Snowe or DeMint Could Lead GOP on Senate Communications
The sudden resignation of Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., opened the ranking member seat on the Senate Communications Subcommittee. Ensign said late Thursday he would resign effective May 3. A replacement hasn’t been picked, but multiple communications lobbyists said Friday they view Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., as a strong contender to lead subcommittee Republicans. However, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, outranks DeMint in seniority.
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Commerce Committee discussions on who will replace Ensign as ranking member won’t start until members return from recess on May 2, a GOP committee staffer told us. In order of seniority after Snowe on the subcommittee are DeMint, John Thune, R-S.D., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and freshmen senators Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. Of those, only Isakson, Toomey, Rubio and Ayotte are not already a ranking member of a Commerce subcommittee.
While Snowe is his senior, DeMint could be a leading candidate for the job, multiple industry lobbyists said. DeMint was an ardent opponent of the FCC’s net neutrality decision, and last year said (CD Dec 22 p5) he intends to prevent “the FCC or any government agency from unilaterally burdening our recovering economy with baseless regulation.” DeMint introduced a bill last year and in 2005 to limit new FCC regulations, but failed to move it through the Senate. This year, DeMint has a bill to cut off funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (S-492). Meanwhile, Snowe has long been active on telecom issues, and this year has a comprehensive spectrum bill (S-455), and a bill to add engineers to FCC commissioner staffs (S-611). The Snowe and DeMint offices didn’t respond to requests for comment. Many offices were closed Friday due to the Easter holiday.
Snowe and DeMint already lead the GOP on other subcommittees on Commerce, but could seek to move if they want. Typically, GOP senators do not lead more than one subcommittee on a given committee. It seems less likely that Snowe would leave her position as ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard because of its importance to her home state of Maine, telecom lobbyists said. Snowe likes her current subcommittee’s issues and has declined opportunities in the past to trade up, said Lisa Sutherland, a lobbyist with Creative Government. Snowe has seniority over Ensign and could have taken the Communications post in January when the committee was making assignments, Sutherland added. The telecom job may be more attractive to DeMint, who is ranking member of the Aviation subcommittee and will likely wrap up work on the major FAA reauthorization bill by the end of May, she said. FAA bills have passed both the House and Senate and are now in conference.
DeMint is a rising star in the GOP who could in two years take ranking member of the full Commerce Committee and may even consider a run for U.S. president, said a former Senate Commerce Committee aide. Full Committee Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is retiring at the end of 2012. Snowe and DeMint are the next most senior members on the committee. Snowe is up for reelection and is expected to face a close primary. If she wins, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, retires, as some expect, Snowe could choose to take a slot as ranking member of the Finance Committee, the source said.
Ensign’s departure also opens a GOP seat on the full Commerce Committee. At the beginning of this Congress when committees were making picks, Commerce Republicans interviewed Jerry Moran of Kansas for a seat, but the freshman senator didn’t make the cut, a telecom industry lobbyist said. Moran is ranking member of the Appropriations subcommittee on Financial Services, which oversees the FCC.
Ensign suffered political fallout after being accused of covering up an affair with an aide. Last month, he announced he would retire at the end of 2012, but Ensign said Thursday his plans changed as controversy continued.
Whoever replaces Ensign, “we hope he or she is concerned about protecting the public towards the trend of mega-monopolies that is growing in the communications industry,” said Dave Saldana, communications director at Free Press. “It doesn’t matter if there is a D or an R behind their name as long as they get government in the interest of serving the public rather than the industry.” Free State Foundation President Randolph May said he hopes the new ranking member, whoever it is, “has the same commitment to less regulation as Senator DeMint.”