Freshmen From Kennedy to Double Amputee Join Polarized Congress

Vice President Joe Biden, left, and Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, right, escort Senator Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, as he makes his return to Congress. Pete Marovich/Bloomberg

Story by Bloomberg
Written by Steve Walsh

The incoming Congress includes a hate-crime victim beaten with a baseball bat, a double amputee, a former homeless man who lived in a park, and a member so poor growing up that she had no running water or electricity. 

Those four will serve alongside Robert F. Kennedy’s grandson, whose path into politics couldn’t have been more different. Also joining the House today: an author of 15 books, including a New York Times best-seller; an award-winning physicist; and a returning representative who last served on Capitol Hill during President Jimmy Carter’s administration.

These freshmen all have to figure out a way to work together in a Congress increasingly polarized by political party differences.

“The overwhelming number of members are getting elected from districts that vote with one party, so they don’t have room to maneuver,” said Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican who was chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and is now director of federal government affairs at Deloitte & Touche LLP. “You may be able to find your niche that reflects your interests, but it will be limited.”

As they take office as part of the 113th Congress, these new members will try to meld their diverse backgrounds in a legislature containing a record seven openly gay lawmakers, an unprecedented 20 women in the Senate and the first all-female state delegation, from New Hampshire.
Joe Kennedy, a Democrat whose grandfather, father, great- uncles and cousin served in Congress, is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School. He most recently was an assistant district attorney for Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-03/freshmen-from-kennedy-to-double-amputee-join-polarized-congress.html