Rep. Joe Heck sitting pretty in freshman class in House

By Karoun Demirjian

Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011 | 2 a.m.

After a timeout to absorb the shock of last week’s attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Republican leaders restart the clock on the 112th Congress today.

The Arizona shooting that severely injured Giffords, killed six, and wounded 13 others, seemed like it might derail the ambitious game plan that Republican House leaders had drafted for the new session. But as they pivot to resume their efforts to repeal the new health care law, the spotlight is shifting back onto the freshman lawmakers who gave them a mandate to carry out their agenda.

So ladies and gentlemen, meet the Chosen One.

It’s not an official title, but if congressional leaders were handing out such a crown to freshmen, it appears their choice would be Joe Heck. Poll the freshmen, and they might agree.

Before he even took the oath of office, Heck had racked up a hefty portfolio of prime slots: a seat on his party’s Steering Committee — one of only three selected from and by the freshman class; a seat on the House’s Select Intelligence Committee, where he’s the only freshman among Speaker John Boehner’s hand-picked appointees; a seat on Education and Labor; and a seat on the Homeland Security Committee — which he had to trade in when leaders came knocking once again, asking him to serve on Armed Services.

“He brings a unique perspective,” Boehner said in a statement. “We don’t have any other active Army Medical Corps Reserve officers serving in Congress, and the American people deserve to have the one that is helping guide our country’s military policy.”

Heck got an early chance to impress when his class of incoming Republican lawmakers elected him to the GOP’s Steering Committee, which chooses who will sit on the other policy committees.

Of course, that wasn’t an invitation to cherry-pick prime spots for himself: Heck and his two freshman colleagues held several sessions to hear freshman colleagues make their cases for assignments.

“Because we’re such a large class, they looked to us to make the recommendations for the committee assignments,” Heck said.

It’s not just about the assignments: Heck’s proximity to leadership — and the liking the speaker appears to have taken to him — potentially put him in an important bridging role, as electoral sweethearts GOP and the Tea Party see if their relationship has what it takes to last.

“I don’t see myself as an arbiter ... and so far, I haven’t seen anything that would be considered a balancing act,” Heck said. “Everyone’s coming here unified in being able to carry out the Pledge to America.”

But the Pledge to America — an outline of ideological goals Republicans released before the midterm elections — is pretty light on legislative details.

As they crop up, some of those details — such as what to do about the raising the debt ceiling — are exposing discord in the caucus. Most Tea Party-inspired freshmen don’t want to raise it, despite what it may mean for the U.S.’s ability to maintain its good credit rating. Even Boehner is indirectly lecturing his young ones, telling them to approach the debt ceiling issue like “adults.”

Heck, who enjoyed Tea Party support during the election, has thus far managed to keep himself commitment-free on large policy issues. Even on the health care bill, which is reviled in all corners of the party, Heck has avoided pledging his vote, echoing his campaign stance that the bill has problems, but good points, too.

That he has managed to earn accolades without having to ascribe to a public ideology suggests his star may continue to rise. And that begs the question: If it does, will he, like the original Chosen One (formerly of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, now a Heat-ed Miamian), be so lured by stardom that he forgets where he came from?

Heck certainly seems to be rhetorically aware of his roots: He is always quick to mention how issues pertain to the situation and experience of Nevadans, even when reflecting on his circumstantial successes as a new congressman.

“I think it benefits not just me, but the constituents I represent,” he said. “It gives Nevadans more of a voice at the table.”

But it has to be more than rhetoric. Heck’s district, after all, is in dire straits: Nevada’s state unemployment rate still hovers at 14.3 percent, and in the 3rd Congressional District, foreclosures affect 5.2 percent of households — the worst rate of any congressional district in the country.

And when it comes to the individuals behind those numbers, it would appear Heck is starting from scratch. Heck’s office said they reached out through their transition director Grant Hewitt to then-Rep. Dina Titus’ office immediately after the election, to get looped in on constituent case files, but were told that Titus would be transferring all pending cases left unfinished by the end of the session to the delegation’s senior Democrat, Harry Reid. In late December, Titus and her staff said they had never been contacted by Heck’s staff for anything other than queries about their office space. It ought to be noted, however, that it’s rare that pending foreclosure, Social Security and other constituent cases are passed on during a congressional transition when it happens across party lines (portfolios are usually transferred up to the senator of the outgoing member’s party, in this case, Reid).

But Heck is barely two weeks into the job and is still hiring staff. The bill-writing, vote-taking, and policy jockeying are supposed to come later. For now, only one thing’s for certain: He’s better poised to represent Nevada’s interests in influential congressional circles than any of Nevada’s freshman House members have been in a long while.