House Freshmen Take Their Power to a PAC
The House Republican freshman class doesn't agree on everything, but members seem to be coalescing around one basic desire: They'd like to stick around.
Six members of the class from across the country are forming a political action committee aimed at retaining as many of the 89 newest Republicans as they can. The Freshman Hold 'Em PAC will be asking class members to donate money to help their most vulnerable colleagues. So far, the principals report, about 27 freshmen are set to receive support from the group. They hope to get about 50 freshmen to donate and use that to kick-start outside interest.
"When you're part of a large class like this, you have a lot of different opinions," Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., one of the organizers of the PAC, told National Journal Daily. "So how can the freshman class stay unified going into an election? By coming out in support of freshmen."
According to various analyses, including rankings done by National Journal, the freshman class is about as diverse as the rest of the conference. Because of that, the bloc has not always acted as strongly as outsiders may have expected or hoped. But while the group won't always agree on whether to raise the debt ceiling or extend a payroll-tax cut, they can agree that just two years in the House has not been enough time to really shake the place up.
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