Dem
47
GOP
53
Yup. Sen George Helmy (D-NJ) will retire on Sunday. The famous Sen. Helmy, who authored the Helmy Act and cosponsored dozens of bills that became law. Don't remember him? Well, OK. There is no Helmy Act and the only bill he sponsored that has become law was one to rename the facilities at the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park to honor a former congressman. Helmy is the first Coptic American in Congress, though. That is an achievement that will live forever.
Don't judge the poor senator too harshly. He was sworn in only on Sept. 9 and will resign on Dec. 8, a senatorship of
only 91 days. Was his tenure the shortest ever? Not by a country mile an
inch.
Louis Wyman was senator for 3 days in 1974, Homer Miller was senator for 8 days in 1871, Alva Lumpkin was senator for 10
days in 1941, Wilton Hall was senator for 44 days in 1944, Rebecca Felton was senator for 50 days in 1922, Thomas Storke
was senator for 55 days in 1938, Dean Barkley was senator for 59 days in 2003, John Moses was senator for 59 days in
1945, and George Jones was senator for 73 days in 1807. But Helmy follows them in the glorious tradition of gaming the
system. Almost all of these were placeholders appointed when somebody else resigned or died, except the duly elected
Lumpkin and Moses, who died in office shortly after being sworn in.
Helmy was appointed when former senator Bob Menendez resigned from the Senate after being convicted on 16 corruption charges. At that point, Menendez' situation was untenable. Running for reelection in 2026 would have been a pointless and embarrassing exercise and if he had refused to resign, he probably would have been expelled from the Senate, so he threw in the towel on Aug. 20.
At that point, Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) had a problem. He, and everyone else in New Jersey, knew that Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) would be the new senator, but it would be unseemly to appoint him before the election. That would make the election seem like a farce and might actually cause enough people to vote for the Republican to cause Kim to lose. So Murphy did the wise thing and appointed his chief of staff, Helmy, to make sure the Democrats kept their narrow margin. Helmy did what was expected of a new senator (namely, respecting his elders), and will leave with his head held high. He is only 45 and might well run for public office in New Jersey some time in the future.
The reason for his early departure, instead of just filling out the term until Jan. 3, is to let Kim be sworn on Dec. 9, thus giving him more seniority than the other new senators elected in November. Seniority means a lot in the Senate and Kim will have more seniority than the new Republican senators from Indiana, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, and West Virginia, as well as the Democrats from Arizona, California, Delaware, Maryland, and Michigan. Twelve new senators is a large freshman class, and Kim will be ahead of all of them for as long as he is in the Senate. Kim is 42, so he could serve for 40 years or more. Helmy is a team player and that could come in handy some day. (V)