Politics, Ambition and Inspiration

What We Need--And Sometimes Get--From Leaders

I’ve written previously about Arnold Bennett, my first boss in politics and my mentor in the art of political communication. One day we were having lunch with a prospective client who was planning a run for Congress in Florida. The young state legislator had the next decade mapped out—a few terms in Congress, a challenge to an incumbent Senator, and the VP slot on a future presidential ticket.

When I expressed a little surprise at our new client’s certainty, Arnold said that in his experience, everyone who’d ever been elected to anything had a plan to be President, and the ones who lacked relentless ambition only wanted to be Speaker of the House.

I had a teacher in college who had served in the Kennedy Administration, and afterwards considered a run for Congress himself. He told us about what NY Senator Jacob Javits had said to him when he asked his advice.

“You know, when I ever take some real time off,” Javits said, “on the first day away I’m still totally focused on the office. I don’t think about anything but work. On the second day, I can maybe relax a little for a few hours, but on the third day I can usually enjoy myself.

“Then the next day I start to think about going back.”

My teacher opted to have a different kind of life. In other words, a life.

We have a funny relationship with ambition in politics. Not enough, and you’re called weak. Too much, and you’re a megalomaniac.

But there’s different kinds of ambition. There’s the drive to walk into a crowded room as if under a spotlight and always be the focus of attention; the need to acquire ever more influence, power, wealth, or in Rudy Giuliani’s case…never mind.

But there’s also the ambition to live up to the vision Robert Kennedy outlined in his famous speech to an integrated student audience in apartheid South Africa:

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Which brings me to Jamie Raskin.

I worked on Congressman Raskin’s first campaign for State Senate in Maryland, a primary challenge to an entrenched incumbent in an increasingly progressive district that was hungry for change. Was it ambitious to take her on? Of course. But as Nancy Pelosi says, quoting her father, you have to “seize” power, because it is not given.

Now, Jamie Raskin is considering whether to run for U.S. Senate in Maryland. He’d just completed five months of chemotherapy when Ben Cardin announced his retirement, so he’s taking some time to decide what’s best. There is a lot of good he can do from his position in the House—especially if the Democrats take back control.

If he runs, he’ll be up against a millionaire he’s beaten before, but one who this time has pledged to spend $50 million on the race. He told Axios the odds of him running are an “absolute tossup, ” citing the work he’s doing on the Oversight Committee, the impact of Donald Trump on the campaign, and how he can help Democrats return to the majority in the House.

When Jamie was elected to the State Senate, he set himself apart not only for his legislative record and passionate advocacy, but for pursuing a leadership track that led to him serving as Majority Whip and chairing the Montgomery County Democratic Delegation.

He made national headlines in March 2006, when at a hearing on a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage, he stood up to a Republican who said the Bible reserved marriage for a man and a woman.

“Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution,” he said. “You didn’t put your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.”

Today, Jamie Raskin is one of a handful of House members who can be named by millions of Americans, and he’s doing the daily work of democracy others in that chamber ignore.

And he’d be a great Senator, too. I’d love to see him there.

I don’t know if Jamie will commit to the relentless fundraising, nonstop campaigning and strained alliances of a Senate primary, which I think he’d win, or continue on the path he’s on in the House. Speaker Raskin? I think my old boss would like that.

I do know that for most members of Congress, the opportunity to enter a Senate primary as the front-runner (sorry, David Trone, but that’s what he’d be) would be a no-brainer. But Jamie Raskin’s ambition isn’t so self-directed. He’s sending forth those ripples of hope, and the acts of courage and belief that are needed more than ever.

Whatever it is, Jamie Raskin will make the right choice.