A Brief Biographical Sketch of Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen

Josh Trachtenberg

Blog Assignment #1

            The structure of government outlined in the Federalist Papers seeks to establish norms of representation that would ideally maximize the role of constituents in American Democracy. Madison and Hamilton worried that a representative who occupied office for too long might lose an urgent sense to be accountable to his constituency; such an individual might be likely to progressively occupy himself more and more with voices and pressures other than those coming from his district.

Rodney Frelinghuysen, a Republican representing New Jersey’s 11^th district, can be analyzed as a paradigmatic example of a long tenured representative; his career in Congress is certainly one that can shed light on whether or not this specific concern of the Federalist Papers is legitimate. Frelinghuysen has sat in the House of Representatives since 1995, which indicates that he has secured for himself both a stable domain of power in the House, and the consistent support of his district. Another fact supporting the notion that he is comfortably entrenched in his position is the reality that he comes from a prominent family of New Jersey politicians. His father was a member of the U.S House of Representatives from 1952-1975. He is related to four former New Jersey US Senators, President Chester Arthur’s Secretary of State, the Vice Presidential Candidate of the Whig Party in 1844, and one of the framer’s of New Jersey’s Constitution.

Whether or not he is actively engaged with the concerns of his constituents is a matter of conjecture; he is generally well liked in his district and beat Democrat John Arvanitis in the 2012 midterm election by a margin of 58.8% to 40%.

What the empirical data does indicate, however, is that Mr. Frelinghuysen’s record is consistent with some of the stereotypes that are typically associated with partisan politics in contemporary American democracy. For the majority of his career he has described himself as a moderate Republican. Nevertheless, in the 12,000-plus votes he has cast since 1995, he has voted with the majority of his party 94% of the time. Furthermore, his voting record reflects a bias towards special interests groups that have an interest in securing the support of House Republicans, including groups in the pharmaceutical industry, health care industry, and oil industry.

The American people typically express frustration with the seemingly stagnant legislative process. These sorts of complaints might appropriately be directed towards Representative Frelinghuysen. In his 18 years in the House, only four bills that he has sponsored have become law.

So, in short, what is clear is that Mr. Frelinghuysen is a staunch Republican who is seemingly comfortable with his place in the House and has essentially never encountered a serious threat to his seat. The framers of the constitution would likely be disappointed to learn of a representative like him who feels very secure in his seat and is seemingly an individual who is firmly entrenched in a long political career. Over the course of his time in the House, he has rarely reached across the aisle, amassed incredible individual wealth, and continued his family legacy of serving as a New Jersey politician.