Former Rep. Sandlin Wedded to Politics - Literally and Figuratively

WASHINGTON — It's been more than three years since four-term House member Max Sandlin was voted out of office at the top of his game.

"Unconstitutional," the Texas Democrat says of the 2003 Republican-led redistricting scheme he blames for his loss.

Sandlin, though, remains wedded to politics - literally and figuratively.

Once among the most influential of the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Sandlin has taken his place among the 16,000 lobbyists competing for a slice of the $2.8 billion spent each year by corporations, other organizations and individuals seeking access to Congress.

Among his clients: EDS, the Plano, Texas-based technology giant founded by Ross Perot. According to lobby disclosure records Sandlin filed with Congress, EDS paid his firm, Fleischman-Hillard Government Relations, $90,000 last year to represent its interests in the defense industry.

Also in his Rolodex: The National Football League and the New York Botanical Gardens, each of which paid roughly $40,000 last year, and Peabody Energy, the world's largest coal company, which Sandlin's firm billed for $120,000 in lobbying fees last year, congressional records show.

Beyond client services, last year Sandlin married Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. The South Dakota Democrat, who is 37, is regarded by some as an up-and-coming figure with a growing national profile. The couple announced Wednesday that they are expecting their first child in December.

And Sandlin, who likely would now be the third-ranking member of the House leadership had he stayed in office, is still getting used to being introduced as the politician's husband.

"I have gained a new appreciation for political spouses," he said in an interview in the conference room of Fleischman-Hillard Government Relations, where Sandlin is a co-chairman. "It's somewhat of a challenge."

As a House member himself, Sandlin was focused on his colleagues, his constituents and the weighty issues of the day, sometimes leaving those closest to him to compete for his personal attention.

"You know, I understand that a little bit better now," he said, "being a spouse and watching it, as opposed to being the one that was engaged in talking."

It's something Sandlin counsels young politicians about when he mentors them on strategy, issues, message and other fundamentals of building a political career.

"But they don't know it until they live it," he said. "Until they get there and they're getting up at five or six in the morning and working all day, catching a plane and going home and waving to their spouse and then going to the barbecue, and just being moved from car to car, venue to venue, place to place, issue to issue, you don't understand the all-encompassing nature of the job until you do it."

Dressed in a solid blue suit, red tie and black cowboy boots, Sandlin, 55, his hair going thin and grey, looks like he could still shift gears from a Capitol Hill caucus to an East Texas chow wagon with little effort. He concedes the strain of that exhausting lifestyle took its toll on his first marriage, which broke up after 19 years and four children.

"Sure, because you're separated, you live in two different places, you wind up having two separate friends, a different focus," he said. "Your spouse doesn't want to hear about the Medicare prescription drug plan or the continuing (budget) resolution or what's happening with Medicaid."

Being wedded to a House member is different.

"We're both interested in policy, we're both interested in politics, in history and government," said Sandlin. "We speak the same lingo, we watch all the Sunday shows together, read the paper."

It was politics that brought the couple together.

In 2002, Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who was then House minority leader, asked Sandlin to mentor a House candidate. Under pressure from Pelosi - now Speaker of the House - Sandlin shuffled through a list of prospective proteges and picked out the young South Dakota lawyer.

"She was a new and exciting candidate, articulate and smart, seemed to be running a good campaign," he recalled. "I thought it was a good challenge."

She lost in a narrow contest, but in mid-2004 won her seat in a special election and won her first full term in the November 2004 general election. She was re-elected by a landslide in 2006 and is seeking another term in November, running as the kind of economic conservative Blue Dog Democrat Sandlin exemplified in his own political career.

Sandlin, who spends an average of two weekends each month in South Dakota, has found the state to be similar to Texas in ways, with the two states sharing interests in agriculture, energy, technology and defense. The political culture in South Dakota, though, is a bit kinder, he said.

"In Texas, politics is a rough-and-tumble blood sport, with clear winners and losers," he said. In South Dakota, he said, "It's just not quite that partisan blood bath that we have in Texas."

Sandlin doesn't sound bitter, but the scars of his 2004 defeat still show.

In 2003, the Republican-controlled Texas legislature redrew the boundaries for the state's House districts, at the request of Texas GOP Rep Tom DeLay, who was House majority leader at the time.

Democrats protested, saying Republicans drew partisan new lines to dilute minority votes in ways meant to hurt Democrats. DeLay was later indicted on ethics charges related to the redistricting and resigned.

In 2004 elections, Republicans in Texas picked up six House seats as several senior Democrats were ousted from office, including Rep. Martin Frost and Charles Stenholm. Both were congressional veterans who were positioned to assume committee chairmanships in a Democrat-controlled House.

Sandlin, as House minority whip, was poised to have become No. 3 in the House leadership when Pelosi became Speaker. The Democratic losses of 2004, said Sandlin, badly hurt Texas in Washington, especially since Democrats won majority control of the House that year.

Had Sandlin and his Democratic House colleagues from the Lone Star State not lost in 2004, he said, "We would have the president of the United States and the leadership of the entire United States Congress, and some of the most powerful committees."

"As it is," he said, "Texas has lost much of its influence."

Texas Republicans counter that the 2003 redistricting was a needed adjustment to political battle lines and that it was policy, not geography, that resulted in their 2004 gains.

Sandlin is looking to the fall to help avenge his defeat.

"We have a real opportunity in the House to potentially pick up to 30 seats," he said.

And Sandlin, who is helping the campaign of presidential hopeful Barack Obama, said the Illinois Democrat can be competitive in Texas, long a solid red state in presidential campaigns.

"Clearly it's a challenge," said Sandlin, who went on to outline a road map for success in his home state.

"We have to talk about domestic issues - the economy, jobs, energy, health care," he said. "People in Texas respond to people that talk about pragmatic solutions, as opposed to partisan politics, and I think that's what Obama is about."