Strike Everything

U.S. Rep. David Schweikert says he won’t get the committee assignment he wanted most, but he is still holding out for an assignment that “has something to do with numbers.”

Schweikert made an appearance, along with U.S. Reps. Ben Quayle and Paul Gosar, at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s “Welcome to Washington” breakfast today at the Hyatt. The three Republican freshmen said they had moved into their offices in D.C., and are expecting to receive their committee assignments by Friday.

Prime committee assignments will be even more valuable this year, and harder for freshmen to attain, because House leaders have decided to reduce the number of members serving on the committees.

Gosar, who represents the mostly rural 1st Congressional District, used a very unfortunate pun by saying he would be a ”natural” choice for a seat on the Natural Resources Committee, though he didn’t sound very optimistic that he’d get it. 

By the way, Gosar, a dentist by trade, used a toothbrush as a visual aid during his speech. It was part of an analogy about brushing away the plaque in Washington.

Quayle didn’t say which committees he was lobbying for. He said he plans to stand tall for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District in whatever capacity is chosen for him, later taking a tone reminiscent of Ringo Starr when he told the crowd that he is just “really happy” to be serving in Congress.

Schweikert, who knocked off Harry Mitchell in Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, said he has been told that he won’t get his first choice of committee assignments: Financial Services. Instead, the former Maricopa County Treasurer said he is still in the running for a different committee where his skills with accounting and statistics would be useful.

Schweikert didn’t get into specifics, but all of his talk about numbers probably means he put in for Ways and Means or the Budget Committee. As a test of boldness, he may have requested a spot on Appropriations, though seats on that committee are extremely valuable commodities and usually off limits to freshmen.

“My gift is creating spreadsheets,” he said after the breakfast event.

Senator-elect John McComish’s gripes about his committee assignments earned him a tongue-lashing from Russell Pearce, who said his colleague needs to stop crying and get over it.

“I’ll buy him a box of Kleenex,” Pearce said of McComish’s complaints. “The whining’s got to stop.”

Pearce took umbrage with McComish’s complaints to the Arizona Capitol Times that the Senate president assigned him to only two committees, while every other member got at least three, and some Pearce allies got as many as five. Pearce denied that he used committee assignments to punish senators who didn’t support him in the Senate president’s race or that he gave less-favorable spots to new members who are moving over from the House.

The Senate president said he “bent over backwards” to give McComish preferable committee assignmenst and said he even created the Banking and Insurance Committee, which McComish will chair, based on McComish’s recommendation. McComish also will serve on the Economic Development and Jobs Creation panel.

Other senators who didn’t support Pearce for the presidency got key committee chairmanships, Pearce said. Senator-elect Rich Crandall will chair the Education Committee, Senator-elect Steve Yarbrough will chair the Finance Committee, and Senator-elect Nancy Barto will chair the Healthcare and Medical Liability Reform Committee.

“I have not punished anybody in this process,” Pearce said. “Don’t make up a story here. Don’t be giving credit to a pandering crybaby.”

McComish, a House member who was elected to the Senate in November, ran for Senate president but dropped out before the voting began. Pearce said that’s probably the source of McComish’s discontentedness.

“I was hoping he’d get over the fact that he didn’t win the presidency, couldn’t get out of the chutes,” Pearce said.

Pearce said McComish should have brought his complaints to him before airing them to the media. McComish told the Arizona Capitol Times that he sent Pearce an e-mail about the issue, but Pearce said he never received it.

McComish said he was disappointed that Pearce lashed out at him instead of addressing his complaints that he and other members will be “underutilized” during the upcoming session due to lopsided distribution of committee assignments.

“It’s unfortunate that Russell wants to make personal attacks. That’s not what I did. That’s not my intention. And it’s also unfortunate that he didn’t respond to the merits of my concern,” the Phoenix Republican said.

Some senators have too heavy a workload, McComish said. Sen. Andy Biggs, for example, will chair the Appropriations Committee while serving as vice chair of two other committees. Sen. Sylvia Allen will serve in leadership as president pro tem while serving on five committees.

McComish said Pearce appears to haved doled out better assignments to his allies.

“I’m not going to judge his motives. But if you look at the facts it would certainly seem that way,” McComish said.

Despite his harsh words, Pearce said he didn’t realize McComish had only two committee assignments and is willing to find another spot for him somewhere.

“I’ll fit him on Finance or another committee if I need to do that. I’m not opposed to that. But it seems like the nice thing John could’ve done is give me a call and let me know, instead of this approach,” Pearce said.

-Jeremy Duda