Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Costello looks back on bipartisan record
‘If you’re going to be successful, you have to work with everybody,’ retiring congressman says
Asked recently what had changed in his life as congressman for the 6th District of Pennsylvania since he announced at the end of March that he would not seek re-election, U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello was deadpan.
“Things have slowed down a little bit for me,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about fundraising. And I think we get a lot less calls,” he said dryly.
On Tuesday, Costello sat in his office overlooking West Market Street at the Historic Chester County Courthouse referring to the seemingly nonstop stream of telephone contacts from people demanding action on political issues of the day that has largely diminished since he took himself out of the race for a third term. Staff in his field offices have heard fewer and fewer rings, he said, and the weekly protests outside the courthouse have been less angry in tone.
“Which I guess calls into question, were they really just calling for politics or were they really concerned?” he mused.
Costello spent about 30 minutes discussing a range of matters with a reporter, from his growing demand as a television commentator, to his designation by an independent policy organization as one of the House of Representatives’ most bipartisan members, to his thoughts on President Donald Trump and his continued belief in Republican ideals, tempered by an independent
— U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello “Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have always believed working in the middle is where we will find the most reasonable and effective policy solutions for Pennsylvania and for our country.”
streak.
His decision not to run, based on what he said was a frustration with the tenor of political discourse in Washington, D.C., and a changed electoral map he felt was unfairly thrust upon him, seems not to have dimmed Costello’s enthusiasm for conversation about the subject of national politics or his place in it. Before sitting down with a reporter, Costello could be heard laughing with constituents who had come to press him on some matters of importance. All left smiling.
“I do get a lot more media inquiries.” Costello said about what had changed since he dropped out of the race. “I think it is because they think that I’ll be more blunt. What I remind them of is that I’ve always been blunt. They just didn’t know that. I pretty much call it as I see it. When I speak now, I think that no one thinks I have political considerations in mind.”
Since March 30, Costello has appeared on 10 television news program to address questions about a number of topics, from Trump on CNN, to tariffs and tax reform on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” to his interrogation of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on NPR, and his confrontation with Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Scott Pruitt over his security and travel expenses on MSNBC.
“It’s a two-way street,” he said. “As a journalist, no matter how unfiltered you may think I am when I am saying something, when I am running for reelection there is still and element of, ‘Okay, what’s the angle here?’ Whereas now that I’m not running I don’t think that calibration or check has to be there as much.”
He also spoke about the designation last month by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy that he was ninth among current members of the U.S. House of Representatives in non-partisan ranking. Each member’s score was based on bill sponsorships and cosponsorships. According to the Lugar Center, a member of Congress choosing to sponsor or co-sponsor a bill is based on careful consideration of a policy issue and demonstrates a better reflection of where a member stands on an issue than a vote can.
“Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have always believed working in the middle is where we will find the most reasonable and effective policy solutions for Pennsylvania and for our country,” he said in a new release about the ranking. “Bipartisanship is an essential part of our democracy, and I am honored to be named.”
He said process by which the designation was made was clearer than that of advocacy groups on both sides who rank a congressman by his or her voting record.
“Those ideological groups, they pick and choose what votes they score,” he said. They pick 50 votes. The League of Conservation, for example, doesn’t score certain environmental protection votes (he took). Their purpose is to make centrist Republicans look like out-oftouch conservatives. Then you have (the conservative group) Heritage Action. Their job is to make centrist Republicans look like flaming liberals.
“If you look at my whole body of work, that’s where you get that independent rating,” he said. “I break from my party more than 236 of them. To the extent that you want to accept that there are independent members of Congress, then I’m at the top of that list. Democrats come to me first to see if I’ll get on that bill, because I’m not bothered working with Democrats. And I’m good buddies with some of the (ultra-conservative) Freedom Caucus (members.)
“If you’re going to be successful you have to work with everybody,” he said. “And you have to show respect. You have to make room for everybody when you are in elective office.”
Costello, of West Goshen, also spoke about his ambivalence with the Trump administration and the president’s supporters, and his support for centrist Republican values. On the campaign trail in 2016 and afterwards, he was circumspect, to say the least, about his thoughts on Trump’s policies and style.
“I did not know Trump the way I guess other people knew him,” he said. “Which is to say I knew he was a reality television star, and I didn’t like some of the things he said during the campaign. But I also felt that if he were elected that it would be like, ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’
“I thought (Trump’s presidency) would be a very, I don’t want to say non-ideological, but rather that he wouldn’t lead from ideology. He’d want to get more stuff done. And he’d hire the right people for the right agencies,” he said. “And there are some, like the FDA, that have been remarkably well-run, very pioneering, very out front, very innovative, very propublic health. But then you have others. Like having your Secretary of State last less than two years. It’s been a little bit more of a soap opera. I didn’t expect that, but that’s what it was.
“Having said that, my political observation is that since (George W.) Bush, Trump has more fervent Republican support than any other Republican in my lifetime,” he said. “But he also is more shaky with other Republicans than a Republican president probably should be. That becomes the political conundrum of our time,” he said.
“You have folks that have never really been engaged in the political process who feel frankly that they’ve been taken advantage by the political process, and who feel in their bloodstream that the president speaks for them, cares about them, fights for them, and is willing to take on Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, and they love it. And to them the man can do no wrong. Even if I believe he is wrong from time to time.
“I think that the challenge that our country is facing right now is that we are not strengthening ourselves from the center,” he said. “In our republic, we need independent thinkers. I am a Republican. I believe in the Republican philosophy of less government, more money in your pocket than in the government’s.
“But getting off my soap box you are there to represent 705,000 people and you are there to make sure that your voice, those who elected you, gets heard in as many different venues as possible,” he said.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.