Tuesday’s runoff.

Michigan’s Hoekstra tried to emphasize his 15 years as a furniture company executive, but it was his 18 years on Capitol Hill that opponents used to pummel him in his second-place finish to Rick Snyder. While Hoekstra doesn’t attribute his loss to the anti-Washington mood alone, he said it was a strong factor.

Snyder’s resume — a venture capitalist and former president of computer maker Gateway Inc. — was more convincing in a state where the faltering economy dominates voters’ concerns.

In Tennessee, the eight-term Wamp lost badly to Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, who constantly reminded voters that Wamp was a Washington insider.

“Congressman Wamp’s Washington career is 15 years of earmarks, debt and broken promises,” read one mailer.

Wamp said the onslaught crippled him.

“There’s a lot of anxiety and anger about what’s happening in Washington, D.C., and I couldn’t control that,” Wamp said in his concession speech. “At the end of the day, a lot of that rubbed off on me, whether I was responsible for it or not.”

Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, Rep. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina and Hutchison all fared poorly in their gubernatorial bids, unable to shed the Washington label.

There have been a few exceptions to the trend.

Two-term Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas cruised to victory in the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary over a little-known novice, and Republican Rep. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma defeated a tea party-backed state senator to win her primary.

In the two remaining gubernatorial races where House members are running — Georgia and Hawaii — Deal and Abercrombie went so far as to resign their congressional seats earlier this year, literally removing themselves from Washington.

That may not be enough, as both face the strong possibility that their careers could be over.

That’s certainly true for Alabama’s Davis, 42, a congressman once viewed as a rising star in the Democratic Party who said he’s now done with politics after getting just 38 percent of the vote in his gubernatorial bid against Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks.

“A candidate that fails across the board like that obviously needs to find something else productive to do with his life,” Davis said after the election.

Associated Press Writer Kathy Barks Hoffman in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.