Cheers, jeers and fears linked to a long walk: the lottery decides office places for first-year students

In politics, as in life, everything depends on luck. In fact, every two years in November, it’s pure chance that decides whether dozens of congressional freshmen will get a coveted office on Capitol Hill…or one far away from the elevators.

On Thursday, elected House members gathered in a cramped meeting room beneath the Capitol to enter the office lottery. This unique biennial event allows newcomers to the House to discover which corner of the Hill they will be living in for the next two years (literally, in the case of MPs who sleep in their offices).

One by one in a randomly generated order, each member (or a designated staff member) is called to choose numbers that will determine the desk selection order. Number 1 means you have priority in choosing a vacant office.

First up was Rep.-elect Craig Goldman, who took his time searching for a numbered chip in a polished wooden box, eliciting a “Come on!” » jokingly. from the crowd of new members of the House.

“Oh, no,” Goldman said, grimacing at the number he had drawn. The Texas Republican caught 48.

The big winner Thursday was Laura Gillen, who didn’t even look at the number she drew before handing it to a member of the Architect of the Capitol’s staff who facilitated the drawing. When House Office Building Superintendent Joe Yates announced, “No. 1″, the New York Democrat raised her arms as if she had won a real lottery, shouting with joy and congratulating some of her new colleagues.

The event offers Hill watchers a sense of which of the incoming freshmen have made the best impression on their peers, who cheer loudly for their favorite co-partisans. Democrats applauded Rep.-elect Sarah McBride of Delaware as she drew “lucky number 13,” as Yates put it. Republicans seemed pleased as Washington’s Michael Baumgartner grabbed second place.

Prior to the lottery, returning outgoing members have the opportunity to move into a vacant office through a process determined by seniority. This tends to leave most freshmen in the less desirable corners of the Longworth or Cannon buildings, facing cramped quarters, poor views, or long walks through the complex’s underground tunnels to the floor of the house.

After the drawing, while the elected members looked at the floor plans and selected from all the available offices, at least one of them left happy. Michigan Republican Tom Barrett hoped to land space in Longworth that was held decades ago by Louis C. Rabaut, an ancestor who served in Congress.

“We got it!” Barrett posted on