Dem
47
GOP
53
Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ) was absent from the House for 4 months and missed 140 votes. Last week, he came back and announced that he'd had depression and went to a hospital for treatment. He gave a short speech in the House chamber at a time when almost no one was present and that was it. Case closed.
But maybe not. There are many unanswered questions. Among them are these:
Kean has argued that he has a right to privacy, like anyone else. Not everyone agrees. When you run for public office, your bosses, the voters, also have rights, like knowing if their employee is up to doing his job.
Kean's general election opponent, Rebecca Bennett (D), has a lot of similarities with the governor of New Jersey, Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) (whose real name is also Rebecca, not Mikie). Like the governor, Bennett spent years in the Navy as a helicopter pilot. She reached the rank of lieutenant, which is the same O-3 paygrade as an Army captain. Bennett is already pointing out that she is 39 and Kean is 57 and that she is a veteran and Kean is not. He is a lifelong politician. She is also pointing out that she did well in a male-dominated military specialty.
Although most Republicans want to pin a medal for bravery on Kean for admitting that he suffered from depression, not all do. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), not always the most tactful member of Congress, said: "Who gets to take four months off of work because they're sad?" She also declined to endorse him. She noted that the good people of NJ-07 had 4 months with no representative. She called that "taxation without representation." Remember, she's a frontier gal who used to own a gun-themed restaurant called the Shooter's Grill in Rifle, CO. Cowboys don't get to take off 4 months because they are feeling sad, is her view.
An unanswered question is whether Kean can now mount a vigorous campaign against a young Navy veteran who has proven her stuff in the military as well as in the business world. After her discharge, Bennett worked as a healthcare executive for several companies, from startups to Fortune 50 companies. Democrats smell victory here and Bennett will have plenty of funding. Republicans might smell defeat and just concede this one to use the money in more winnable races.
There is, by the way, at least one other thing that Kean did not do. And he did not do it at least four times. That would be voting for paid sick leave for workers who suffer catastrophic health problems. According to a report from The Lever, Kean twice voted against sick leave when he was serving in the New Jersey legislature. When he moved to Washington, he remained consistent, and voted against sick leave at least two more times. The headline of the piece, which seems on point to us, is "Sick Leave For Me, Not For Thee." (V)