The Grand Tour of Their New House

Several newcomers were still recovering from last week's election and seemed a little shocked to be walking the polished marble floors of the Capitol.

Chris Murphy ducked out of the day-long orientation session in the Cannon Office Building and lingered in a hallway with a cellphone against his ear as he returned calls from a list of phone messages that filled four pages. "I still have thank-you calls to make," said Murphy, 33, a state lawmaker from Connecticut who drew national attention by defeating 12-term Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R).

David Loebsack, 53, a political science professor from Iowa, is another improbable congressman. The Democrat who had never before won public office defeated 15-term Rep. Jim Leach (R). Yesterday, Loebsack was absorbing the notion that he would be making public policy instead of studying it.

"I grew up in poverty with a single mom who had mental illness," Loebsack said. "If anyone had told me I'd grow up to teach at Cornell College with a PhD, I would have thought they were crazy. If anyone had told me that I would get elected to Congress, I would have thought they were from another planet. I'm living proof of the American dream."

Yesterday evening, Loebsack and the other freshmen were invited to a reception at the White House, another moment he said he would cherish. "I didn't know we were going to the White House -- I just found out," he said.

Many new members came to Washington with one or two aides. They have to hire staff for their Capitol office as well as at least one district office, figure out where they're going to live in Washington, whether they want to commute home or bring their families to the area.

"It's like starting a new life and a new business at the same time," Ellsworth said. "For people who are used to knowing what they're doing, where they're working, where they're living, it's a little weird."

Steve Kagan, 56, a physician from Wisconsin and another first-time officeholder, had already scoped out a small apartment a block and a half from the Capitol. It faces an alley and has no windows, he said. "But it's got room for a bed," the Democrat said. "And air conditioning. I hear it gets hot down here."