Into the Ring
by Tom Nugent . Illustration by John Cuneo
Rep. Bob Dold faces the most divisive budget debate in American history and a tough reelection campaign in a bipolar Illinois district. But this GOP freshman is ready to fight.
Bob Dold ’91 is sitting beneath a framed oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln, in the Cannon House office building, only a few hundred yards from the U.S. Capitol. This is the D.D. headquarters for Dold, a freshman republican from the north-Chicago 10th congressional district. And the conversation he is having is very much like so many others of the last three months.
“Mr. Dold,” says Matt Hart, executive director of the Illinois Trucking Association, “we’ve got more than 6,000 truck drivers in the Chicago area, and they’re really concerned right now about rising fuel costs.”
Dold nods and leans forward in his chair. “I hear you, Matt, and I’m keenly aware of the problems you’re up against—”
But now he’s interrupted; a loud beeper has just started to go off. It’s coming from the TV set bolted to the wall above the Lincoln portrait. The screen begins to flash a continuous warning:
H.R. 1217—Repeal Prevention and Public Health Fund— Pitts/Energy and Commerce
15 minutes
The message means that Dold has 15 minutes to race over to the House Chamber if he wants to vote on House Resolution 1217, a bill aimed at eliminating several federal disease-prevention and public-health programs in order to help trim the federal budget.
Beep . . . beep . . . beep.
The trucking lobbyist speeds up his presentation. “Bob, I’ll keep this short—I know you gotta go vote. Our message for you today is that we badly need your help in keeping these fuel taxes from going up again.”
Dold is nodding again and straining forward in his chair. Like a thoroughbred at the gate, he’s waiting for the sprint toward the U.S. Capitol to begin. He assures Hart that he’ll do what he can.
Dold’s chief of staff, veteran congressional aide Eric Burgeson, stands in the doorway. He’s carrying a schedule-folder in one hand, and he’s got one eye on the TV set above Dold’s head. Burgeson doesn’t have to say anything. The moment they spot him, both Hart and Dold are on their feet. They’re shaking hands, saying goodbye. With a step that reveals a former quarterback for the Big Red (who today throws spirals to his legislative aides to wind down), Dold turns on a dime and hustles toward the doorway. Within 10 minutes, he’ll be casting a “yes” vote for the Republican- sponsored budget-cutting measure on the House floor.
Today is Wednesday, April 13th, and this is Bob Dold’s 100th day as a member of the 112th Congress. Almost the entire day—from his conversation with Hart to the House floor vote—will revolve around the issue of money and the problems of the national budget, the federal deficit, and the rising costs of just about everything. To Dold, a self-described fiscal conservative, the economic crisis has been a call to action—a chance to correct what he sees as a broken and misguided system and to put the United States back on firm footing.
Dold is no stranger to Capitol Hill. He spent two years serving as legal counsel to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, soon after graduating from law school in 1996, but he had never held an elective office before deciding to enter the congressional race in his native 10th District. “I took a long hard look at how the Illinois congressional delegation was representing voters in my state,” he says, explaining his motivation for throwing his hat into the ring last year, “What I saw was disillusioning, to say the least.”
As an experienced businessman who operated a regional pest-control company, and as a husband and father to three children, the rapidly growing national debt alarmed him. Later, while working as counsel with the Congressional Oversight Committee, Dold saw Washington politics first-hand. “I had gotten a good understanding of how the endless political infighting and needless partisanship that goes on in Washington was preventing us from dealing effectively with our fiscal problems. So I decided to see if I could help make a difference by getting elected to Congress myself.”
But the congressional neophyte knows that this will be no easy battle, either at home or in the Capitol.
Today will be like most of the other 99 days that have unfolded since he landed in Washington as a newly elected rep from the northern suburbs of Chicago. As a freshman legislator, Dold rode into the nation’s capital on a wave of reformist zeal as the Republicans took over the House, 242-193. But just 100 days in, and reelection is already a big topic among the congressman’s staff, because Dold is now locked in a political survival struggle back home with the 10th Congressional District ranking easily as one of the nation’s most complex electoral battlegrounds. Many of the Republicans in his politically complicated district regard themselves as enlightened progressives on social issues such as abortion, and as a result, the races in this district have historically been close calls. Dold, who bills himself as a fiscal conservative and social moderate, won a narrow victory over Democrat Dan Seals in the 2010 election, and Republican congressmen who have held Dold’s seat in years past have had to walk a delicate bipartisan line. The voters in the 10th district have repeatedly sent GOP congressmen to Washington for the past 30 years. At the same time, however, they’ve been unfailingly supportive of Democratic presidential candidates, voting heavily in favor of Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Al Gore in recent elections.
