When John Delaney was chief executive of a commercial lending firm, he closed a complicated $1.8 billion deal that allowed a health-care firm to buy 120 long-term care facilities.
It took him 10 weeks.
For Maryland’s John Delaney, a tricky transition from business to Congress awaits
Katherine Frey/The Washington Post - When John Delaney was chief executive of a commercial lending firm, he closed a billion-dollar deal in 10 weeks. He may soon find out that things don’t move as quickly on the Hill.
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But as Maryland’s newest congressman is about to find out, almost nothing moves that fast on Capitol Hill.
On average, a bill takes seven years to pass. Committees mull and debate and mull some more. Resolutions to name post offices might pass with ease, but more-involved legislation, especially in these hyperpartisan times, can take ages.
Having ousted veteran Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R) this month from a redrawn suburban Maryland district, Delaney (D), co-founder of the Chevy Chase firm CapitalSource, is set to make the tough transition from the business world to the legislative world.
“I think he’ll find, as I have, that the legislative process is painful,” said Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), who founded auto dealerships in Hampton Roads before being elected to the House in 2010. “It’s excruciatingly slow if you’re a . . . Type A personality, a person who wants to really move forward and gets things done.”
In the current House, more members list “business” as their primary occupation than any other category, narrowly edging out “public service/politics,” according to Congressional Quarterly. (In the Senate, “law” is the occupation most often declared.)
Like countless other businessmen-turned-politicians, Delaney, 49, campaigned as an outsider, saying his business acumen was needed to help cut through all that clutters Capitol Hill. “I am not a professional politician,” he says in a video on his Web site.
And his private-sector credentials suggest that he is as impatient as he is ambitious. By 40, he had founded two companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, he has founded a nonprofit group focused on job creation and economic development.
“Frustrated by Washington’s inability to solve the jobs crisis, John wants to bring the perspective of an entrepreneur to a grid-locked Congress,” Delaney’s Web site says.
In the private sector, you “can do a lot of creative things very quickly” said Brad Fitch, head of the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation, who noted the seven-year average for passing a bill in the House.
Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), a former venture capitalist and telecommunications executive, spoke to Delaney several times before Delaney decided to run.
Warner said Delaney would probably find Congress to be “more hierarchical and slower-moving” than the private sector, a common complaint among new members.
Still, Warner said, “I think it’s helpful for the system to have more folks who’ve run businesses, particularly those who are running as Democrats.”
In an interview during orientation activities for incoming lawmakers, Delaney acknowledged that he faced a steep curve.
“There’s a lot of new subject matter to learn,” he said. “You start slowly peeling the onion and start figuring out how the policy and the politics intersect.”
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