Summary: as Dr. Raul Ruiz goes to Washington as our Congressman, his early days in office will be a delicate time. He will need to be aware of that unreconciled camarilla of angry GOP supporters who wish him ill and will seek to take him down in 2014. He will need to be considerate in his utterance, avoiding both gaffes and analysis paralysis. The quality of his constituent services will, in many ways, be the test of his effectiveness in Congress; good constituent services build up a reservoir of goodwill; Sonny Bono and his widow both understood that constituent services was the key to reelection. It will also be important for Dr. Ruiz’s many supporters to remember that he is a Democrat in a GOP majority House, and not to project upon him unrealistic or unsustainable expectations. Too often, Democrats set up their officeholders for failure by expecting utopia to build in a day. We must avoid that temptation; we must have Rep. Ruiz’s back and wish him Godspeed.
By: Paul S. Marchand
A beginning is a delicate time.
-Frank Herbert, Dune
Today, for the first time in almost a generation, our Pleasant Desert is represented in Congress by a Democrat. Congressman Raul Ruiz took the oath of office earlier today as the new 113th Congress was sworn in. Dr. Ruiz’s coming to Congress represents a welcome upset; heretofore Republican dominance in our Congressional district has seen virtually unassailable. The conventional wisdom in our Pleasant Desert had been that our Republican congresswoman would have her seat as long as she wanted it.
Local political handicappers had expected that Mary Bono Mack would leave office on her terms, and not as a result of blowing the most important job interview in her life, viz. the one between her and the hundreds of thousands of disenchanted constituents in what is now California’s 36th Congressional District. As Dr. Ruiz takes office, a quotation from Frank Herbert’s epic novel Dune comes to mind: “a beginning is a delicate time.”
I was proud to support Dr. Ruiz, I consider him a friend, and I congratulate him -- along with my friend Congressman Mark Takano -- on his swearing-in. Dr. Ruiz won’t have an easy row to hoe; the House of Representatives is still controlled by the GOP (though the infighting and intrigues within the Republican Conference are starting to look like a bad outtake from I Claudius). Still, as a constituent, I do have a few thoughts about the challenges that in this delicate time await our new Congressman from the 36th District.
First, there remains an unreconciled camarilla of supporters of the previous Republican congresswoman for whom the election of a Latino Democrat represents the sum of all their fears and insecurities. We’ve seen enough nasty letters in the pages of our local right-leaning Gannett newspaper bemoaning Dr. Ruiz’s election to know that many of our local Republicans will be watching Rep. Ruiz very carefully, waiting to pounce on and magnify the slightest gaffe or indiscretion. While there will be a certain amount of excitement and enthusiasm as Rep. Ruiz settles into office, it will be important that neither he nor his staff succumb to the temptation to overplay the hand they have been felt or to lose touch with the constituents and activists who made possible the political earthquake that sent him to Washington.
It will also be important for Dr. Ruiz to steer clear of the Scylla of unguarded or indiscreet utterance while avoiding the Charybdis of controversy-shunning analysis paralysis. In that regard, he should --counterintuitively-- take guidance from the experience of his predecessors, Sonny Bono and his widow Mary Whitaker Bono Baxley McGillicuddy.
In a conversation with Dr. Ruiz’s incoming district director, I stressed the importance of quality customer/constituent services. The incoming district director and I were of one accord in agreeing that constituent services will be critical to Dr. Ruiz’s success as our representative in Congress.
Love her or loathe her, Mary Bono Mack’s constituent services set a gold standard for the way in which elected officials’ staffs should interact with District residents. Indeed, though it is embarrassing to acknowledge, Mary’s constituent services were often more efficiently delivered then those of Democratic members of Congress. Having been subject to the third degree and hit up for a campaign contribution as an implicit quid pro quo for constituent services by staffers for at least one Los Angeles-area Democratic member of Congress, I was gratified -- when I approached then-Congressman Sonny Bono’s staff with a constituent issue, to receive prompt, courteous assistance without regard to my political affiliation or views, which were not unknown to the then-Congressman.
As and to the extent that Rep. Ruiz’s staff continue to live up to a high standard of constituent services, Dr. Ruiz should be able to build up a reservoir of goodwill that will stand him in good stead twenty months hence, when our local GOP uncorks its predictable vials of vitriol against him. When constituents feel they have been well and fairly served, they are more likely to vote for the incumbent who provided such services; good constituent services is the key to reelection.
The second major challenge Rep. Ruiz will face will come from his fellow Democrats, from some of the activists who were proud to identify themselves as his supporters during the campaign, and who may now be expecting immediate and far-reaching change. To these, my fellow fighters in the trenches, I offer an observation born of often bitter experience: you cannot build utopia in a single day. You cannot realistically expect immediate reform, only reform immediately begun.
Moreover, few victories are ever as complete as those who have helped gain them might imagine. We must avoid infighting and carping over the limitations of our victories and acknowledge that as excited as we may be over Dr. Ruiz going to Congress, the GOP is still the majority party in the House of Representatives. We must define victory in a more nuanced and pragmatic way than some activists might like to. As a professional colleague of mine explained to me more than two decades ago, if you’re facing 10 years of prison time and you bargain down to 18 months, that’s a victory.
Activists also need to remember that, from time to time, Rep. Ruiz may find himself taking positions with which they do not necessarily agree, or voting contrary to some cherished position. To such activists, I offer a sobering reality that it is neither reasonable nor sensible to expect one hundred percent agreement one hundred percent of the time, and that to have a conniption because “your” Congressman didn’t support your particular issue only advantages the numerous Republicans waiting in the wings of the 36th District eagerly anticipating the elections of 2014.
We must cut Dr. Ruiz slack in this delicate time, and not impose ideological litmus tests upon him. At all events, we must avoid setting up our new Congressman for failure by projecting unrealistic or unsustainable expectations upon him. We are not the Tea Party; we are adult, patriotic Americans who ought to know better.
A beginning truly is a delicate time. Rep. Ruiz deserves our support, our prayers, and above all our considerate forbearance; he is our Doctor in the House. Above all, we need to have his back and wish him Godspeed.
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Paul S. Marchand is an attorney who lives and works in Cathedral City, California. He had the pleasure of supporting Dr. Raul Ruiz’s victorious campaign for Congress, and was honored to have Dr. Ruiz’s endorsement in his recent campaign for city Council in Cathedral City. The views contained herein are his own, and not necessarily those of the Democratic Party or any other entity with which Mr. Marchand happens to be associated. Self-appointed enforcers or the easily “offended” who may not like what they see or read in this post need to get over themselves. The contents of this post are not legal advice, and should not be taken as such.
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