Michigan Freshman Wins Best of the Worst Offices in House Lottery
By Edward Epstein, CQ Staff
Clutching floor plans in their hands, the House’s incoming freshmen patrolled the marble floors of the Cannon and Longworth office buildings Friday on sort of a treasure hunt.
The goal for the 54 newbies, including those still involved in undecided races, was to find office space. Their available choices were the most undesirable suites in the three House office buildings. Returning members, choosing in order of seniority, have already grabbed all of the prime real estate opened up by election defeats or retirements.
The day began for the freshmen or their stand-ins with a lottery.
They drew numbers — 1 to 54 — from a box. The lowest number allowed the first pick of offices for Rep.-elect Gary Peters, a Democrat from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Peters knows something about lotteries. Until last year, he served on his state’s lottery commission. Picking No.54 was Rep.-elect Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. Rep.-elect Dina Titus, D-Nev., was so excited when she got the number 3 pick that she dialed her cell phone and woke up her husband back home in Las Vegas to tell him the news.
Afterward, the incoming freshmen had four hours to visit the available spots, still occupied by lawmakers who are departing, before they returned to the lottery site to announce their picks. Some members said they’d take what they could get and live with it — even if that meant ending up on the fifth floor of the Cannon Building, where most elevators don’t reach.
“I’m lucky to be here,” said Rep.-elect Michael McMahon, D-N.Y. “I’ll take an office in the Metro if that’s what it takes to work here, in order to go to work in the Capitol every day.”
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