The time a former congressman became a Hill staffer

Here’s an obscure story about a congressman who became a staffer with no connection to New Jersey other than Sue Altman’s appointment as state director to the U.S. Andy Kim triggering the memory.

Floyd Fithian served eight years as a congressman and became a chief of staff on Capitol Hill after leaving office.

Fithian was a history professor at Perdue University, a U.S. Navy Reserve officer, and a part-time farmer who had become active in Indiana Democratic politics.  In 1972, he ran for Congress against two-term Republican Rep. Earl Landgrebe in Indiana’s 2nd district and lost by a 55%-45% margin.

Landgrebe was an unabashed supporter of Richard Nixon.

“Don’t confuse me with the facts. I’ve got a closed mind. I will not vote for impeachment,” he said in 1974.  “I’m going to stick with my president even if he and I have to be taken out of this building and shot.”

After Nixon’s resignation, Fithian sought a rematch with Landgrebe in 1974 and beat him 61%-39%.

His victory made him one of the Watergate Babies – a moniker assigned to the 49 Democrats who flipped GOP House seats that year.  New Jersey’s Watergate Babies were William Hughes (D-Ocean City), Jim Florio (D-Runnemede), Andrew Maguire (D-Ridgewood), and Helen Meyner (D-Phillipsburg).

Fithian was able to win re-election with percentages in the mid-50s in 1976, 1978, and 1980.

Indiana lost a congressional seat after the 1980 U.S. Census, and the Republican-controlled legislature chose to eliminate Fithian’s seat.  He mulled running for Indiana Secretary of State before deciding to take on freshman U.S. Senator Richard Lugar; he lost by eight points.

After leaving Congress, Fithian remained in Washington and worked as finance director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

In 1984, Democrat Paul Simon, one of the Watergate Babies a decade earlier, ran for the U.S. Senate in Illinois and unseated Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Charles Percy by a 50%-50% margin.

Simon decided to hire Fithian, who had become a good friend, as his chief of staff, which put Fithian in an unusual position as a Hill staffer.

“I haven’t found the transition difficult,” Fithian told the Associated Press.  “I grew up on the other side of the tracks and have an egalitarian bent to me.”

When Simon sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, Fithian managed his campaign.

Fithian stayed with Simon through his 1990 re-election campaign and left in early 1993 when Bill Clinton named him to a post at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Landgrebe had been named on of America’s Ten Dumbest Congressmen by New Times.  Freshman Rep. Joseph Maraziti (R-Boonton) represented New Jersey on that list.