Some members of the incoming class of Republican congressmen are so frugal that they will sleep in their Capitol Hill offices.
Don't count Florida's freshmen among them.
"She has not secured lodging yet, but sleeping in the office is not an option," spokesman Charlie Keller said of Rep.-elect Sandy Adams of Florida's 24th Congressional District.
Ditto for new Reps. Daniel Webster (CD 8), David Rivera (CD 25), Dennis Ross (CD 12) and Allen West (CD 22).
"I've slept in pup tents. I'm not sleeping in my office," West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, told the Wall Street Journal.
Rivera spokeswoman Leslie Veiga said the Miamian "has not finalized his living arrangements in D.C. yet," but did not indicate that a Capitol Hill office was still in the running.
Webster staffers said their boss, who defeated Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, is shopping for his own digs.
Reps.-elect Steve Southerland, who knocked off veteran Allen Boyd in CD 2, and Dennis Ross, who succeeds Adam Putnam in CD 12, also are eschewing the in-House option.
"[Ross] will not be sleeping in the office. With older children who will visit and Mrs. Ross spending a lot of time there with him, he will rent an apartment," Ross spokesman Fred Piccolo told Sunshine State News.
Elsewhere, however, other newly minted GOP congressmen say they intend to set a cost-cutting example by consolidating their living and working space in Washington, D.C.
The Journal reported that at least 15 percent of the freshman class of Republicans plan to bed down in their offices.
"Since I'm here on a temporary basis, I don't see any need to have a permanent kind of residence," Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., said. Heck, who defeated a first-term incumbent Democrat, says he's thinking a roll-out cot will work fine in one of the three-room office suites available to House members.
With a work week that generally runs Tuesday through Thursday, many lawmakers head home for their four-day weekends.
The Journal reports that although "nobody seems to know for certain how many lawmakers currently dwell in their offices, estimates range into the dozens.
"The practice appears to crest after Republican-wave elections."
The price of lodging off-campus is a disincentive for many fiscally conservative lawmakers stunned by sticker shock in and around the Beltway, which seems to be impervious to the nationwide real-estate bust.
Monthly rents of $2,000 and up for 600-square-foot flats are typical. Even on an annual salary of $174,000, some incoming congressmen say that's just too steep.
Freshman Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., is among the lawmakers who will be sleeping and working at his office.
"I'm not doing this as a political stunt. I'm doing this because I'm a cheap ...," he said.
--
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
