Reflected Glory?

Print

E-Mail

Reprints

Text Size

For Tom Manion, there was no question about whether he would talk about his late son, Marine Lt. Travis Manion, in his campaign for Congress.

“It was pretty clear from the start that the only reason I was giving this consideration [was] because of the wake-up call that I got from him,” said Manion, a Republican running in Pennsylvania’s 8th district.

At the age of 26, Travis Manion was killed by sniper fire on his second tour in Iraq in April 2007. Tom Manion, who served 11 years active duty in the Marines, said he’s never had any reservations bringing up his late son in his campaign against freshman Rep. Patrick Murphy (D), who also served in Iraq.

“I know there are people out there who try to turn it into a negative,” Tom Manion said. “But at the end of the day, it’s more about what I know and what our family knows and what our son knows about why I’m doing this. We’re real comfortable with it, we don’t have any problem at all.”

Manion is one of a handful of challenger and open-seat candidates — both Democrats and Republicans — who have children serving in the military. State Sen. Debbie Halvorson (D) in Illinois’ 11th district, 2006 Democratic nominee Diane Benson in the Alaska at-large race, Charlie Brown (D) in California’s 4th district, former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove (D), running for Senate in Mississippi, and former Rep. Bob Schaffer (R), running for Senate in Colorado, all have immediate family who are either training for or serving in the military with the potential to go to the Middle East, if they have not already served there.

Candidates have each taken a different approach when it comes to discussing their children’s service.

In some cases these candidates, like Manion and Brown, have also served in some capacity in the military. But according to Jon Soltz, chairman of the group VoteVets.org, a political action committee that supports veterans running for political office, there’s a difference between whether the candidate has served or whether a family member is serving.

“I think they’re both relevant for different reasons,” Soltz said. “If you have a kid in the military, then you’ve got skin in the game, which is a lot more than most politicians.”

But having family members who serve does not necessarily mean the candidate understands the tactical and operational aspects of the mission, Soltz said.

Soltz said there are four Senators with children who have served in Iraq: Jim Webb (D-Va.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). And in the House, freshman Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) has a son who is a reserve officer in the Air Force, while the son of retiring Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), Marine Captain Duncan D. Hunter (R), is running to succeed his father in Congress.

VoteVets.org has mostly endorsed Democratic, but also some Republican, veterans running for Congress. In the southeastern Pennsylvania district, the group is backing Murphy against Manion.

For Halvorson, having a stepson serving as a captain of Special Forces on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan means getting special insight into the military situation in the Middle East. She said her stepson, who recently grew a long beard to fit in better in the country, has always believed there should be more attention paid to the situation in Afghanistan.

“He was right and shared that with us,” Halvorson said.

On the campaign trail, she said she talks about about her stepson, but usually only when people express interest in hearing about him.