This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 9, 2010 - WASHINGTON - When newly elected U.S. House members gather in Washington next week for freshman orientation, a curious capital will get its first glimpse of Missouri's Vicky Hartzler -- the farmer, small business owner, author, teacher and former state legislator who toppled the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Hartzler, a Christian-right Republican who courted Tea Party support and bagged former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's endorsement, defeated U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Lexington, last week after a tough-minded campaign that sought to link the generally moderate dean of Missouri's congressional delegation -- first elected in 1976 -- with the liberalism of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA.
While it would be easy to pigeonhole Hartzler as one of Palin's "Mama Grizzlies" -- tough-minded, conservative women who want to wield more power in Washington and in state houses around the country -- the former Missouri House member from Harrisonville says her true role model is former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady" whose conservative and sometimes harsh policies are often credited with reviving the United Kingdom's economy during her leadership from 1979-90.
"I really admire her," Hartzler told the Beacon in a phone interview Monday, noting that she and Thatcher share the same birthday, Oct. 13. "During tough times, she took principled stands and got Britain back on the right track economically."
To be sure, economics -- reducing taxes, slashing federal spending and promoting business and agriculture -- dominates Hartzler's initial priority list. But she knows that as one of more than 80 new Republican House members, she won't begin in Washington with anywhere near the clout of her British role model.
For the moment, Hartzler is moving in the realm of Mama Grizzlies and Tea Party activists. In August, Palin endorsed the Missourian, calling her "a dynamic common-sense conservative who is running to get our economy and long-term fiscal security back on track for her daughter and all of our children."
Other than the political kind, you don't find grizzlies in Missouri, although some black bears still roam the Ozarks. And while Hartzler says she shares many goals with Palin and Tea Party activists, the Missourian identifies herself mainly as a conservative Republican.
Asked about the Mama Grizzly designation, she says: "I'm happy to assume that title if that's what people want to call me. But I'm really just a person who's grown up in the Fourth District and I'm a fighter for the people here. I'm a wife and a mother and a farmer and a small business owner, a teacher and a public servant."
Tea with the Party
Many of the newly elected House Republicans are steeped in Tea Party ideals, and Hartzler is among them. She says she "shares the same views and values" as those expressed by Tea Party supporters and "probably will" join the Tea Party Caucus, a congressional group formed last summer by conservative U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., which is likely to grow from its current 50 Republican members. Kentucky's new U.S. Senator-elect, Rand Paul, has been mentioned as a likely caucus leader.
"In my district, there are 25 counties and probably four different Tea Party groups in four of the towns," Hartzler says. "They asked me to speak and I did and I enjoyed that. I think I received some support from many of their members, but as a group they don't endorse candidates."
She says west-central Missouri was ahead of the curve on conservative goals. "The Fourth District has been Tea Party in its philosophy since before the Tea Party existed. We just think it is mainstream to want to have a budget that balances, to rein in runaway federal spending, and to lower the tax burden on citizens," says Hartzler.
Those were among the planks of Hartzler's general-election campaign against Skelton, who had not faced a well-financed opponent in more than a dozen years. In that race, as well as in her victory in the hotly contested Republican primary last summer, Hartzler cemented her reputation as a tenacious campaigner.
She is more than willing to share her campaign secrets with others; her 2007 book, "Running God's Way: Step by Step to a Successful Political Campaign," combined scripture with Hartzler's insights. She says the book's goal is "to encourage and equip more people of faith to get involved, to run and to serve in office -- from school board to county office to state representative."
Hartzler knows about running for the state legislature, having represented the 124th District in the Missouri House from 1995-2001. There, she served on the committees on agriculture, education and children, youth and families.
Legislators who knew Hartzler in Jefferson City describe her as strong willed.
"She is very bright, energetic and self-disciplined," says U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country, a fellow Republican in the Missouri House. "When she sets her mind to something, she is a formidable opponent."
From the opposite side of the aisle, retiring State Sen. Joan Bray, D-University City, described Hartzler as "a 'take-no-prisoners' Republican -- hard-line and hard-driving."
Conservative Republicans view Hartzler as an ally on social as well as economic issues. "Hartzler is a true hero to the pro-family community," wrote former St. Charles County Executive Joe Ortwerth, in a recent e-release from the Missouri Family Policy Council, a socially conservative group that he heads. He called her a "leader of the social conservative movement in Missouri" who "led the successful statewide effort in 2004 to amend Missouri's Constitution to preserve traditional marriage." The following year, Hartzler chaired the Missouri Women's Council, which aims to help women achieve their economic goals.
Goals in the Capitol
For the moment, Hartzler's main goal is to join with other Republicans in helping revive the U.S. economy through tax and spending cuts rather than stimulus spending. While the congressional effort to extend the Bush-era tax cuts (due to expire at year's end) might be resolved during this month's lame-duck session, Republicans are promising to find ways to slash budgets during the new Congress.
Hartzler says cutting spending is a top personal priority; she wants to roll back non-discretionary funding levels to 2008 levels, before the economic stimulus and TARP programs. She also takes aim at this year's controversial health overhaul, advocating a "complete repeal" (replacing it with undefined "common-sense reforms") -- or, if that's not possible, at least refusing to appropriate funds to implement some of its provisions.
The congresswoman-elect would exempt some of the federal budget's high-cost categories -- including Social Security, Medicare and the Pentagon budget -- from cutbacks. But she would not exempt agricultural subsidies, another major area of federal spending popular in rural areas such as west-central Missouri's Fourth District. Among the many farms to receive such subsidies is the 1,700-acre Hartzler farm, which -- according to the Environmental Working Group's "Farm Subsidy Database" -- received about $774,000 in federal payments (mainly commodity subsidies for corn, soybeans and wheat) from 1995 through 2009.
"Everything should be on the table," she says. While she says some agriculture programs represent a "national defense issue" because they help guarantee that "we have a safety net to make sure we have food security in our country," Hartzler adds: "Should we continue the CRP [Conservation Reserve] program, where you pay farmers to not plant ground and set it aside for awhile? I'm not sure. The time for that may be over."
In general, Hartzler says, the Republican majority should closely scrutinize most facets of the federal budget. "We should ask: Is this program constitutional? Is it needed? Is it working? And is it efficient? Based on the answers, we need to take a hard look and see whether we need to reform it or do away with it."
In addition to their farm near Harrisonville, Vicky Hartzler and her husband, Lowell Hartzler, own a business -- Hartzler Equipment Co., with offices in Harrisonville, Nevada and Lamar -- that sells tractors, combines and other farm equipment. They have an 11-year-old daughter and live on the family farm. Rather than relocating to Washington, D.C., Hartzler says, "We're not going to be moving, per se. I'll be going back and forth, probably flying out [to Washington] on Mondays and coming home on Thursday afternoons."
The Freshmen GOP class
The first big task faced by new members of Congress is to jockey for seats on the right committees. Hartzler says she will push for a seat on the Armed Services Committee -- the panel that Skelton chairs.
"The Armed Services Committee is a priority of mine, and [House Republican Leader] John Boehner pledged to me about a month ago that if Republicans take the majority and if I win, that he will try to secure a seat for me on that committee," she says. "I would also like Agriculture and possibly Small Business [committees] because those fit with my background and they reflect the interests of the Fourth District."
Presumed Speaker-to-be Boehner, R-Ohio, and his House deputy, U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-VA, are welcoming the large freshmen class of 80-plus new Republicans by promising that they "will have a larger voice at the leadership table and on the Steering Committee than previous GOP freshman classes in previous Congresses," according to letter from the Republican leaders obtained by the Wall Street Journal. One freshman is likely to get a seat at leadership meetings and two will be elected to the Steering Committee, which decides on committee chairs and assignments. The freshmen members will vote for their leadership representatives next week after the Republican Caucus selects its leaders for the new Congress.
Boehner and Cantor are making an effort to mollify the new class of Republicans -- many of whom, like Hartzler, were supported by Tea Party activists who criticize established GOP leaders -- as a way of heading off internal dissent in the new Congress. Starting at the freshman orientation and meetings next week, Hartzler says, "There's a lot of things to get done here in the next couple of months: hiring my staff, getting my offices set up, and finding a place to stay when I am in D.C."
In the long term, Hartzler says she would consider a congressional pay freeze -- "especially since we've had no cost-of-living adjustments for people on Social Security the last couple of years" -- and she promises not to overstay her welcome in Washington. "I'm not going to put an arbitrary year limit on anything, but I think philosophically that you don't want somebody serving 30-some years there," she says. "You need to let other people have an opportunity to represent the district as well."
The pace in Washington will be faster than it was in Jefferson City, but Hartzler says she is excited about the bigger political stage of the U.S. Capitol.
"I'm looking forward to representing the good people of the Fourth District that I care about so much and bringing their ideas and their heartland values to D.C.," she says. "The ideas we have here for job creation and our common-sense ideas on how to balance the budget are what our country needs right now. So we can be very helpful to turn our country around."