Including Ben Cline ’94 and Jared Golden ’11, nine Bates alumni have served in the House of Representatives. (One alumnus, Ed Muskie ’36, has served in the Senate.)<\/p>\n
Their election marks the second time two alumni have served in Congress at the same time (the first being 1933\u201335, when Carroll Beedy and Donald Partridge, both Republicans, represented Maine’s 1st and 2nd districts), and the first time representing both major parties. The nine: <\/div>\n In a Pettengill Hall classroom packed with Reunion attendees, the pair covered a range of topics \u2014 at times sounding almost confessional in their frustration with the hyperpartisanship in Washington.<\/p>\n Interviewed by professors John Baughman (politics) and Stephanie Kelley-Romano (rhetoric, film, and screen studies), the two talked about their Bates pasts, about what it was like arriving in Washington during a government shutdown, and how the alignment of powerful \u2014 and surprising \u2014 forces tends to stymie bipartisanship.<\/p>\n When Golden and Cline were sworn in in early January, the federal government was in the middle of a five-week partial government shutdown. There was barely time to get acclimated to the offices and technology, Cline said. \u201cWe were voting on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n At left and right, moderators Stephanie Kelley-Romano and John Baughman prepare for their discussion with newly elected Congressmen Ben Cline ’94 of Virginia and Jared Golden ’11 of Maine (second from left and right) on June 8 at Reunion. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n The 116th Congress includes a number of charismatic, media-savvy freshman members comfortable in the national spotlight, and both Golden and Cline frequently referenced Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., during their discussion, with Golden distancing himself from her style of legislating.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s room in every caucus for all kinds, and you need a little bit of every type of leader,\u201d he explained. \u201cMine is, I think, a more quiet, dogged focus on issues and work, and then getting to the district and traveling around and meeting people face-to-face and making sure they feel a strong connection to their representative.\u201d<\/p>\n Golden and his staff decided, instead of jumping straight into high-profile issues, to hang back and wait for his committee assignments \u2014 but he hit a wrinkle there.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I bring an enlisted perspective into that committee room.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He had promised during his campaign that he would not vote for Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as speaker of the House, saying Congress needed a new generation of leaders. He, along with 14 other members, followed through on their promises, but Pelosi was reelected speaker anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not gonna lie,\u201d Golden said. Voting against the speaker \u201cdoesn\u2019t make it easy to get your top committee assignments.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Golden\u2019s two committee assignments is the Committee on Armed Services, whose 62 members include 20 military veterans. Twelve of those served combat tours, but only Golden served in the enlisted ranks.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I bring an enlisted perspective into that committee room,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of officers sitting in that room. It\u2019s a different, boots-on-the-ground perspective on Afghanistan and Iraq or other things.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s also on the Committee on Small Business, chairing that committee\u2019s contracting and infrastructure subcommittee.<\/p>\n \u201cThat committee\u2019s been a real blessing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting, and in my experience, the one you might not enjoy as much turns out to be really deeply engaging.\u201d<\/p>\n A lawyer, Cline landed among many other lawyers on the Judiciary Committee, an assignment he credits to the Congressman succeeded in Virginia’s 6th District, Bob Goodlatte ’74, who was the committee’s chair.<\/p>\n He also joined the Committee on Education and Labor where, as the representative of a district dotted with four-year colleges, he works on the higher education subcommittee.<\/p>\n On election night in Virginia, Ben Cline ’94 hugs Bob Goodlatte ’74 before giving his acceptance speech in Roanoke. (Heather Rousseau \/ copyright The Roanoke Times<\/em>, reproduced by permission)<\/p><\/div>\n Soon after arriving in Washington, Cline drew media attention for a reason he didn\u2019t expect. New members of Congress join a lottery to pick their offices, and Cline got first pick among the 80 new representatives \u2014 and was promptly inundated with calls from news outlets asking him about his new office. \u201cJust to show you how the priorities of D.C. are messed up,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n \u201cCBS This Morning<\/em> wanted to follow me around,\u201d Cline said. \u201cI said, \u2018Can I go on CBS This Morning<\/em>? Because I\u2019d like to talk about my priorities for legislation.\u2019 \u2018No, we just want to follow you around and see what room you pick.\u2019 That was my moment of fame.\u201d<\/p>\n Cline didn\u2019t go on This Morning<\/em>, and he said the national media requests have largely subsided. \u201cI\u2019ve been on a very quiet committee assignment of Judiciary<\/a> ever since,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n What most people don\u2019t realize, Cline said, is how much of a House member\u2019s attention and resources are devoted to issues back home in the district.<\/p>\n \u201cThey see us in Washington, but they don\u2019t see that half of our budget is constituent services, running the offices. Half my staff is in the district helping folks who have problems with Social Security benefits or veterans benefits, solving problems with passports and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Golden and Cline or their staffs spend three or four days out of most weeks in the district, hearing their constituents\u2019 opinions.<\/p>\n \u201cI have 19 counties and cities in my district, and so I\u2019m trying to have a town hall in each one of them,\u201d Cline said. \u201cThat\u2019s where the rubber meets the road, when people can actually talk to their representative. You\u2019re just being available. That\u2019s what\u2019s going to restore faith in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n A squad leader in the Marines, Golden said that leading a Congressional staff was very different. \u201cI hired good, smart people who challenge me and try and push back and make sure I\u2019m making the right decisions and be thoughtful about it. That\u2019s a learning experience for me, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Jared Golden ’11 offers his Maine constituents multiple ways to give him feedback, including taking hikes with him. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n Golden said he might hold a town hall now and again, but finds that the format favors loud and politically extreme views. (Maine\u2019s two U.S. senators, independent Angus King and Republican Susan Collins, also tend to eschew the town hall format.)<\/span><\/p>\n Golden also has roundtables and coffee hours, appears at public events, and even tells his constituents to take a hike.<\/p>\n \u201cWe say, \u2018Come meet us at the head of the trail, and walk through the woods with your Congressman for an hour.’ We\u2019ll get three or four people; but maybe some people need it that low-key.\u201d<\/p>\n Cline, a former member of the Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates, had to get used to being in the minority in \u201cone of the most partisan environments imaginable,\u201d he said \u2014 and during a shutdown, to boot. \u201cWe\u2019re trying, but it\u2019s like starting from 20 yards behind.\u201d<\/p>\n In Virginia, Cline said, it was much easier to work across the aisle.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Richmond, all of us sit in the House together on the floor at the same time, and there\u2019s one room in the back called the Members\u2019 Lounge, and that\u2019s where the food is. In line, it\u2019s Democrat, Republican, Democrat, Republican. When we sit down, we\u2019re all sitting together in the back sharing stories.\u201d<\/p>\n On Capitol Hill, Cline has found that there\u2019s a partisan slant to everything from orientation, which is largely separate for Republicans and Democrats, to doorways.<\/p>\n \u201cThe caucuses don\u2019t even enter rooms through the same doors. The Republicans go through one door, the Democrats go in another door. Every committee has separate lounges, a lounge for Republicans and a lounge for Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are starting from a place of stark division and for those of us who want to make changes, the institution\u2019s very resistant to change,\u201d Cline added. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of work to do to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Darnell Morrow ’14 (left) greets Ben Cline ’94 (right) prior to the Reunion discussion on June 8. Both graduates of Washington and Lee Law School, the pair had met once before, when on opposite sides of a legal case. (Jay Burns\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n Cline said he sometimes plays \u201cDemocrat roulette,\u201d saying hello to various Democratic members of Congress and seeing who is responsive and who is not. Golden joined the For Country Caucus, a group of military veterans from both parties who are committed to bipartisanship.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really a commitment to forge relationships and try and put yourself in the mindset of, what\u2019s the best step for the collective country?\u201d Golden said.<\/p>\n \u201cForget talking about Middle East peace. Here in our country, we\u2019re in a lot of trouble.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n One audience member in the Keck Classroom called the separate doors \u201cheartbreaking,\u201d and asked the Congressmen if there was any hope for bipartisan cooperation. Neither were optimistic.<\/p>\n Golden recalled listening to a podcast featuring a marriage counselor who also worked on Middle East peace efforts. The counselor said that cooperation is very difficult if people don\u2019t trust either the process of negotiation or negotiators themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cI really thought about our politics these days,\u201d Golden said. \u201cForget talking about Middle East peace. Here in our country, with our politics, both sides don\u2019t trust one another. The general public doesn\u2019t trust the process. We\u2019re in a lot of trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n Improving relations between the two major parties in Congress won’t be easy, say Jared Golden ’11 (left) and Ben Cline ’94. “Trying to get a seedling to sprout in that rubble is challenging,” said Cline. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n Cline said the Judiciary Committee, which is conducting some of the highest-profile hearings on the Hill<\/a> in connection with the Mueller Report, is a microcosm of the hyperpartisanship sweeping Congress. \u201cWe were talking past each other and making points and then going back to our offices,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said he\u2019s trying to get all the freshman members together for lunch once a week, but the work is frustrating.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s building those relationships from the ground up,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now we just have dust. We just have rubble. Trying to get a seedling to sprout in that rubble is challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n Cline grew up in Lexington, Va., the son of a Washington and Lee economics professor. He had the liberal arts ethos in mind when he arrived at Bates, and he said he got what he wanted.<\/p>\n On a largely liberal campus, the more-conservative Cline was \u201cconfronted on day one,\u201d he said. But he learned to debate his beliefs in Commons, where anything and everything was up for grabs.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything was on the table,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you had something to say, say it.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1992, Cline\u2019s mother sent him a newspaper clipping \u2014 Bob Goodlatte \u201974 had won that year\u2019s House seat in his home district. Two years later, Goodlatte returned to campus for his 20th Reunion, and Cline made a point of joining the student BatesStar team for the Class of 1974.<\/p>\n “Everything was on the table” at Bates, said Ben Cline ’94. \u201cIf you had something to say, say it.\u201d (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n The BatesStars were encouraged to write notes of introduction to the returning alumni. \u201cMine said, \u2018I\u2019m Ben Cline, I\u2019m from Lexington, Virginia, I\u2019m majoring in political science, and I really want to work on Capitol Hill.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n And during the weekend, he got to meet the new Congressman and his wife, Maryellen Flaherty Goodlatte \u201974.<\/p>\n \u201cSure enough, after he and Maryellen got back to Washington, there was a resume waiting for him. It was at that point that the very first staffer, an entry-level correspondent who wrote the mail, had decided to leave. I got called in for an interview.\u201d<\/p>\n Cline worked for Goodlatte for eight years, becoming chief of staff. After his time in Goodlatte\u2019s office, Cline earned a law degree and served eight terms in the Virginia House of Delegates. When Goodlatte decided to retire in 2018 after 26 years in Congress, Cline won his seat.<\/p>\n \u201cMy Bates network was one guy,\u201d Cline said, \u201cbut it was a very critical guy.\u201d<\/p>\n In July 1999, Ben Cline \u201994 (left) confers with Rep. Bob Goodlatte \u201974 in Goodlatte\u2019s office in the Rayburn House Office Building. Cline was Goodlatte\u2019s legislative director at the time. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n Born in Lewiston and raised in nearby Leeds, Golden served two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan before returning to Maine. By the mid-2000s, he was working a few jobs to make ends meet, including one at George\u2019s Pizza in Auburn, a favorite Friday night pizza takeout spot for Bill Hiss \u201966, a longtime Bates dean of admission.<\/p>\n The two met one night, and Hiss encouraged Golden, who had briefly attended the University of Maine at Farmington, to return to college, at Bates.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018You\u2019re out of your mind, buddy,\u2019\u201d Golden said in recalling Hiss\u2019 suggestion, eliciting a big laugh from the Reunion audience. But, he said, \u201cBates didn\u2019t laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a real lesson that nothing is really impossible. If you want to try something and work hard enough for it, and people will give you a chance and opportunities, you grab onto it, and you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n As a parent takes a photo, Jared Golden ’11 poses with a Reunion-goer’s son following the discussion. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n Golden ticked off the ways he was a non-traditional student: He was in his mid-20s and \u201ccould also qualify as a townie and the only veteran on campus \u2014 so being a little different and facing some resistance in the classroom, but also bringing some,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n After graduation, Golden worked in Collins\u2019 Senate office before returning to Maine in 2013. He served two terms in the Maine House of Representatives and was elected assistant majority leader in his second term. In 2015, he married Isobel Moiles \u201911.<\/p>\n In terms of his political perspectives, the lessons he learned as a Marine and as a Bates graduate sometimes intertwine. One result, he said, is being able to see different sides of an issue and a propensity to challenge conventional thinking.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/11\/John-P.-Swasey-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a> John P. Swasey, who attended the Maine State Seminary prior to the Civil War, served in Congress from 1908 to 1911.<\/p>\n\n
On their first days in Congress \u2014 during a government shutdown<\/strong><\/h5>\n
![\"1:30\u20132:30pmBates](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/06\/190608_Reunion_Alumni_Congress__0064.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/11\/goodlatte-cline-5be2607be378e.image_-900x617.jpg\")
<\/a>On listening to people<\/strong><\/h5>\n
![\"1:30\u20132:30pmBates](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/06\/2-190608_Reunion_Alumni_Congress__0338-900x600.jpg\")
<\/a>On partisanship<\/strong><\/h5>\n
![\"Darnell](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/06\/cline-and-golden-2019-06-08-13.29.07-900x675.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"1:30\u20132:30pmBates](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/06\/190608_Reunion_Alumni_Congress_0214A-900x713.jpg\")
<\/a>On their Bates experiences<\/strong><\/h5>\n
![\"1:30\u20132:30pmBates](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/06\/190608_Reunion_Alumni_Congress__0098-900x600.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/11\/Cline-Goodlatte-1999-CRM_B5_F233_9.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"1:30\u20132:30pmBates](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/06\/190608_Reunion_Alumni_Congress__0485.jpg\")
<\/a>
![\"Jared](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/11\/CITelectionGOLDENp1107182-900x601.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/06\/2-select-100308_Basij_Rasikh_Golden_2892-900x635.jpg\")
<\/a>