Running for a ninth term is not unprecedented. Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Dan Inouye of Hawaii and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts all won nine Senate elections. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who served in the Senate until the age of 100, ran ten times, losing once and winning three times as a Democrat and six as a Republican.
Leahy, currently the fifth-longest-serving senator in history, can surpass Kennedy in Senate longevity later this month and Thurmond next June. Only nine-termers Byrd and Inouye will then have served longer, and both chaired Senate Appropriations. This is not a post one walks away from. A ninth term in 2022 for Leahy would enable him to pass Byrd and Inouye and become the longest-serving senator in American history.
Leahy previously chaired the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and Judiciary panels but Appropriations, which controls government spending, is the Senate’s largest and most important committee. Many friends are made through Appropriations Committee decisions, and appropriators’ ability “to bring home the bacon” benefits their reelection prospects. With Congress recently lifting prohibitions on “earmarks,” even more friends can be made now and in the near future. As chairman, Leahy’s power position has been enhanced and Vermont’s share of the federal budget will increase as well.
Presently, Leahy holds all the cards and how they are played is a source of much speculation. With the popular (and vocally anti-Trump) Scott not running for Senate, my money is on Leahy seeking — and winning — a ninth term.
Garrison Nelson is an emeritus professor at the University of Vermont, the author of “John William McCormack: A Political Biography” and an editor of the seven-volume “Committees in the U.S. Congress, 1789-2010.”
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October 01, 2021 at 05:03PM
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Why a ninth term for Leahy is more likely than not - Roll Call
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