Veterans of Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Campaign For Seats in Congress

Regardless of who they are or where they served, they all echo Maine Republican Charlie Summers, a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserves who returned in May from public affairs duties in Iraq. "As someone who has served in a combat zone," says Summers, 48, "I not only understand the kinetic side of the equation—the operational side—but the human side of the equation and the needs of those who have served, those who have lost a limb, got burned, had traumatic brain injury, or post-traumatic stress disorder."

Filling in. He was among a small number of hopefuls whose campaigns were disrupted when duty called. Summers, who deployed in the summer of 2007, left his candidacy in the hands of his wife, Ruth, 37, who, incidentally, is a Navy veteran herself. In his absence, she stood in for him at debates, gave speeches, and hit up donors.

The Pentagon has strict guidelines prohibiting active-duty service members from campaigning for office or even taking behind-the-scenes roles as advisers. They can, however, donate money to candidates, put political bumper stickers on their personal vehicles, and, when not in uniform, attend fundraisers.

Charlie Summers, who followed his wife's progress by reading Maine papers online, returned from Iraq with just a month before a two-man primary election in June—and won. He's not a neophyte, though, since this is his third attempt for a congressional seat, and, earlier, he spent nearly a decade working for Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican.

Hunter, too, temporarily put his candidacy in the hands of aides and his wife, Margaret. Google Alerts helped him keep abreast of how things were going. After he returned last fall from the deployment, he said getting up to speed in the race was "like going from zero to 60 in seconds."

Not unexpectedly, the Republicans running tend to voice support for the war in Iraq, while Democrats favor redeploying troops from Iraq and redoubling efforts in Afghanistan. Regardless of party, the candidates acknowledge Iraq has receded in the public's mind, supplanted by concern over energy, gas prices, and the economy, and they're tailoring campaigns accordingly.

Invariably, candidates for office trumpet military credentials, if they have them, especially in the wake of 9/11. In noisy campaigns, the biographical detail is a symbolically rich way to convey to voters "the obviously desirable traits of sacrifice, selflessness, patriotism, duty to country," observes political scientist Jeremy Teigen of Ramapo College of New Jersey. "People can digest those concepts with just that one little tag: 'military veteran.' "

In the current Congress, about 2 in 5 senators and 3 in 10 House members are military veterans, though the proportion shrinks when it comes to combat service. Only 9 percent of senators and 0.5 percent of House lawmakers can make that claim.

According to Teigen, both chambers were flush with veterans after World War II. There were only 95 in 1941, but the number had swelled to 323 by 1959. That began dropping in the 1970s, in part because the draft ended in 1973, says Peter Feaver, a political scientist and military scholar at Duke University.

Feaver has examined military veterans in Congress and the cabinet from 1815 to the period leading up to 9/11. He concluded that the greater the preponderance of veterans, the less the likelihood of the United States engaging in military action, but as a corollary, when force is used, it's in a big way. "It's sort of like the Powell Doctrine. Force is used rarely but decisively," he says. Translated to barracks-speak: War is hell, but if you're in for a dime, you're in for a dollar.

Teigen, in his research, homed in on whether being a veteran helps win elections. He analyzed recent House races, looking only at contests that featured a Democrat against a Republican, eliminating incumbents who did not have to face a major-party rival. He cast a wide net with respect to veterans, including anyone with active-duty service, from a theoretical former supply clerk at Fort Dix in New Jersey to a Medal of Honor winner. In 2006 House races across the nation, Republican veterans did slightly better than nonveterans, but Democratic veterans had no significant advantage over Democrats lacking military backgrounds. "The 'Fighting Dems' were an extremely important symbolic plank in the effort to retake both chambers, but the success Democrats enjoyed cannot be placed at the feet of veterans," Teigen says.