Freshman in Congress learn guickly what to Focus on: Raise lots of money or you're gone

Newly elected congressional Democrats had just a week to savor their victories before coming face to face with a harsh reality of Washington. 

At a party-sponsored orientation session, the freshmen — many still giddy from winning close races in which they espoused grand plans to change the Capitol’s toxic ­atmosphere — were schooled in their party’s simple list of priorities for them. 

Raise money. Raise more. Win.

The newcomers were told to devote at least four hours each day to the tedious task of raising money — so-called ­dialing for dollars — so they could build a war chest and defend their seats, according to those present. That’s twice as much time as party leaders expect them to dedicate to committee hearings and floor votes, or meetings with constituents. 

Some members were flabbergasted. One rolled his eyes and walked out of the room. 

But just about everyone in Congress signs on. Four months into a new session, Democrat and Republican freshmen in targeted districts say they often spend up to half their days raising money, whether through dreaded “call times” at a party-run phone bank near the Capitol, or attending fund-raisers.

[...] 

Members routinely duck out of the House office buildings, where they are prohibited by law from campaigning, and walk across the street to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee offices in the salmon-colored party headquarters. There, on the second floor, 30 to 40 legislators and their staffers squeeze into the “bullpen,” as some members have dubbed it — a makeshift call center of about two dozen cubicles, each 2½ feet wide and equipped with two land lines.

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