Sestak on track

Joe Sestak is a freshman Democrat in a Republican-leaning district, but he says he doesn't spend much time thinking about how to get re-elected to Congress in November.

It's not hard to believe. He doesn't really have the time.

The guy is a certified workaholic, and he's been off the wagon ever since he arrived in Washington last year.

You can ask Sestak, now halfway through his first term as Pennsylvania's 7th District representative, about the upcoming election, but the former Navy admiral would rather tell you about the amendment he passed to help small businesses land federal contracts.

Or the one designed to prevent post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans. Or the one that creates a loan-forgiveness program for Head Start teachers.

Strike up a conversation about potential Republican challengers in his district, and Sestak will segue into a story about how his staff helped a constituent find a relative's cremation urn that had been lost in the mail. Or how they got an absentee ballot delivered by courier to a disabled World War II vet so he could vote in the local primary.

"I'm most proud of that," Sestak said of his constituent service. "There is a rare place I go that somebody doesn't come up and say, 'Thank you very much for what you did.' "

Eventually, you realize that Sestak is, in a way, talking about his re-election strategy. He's an analytical thinker with a Harvard Ph.D., but this strategy is based on a folksy view of politics - that if you work hard enough for your constituents and exercise good judgment in Washington, the voters will remember you on Election Day.

"That," Sestak said, "will serve me both as a congressman and as a campaigner."

And while he'll never broach the subject on his own, Sestak's got a $1.7 million war chest that's scaring off the Republican competition.

"Successful generals win," he often says, "then they go to war."

From the Pentagon to Washington

Sestak, 56, a Springfield native and Cardinal O'Hara graduate, left the Navy in January 2006, having risen to the three-star rank of vice admiral after a nearly 31-year career.

He made a late entry into the congressional race, cleared the field of Democratic candidates and crushed 10-term Republican stalwart Curt Weldon by almost 13 percentage points.

Sestak is the highest-ranking former military officer ever to serve in Congress, and it was clear from his first day on the job that he wasn't just another novice lawmaker in Washington.

More than 1,000 supporters followed him to Capitol Hill for the swearing-in ceremony. One of them was former President Bill Clinton, to whom Sestak once served as a defense adviser.

"I often told him he could become the most overqualified member of the House," Clinton said that day.

By mid-March, Sestak was talking Iraq policy with Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," an unusually high-profile appearance for a House freshman.

But as Sestak completes his first year in Congress, Republicans point out that he hasn't authored any major pieces of legislation that have been signed into law. Nor has he been able to stop the Federal Aviation Administration from implementing new flight paths over Delaware County.

"I'm sure the other side thinks he's doing wonderful," said Upper Darby GOP leader John McNichol. "This side thinks he's a backbencher that hasn't done a heck of a lot yet."

Five of Sestak's bills and amendments, however, have cleared the House, making him among the most productive Democratic freshmen, according to a list released by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office. Those bills are aimed at helping teachers, troops and small businesses.

"He is, without question, one of the hardest-working members of Congress," a House Democratic leadership aide said last week. And he's a respected voice on defense and foreign policy matters at the Democrats' weekly closed-door caucus meetings.

"When Sestak steps up to that microphone," the aide said, "people listen."

Sestak's military experience earned him a spot on the House Armed Services Committee. He also sits on the Education and Labor Committee and got a waiver for a third committee assignment, the Small Business Committee, where he is vice chairman.

He has developed a reputation within both parties for his no-nonsense style, superhuman work ethic and legislative ambition in a wide range of areas. Those traits are arguably both Sestak's greatest strengths and weaknesses, according to those who have worked with or alongside him on the Hill over the past year.

"He's an extremely dedicated individual. If he wants to go for something, he will put all of his energy and focus behind it," said a former Sestak staffer. "His biggest weakness is he is overly demanding. He's lost a tremendous amount of staff."

The congressman has a tendency to set so many goals and be so driven to achieve them, the former aide said, that he sometimes fails to do the small things, like socialize with people who can help him out.

"So much of what you do on the Hill is network, and in order to get stuff accomplished, you have to make sure you can trade favors and buddy up to people," the former staffer said. "He doesn't do that. He's definitely sort of a lone wolf."

Sestak, like his district, is politically moderate. He's a pragmatist who is willing to work with Republicans on local and national issues. But he can also, at times, be unpredictable and fiercely independent, both from his fellow Democrats and even his own constituents.

While Sestak stood with the majority of Democrats on most House votes last year, he's not shy about criticizing the Democratic leadership for letting partisanship get in the way of progress. He has been frustrated by his colleagues' failure to compromise with Republicans on key issues.

"It's broken," he said of the legislative process in Washington.

"That's my disappointment. We're posturing. We're not doing policy as much as we should."

The harshest criticism of Sestak's performance to date has come from the anti-war community and some of the liberal "netroots" activists who helped get him elected in 2006.

On the campaign trail, Sestak opposed the Iraq war and supported setting a "date certain" for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. In February, he introduced a bill that would have withdrawn most troops from Iraq by the end of 2007 and cut off funding for military operations beyond that date.

The bill never made it out of committee.

But when the majority of Democrats later voted to deny President Bush additional war money, Sestak twice sided with Republicans, causing an uproar back in his district.

In May, he voted for a bill that provided $100 billion in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan without a timeline for troop withdrawal. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and 139 other Democrats voted against the bill. Last month, Sestak again joined Republicans in approving a similar measure.

"He has been good on 90 percent of the votes – except the ones that really count," said Terry Rumsey, chairman of Delaware County Wage Peace & Justice. "When it came time to actually deny Bush the money to continue the military occupation, he joined with the Republican majority in supporting the war."

For months, Sestak has had to make a nuanced argument. He wants to end the war, but he tells those who oppose his votes that he won't play a game of chicken with President Bush by withholding money for the 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

"They believe the president will blink and that it will force him to back down," Sestak said. "I say to them, 'Do you trust this president?' and they seem to always say, 'No.' Then why are you asking me to put the men and women who I served with, who wear the cloth of this nation, between Congress and the president on the bet that he will blink? I can't do that."

On Saturday, Rumsey's peace group marched on Sestak's district office in Media, Delaware County, accusing him of "killing our troops" by voting to fund the war. They were met by counter-protesters who called them "communist traitors."

Unbeatable?

Republicans are expected this week to nominate a candidate to run against Sestak, but it's already late in the election cycle. To be viable, the candidate will likely have to raise money in a hurry or be willing to spend his own.

Nonpartisan political handicappers in Washington say Sestak is in good shape for re-election, particularly for a first-term Democrat in a district where the GOP still holds a voter-registration edge.

He has proven to be a prolific fundraiser and has mostly avoided major gaffes during his first year that could be exploited by Republicans, who privately acknowledge that it will be difficult to reclaim the 7th District in November.

There is also a widespread rumor, mostly in Republican circles, that Sestak is eyeing a run for U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter's seat in 2010. That has discouraged some potential candidates from stepping up to the plate if the congressional seat might be open in two years. Sestak says he has no plans to run against Specter in 2010.

"It's pretty obvious the Republicans don't have a really solid, strong candidate here to take Joe on," said Cliff Wilson, chairman of the Delaware County Democratic Party. "They may come up with one so we'll see. I would be very surprised if that candidate was able to do better than 40 percent."

McNichol, the Upper Darby Republican chairman, scoffs at such talk. He says the GOP has a shot at unseating Sestak before his incumbency takes hold, particularly if conditions continue to improve in Iraq and if Rudy Giuliani is the Republican presidential nominee.

"I think the Pelosi Congress has been a total failure," McNichol said.