Staffers in Sen. Dick Lugar’s office woke up Wednesday with the stark reality that they were all now job seekers.
For most of his nearly 36 years in the Senate it would have been unthinkable that the people of Indiana would fire Lugar — and in a blowout primary, no less. But Lugar acolytes who enjoyed the stability of working for a once unbeatable Indiana legend are now undergoing the most humble of Capitol Hill rituals: polishing their résumés.
“I never thought I would see the day where Richard Lugar was primaried out of office. It’s a total shock,” said John Znidarsic, a former staffer whose first job out of college was with Lugar. “I learned more working for him than I have in any other job I’ve had. I learned about how to handle yourself, how to treat people with different opinions and how to listen.”
Everyone who comes to work on Capitol Hill, including lawmakers, realizes that they don’t control their career destinies — voters do. But if there was anything close to a permanent fixture in the Senate, it was the office that belonged to the senior senator from Indiana, who was elected before many of his staffers were born. The loss that ended his career is the latest reminder that politics have shifted dramatically for the Republican Party, and the untouchables of the past can become tea party roadkill virtually overnight.
“Everyone wants to keep their chin up and be resilient, but a loss can be stressful financially and professionally,” said one senior Senate Republican staffer, who said he has seen many friends go through tough job losses. “Watching the fluid ebb and flow of political power is a good reminder to work hard but not find one’s identity in a job — even if it’s a great job for a great cause.”
A good reminder indeed, including for Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who was sworn in on the same day as Lugar in 1977 and faces his own primary challenge against a tea-party-backed candidate.
“It’s very sad for me because we came in together,” Hatch said. “Dick’s a great man and he’s done a lot of great things for this country. This just wasn’t the way it should have ended.”
Hatch, who is hoping he won’t meet the same fate, said he’s supportive of the man who defeated Lugar, two-term state treasurer Richard Mourdock, and he “looked forward to working with him.”
As many of Lugar’s senior staff traveled back to D.C. from Indiana on Wednesday, the mood in the senator’s Washington office was not dour, but instead two young upbeat staffers answered a steady stream of phone calls from Lugar supporters.
“Hello? Oh, thank you. No, I don’t think he’s done yet either. Yes, we are hanging in there,” one young woman at the front desk, under a “Welcome Hoosiers!” sign, told a caller.
The second staffer in the front of the room was a young man who said he had only started working for Lugar a little over year ago, and remarked that while Lugar’s loss is certainly sad, having your résumé always polished was “just the way things go up here.”
Lugar’s office in the Hart Senate Office Building is covered in memorabilia, photos and awards from the past 35 years that will have to be packed up. No one had expected a Lugar loss, or even a tough primary, at the beginning of the election cycle.
While members of Lugar’s longtime staff stayed quiet on Wednesday, some younger staff members took to social media to express their support for Lugar. Clinton Smith noted on Facebook that he’d been working for the senator for a year and said in an update: “Richard Green Lugar is, and will always be, my role model. I will base my political career off of his principles and morals.”
Another young Lugar staff assistant, Rachel Demaree, took to her blog to thank Lugar for “giving a farm girl from a small town the chance to live out her dreams in Washington, D.C. We are forever grateful, forever changed and forever in debt for your service to us.”
The Lugar alumni network is vast, and former staffers have been able to parlay what they learned in the senator’s office into jobs as lobbyists, communications professionals and in one case, an elected lawmaker.
“He showed a refreshing, and all-to-rare, penchant for listening before speaking, and for actually saying important and interesting things when he did choose to open his mouth,” said Rep. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who worked as a legislative assistant for Lugar. “He demonstrated to his constituents and his colleagues, a fair-mindedness by letting facts define his politics, rather than allowing politics divine his facts.
Tuesday’s “election results should not, and will not, detract from Sen. Lugar’s lifetime of service and responsible leadership,” he said.
Having a great boss doesn’t make the loss any easier emotionally but there might be a bright side to losing in a primary, rather than in a general election: There’s plenty of time for Lugar’s staff to find work.
“It is extremely difficult when it’s the end of an era. However, there is a strong alumni club with the Lugar team that will help the staff find new jobs,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist who worked for former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. “And it’s very different losing in a primary than in a general election. After this primary loss, they will now have seven months to figure out new employment. If it was after the November election, there would be a panic-mode mad scramble among the staff. That probably won’t be the case here.”
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