WASHINGTON -- The 89th session of Congress features 91 new faces in the House of Representatives -- a doorkeeper's nightmare.
The new lawmakers range from a just-old-enough-to-qualify representative to a Japanese housewife.
But for the harried doorkeeper there will be at least some shortcuts in the game of matching faces and names. One new lawmaker has a famous name. Another favors flamboyant vests.
There is a sample of what the House employes have to digest on a priority basis:
One new member, Rep. Jed Johnson Jr., D-Okla., is so young he might be mistaken for a page. Johnson, son of a former member who died last year, actually was a House page, and not too long ago. He comes to Congress just-turned-25 and the youngest member ever to serve in the House legally. The Constitution sets age 25 as the minimum qualification.
One Tennessee youth of 22 once made it however by falsifying his age. Johnson made it by beating Rep. Victor Wickersham, D-Okla., in an upset primary election, then defeating a Goldwater Republican in the general election, and finally -- on Dec. 27 -- celebrating his 25th birthday.
Another relative youngster fresh on the Capitol scene is Rep. John V. Tunney, D-Calif., who is 30 and the son of former heavyweight champion Gene Tunney. The younger Tunney is a lawyer, not a prize fighter. He is a close friend of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D- Mass., with whom he studied at the University of Virginia Law School. Gene Tunney stumped the district for his son, along with Jack Dempsey from whom he wrested the heavyweight title. The new congressman plugged standard Democratic issues -- education, world peace, job opportunity, and medicare -- in his campaign, and attacked the conservative stands taken by Rep. Pat Minor Martin, R- Calif., his predecessor.
Rep. Eligio de la Garza, D-Tex., adds a further Latin touch to the House, as well as a tendency to colorful dress. In 10 years as a state legislator the 37-year-old McAllen lawyer was noted for his good humor and his flamboyant vests. He likes to cook exotic dishes and considers himself an expert on Chinese food. He boasts a near-arsenal of hunting guns, and either cooks his kills or personally supervises their preparation. He is expected to vote conservatively.
Rep. James D. Martin, 46, is not only a new face in the house but a symbol of political change that shook the south in the recent election. He is one of five new Republican house members from Alabama. Martin narrowly missed winning a seat in the Senate two years ago. He is president of an oil distributing firm in Gadsden. He is a former president of the Gadsden Chamber of Commerce and has been Gadsden's "man of the year." He is active In civic work and a member of the board of stewards of Gadsden's First Methodist Church.
Rep. William R. Anderson, D- Tenn., takes the 6th District seat of Ross Bass who now is a senator. It is assumed he will establish among other congressional attainments a reputation for a calm, unruffled disposition, no matter how rough the legislative weather becomes. With any other temperament he never would have made it as a submariner in World War II and later as a skipper of the Nautilus, the first atomic submarine. Anderson was in charge when the Nautilus in 1958 traveled from the Pacific to the Atlantic under the polar ice cap. He retired in 1962 to become President Kennedy's consultant on establishment of a domestic Peace Corps.
Rep. Patsy Takemoto Mink, D-Hawaii, established several "firsts" in her election. She is the first woman of Oriental ancestry (Japanese) to serve in Congress, the first woman to represent Hawaii here, and the first (and so far only) new female to be elected to the 89th Congress.
She is 37, and a wife, mother, and lawyer as well as veteran politician. She has served in the territorial and state legislatures since 1955. Her husband, a hydrologer (a geologist specializing in water), will be working in the Washington area. The Minks have a 12-year-old daughter.
