Salmon Won't Sacrifice Principles for Politics

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 18, 1999 | by Stephen Goode

Whether it's keeping his promise to leave Congress after six years or taking on the most powerful man in the House, Rep. Matt Salmon remains true to conservative American values.

When Matt Salmon ran for Congress from the 1st District of Arizona in 1994, he promised his constituents that he'd be in office for three terms, if they wanted him that long, and then he'd be gone. Salmon is keeping that term-limit pledge, which strikes many observers as very unusual in a town where campaign promises often seem to be forgotten 10 minutes after they ?e made.

A devout, aggressive conservative, Salmon became deeply discontented with the then-House speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia. His candid, outspoken and courageous opposition to Gingrich leadership may have led to the speaker's resignation following the off-year elections of 1998, when House Republicans fared so poorly. Salmon also had challenged the Transportation Bill of 1998, accusing Republicans of pork-barrel politicking as egregious as that of Democratic Party pork-barrelling.

Salmon is proud of Aimee's Law, his legislation that both houses of Congress passed in dune. Also known as the No Second Chances for Murderers, Rapists or Child Molesters Act, the law is named for Aimee Willard, a 22-year-old who was raped and murdered in Pennsylvania by a murderer released from Nevada prisons. Under the law, states that release murderers who then commit murder in another state will be responsible for prosecuting and incarcerating the criminal.

In his remaining year in Congress, Salmon, who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, hopes to help initiate dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Chinese leaders. He's also thinking about running for governor after his term expires.

Insight: Have you had second thoughts about bringing your congressional career to a close after only six years?

Matt Salmon: I've had second thoughts. But having made the campaign promise, I plan to keep it. The reason I made the term-limit pledge to begin with is that I believe the process we have now is built on career politicians. And it needs to go. I think our Founding Fathers intended political office to be a service, not a career.

The reason I submitted to a limit of six years is because that's what my state passed [for Arizona legislators]. I submitted to the laws of my state at the time I was elected.

There still is music left in me. There still are things I could accomplish if I had another term. But I gave my word and that's more important.

Insight: Is it possible for a congressman to achieve what he wants within six years?

MS: Well, I guess it depends on what their goals are. I think it's possible to accomplish anything with the right timing, the right sort of effort. With the right sort of circumstances, I think even in two years you can accomplish a great deal.

The system in Washington is based on seniority, a really dumb idea. I come from a private-sector background. It's always seemed to me that you look for the people with the most talent in a given area and put them forward on those issues. If you have doctors and health-care experts, for instance, you put them on the appropriate committees to lead on health-care issues. The same with telecommunications experts. But in this city everything is based on how you play the game, how much seniority you have and how long you live.

That's the way it is, and it's a bad system. It may be better than anything else in the world, but it's a system that could be improved. If you were running the NBA [National Basketball Association] with this philosophy, you'd have a bunch of fat old men starting every basketball game.

Insight: But doesn't a person gain experience here and become a better legislator as time passes?

MS: I think that the longer someone is here, the more their party affiliation becomes indistinguishable from that of any other person who has been here a long time. Generally speaking, you give me a Republican who's been here 20 years and a Democrat who's been here 20 years and you won't see a lot of difference between their votes.

This place is locked in concrete! The president comes up with a plan; we Republicans say it's a rotten plan and we're just going to do three-quarters of it! [laughs] You talk about the special interests -- but it's not just the lobbyists, it's the people within Congress who just don't want to change. Take the transportation bill we passed last year. It was fraught with as much if not more pork than any Democratic bill. Corporate welfare, too; all those things that just keep going and going. Such things know no partisan boundaries.

People tend to become unbalanced when they come to Congress. They define their whole being by what they do here. There are people around here for whom "I am a congressman" means everything. It scares me.

Insight: Term limits help to do away with the vertigo of Washington careerism?

MS: Term limits helped me to focus. It emboldened me. We're leaders here and we should lead. We should be bold. With term limits I don't have the luxury of thinking in terms of a career that spans decades. I have to have very specific goals and time lines. I can't think in terms of, well, sometime in my 20-year career in Congress I'll get this done. With term limits, I've got only so much time to get done what I want and then that's the end. If I don't get it done, shame on me.