Rep. Chaffetz Leaving Before the End of His Congressional Term?
“I really like the work in Congress, but I love my family more”
Wednesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) make public plans to forgo reelection in 2018, an announcement that shocked most Hill watchers.
Now, Rep. Chaffetz says he might not even finish his current term. “I will continue to weigh the options, but I might depart early,” Chaffetz said Thursday during a radio interview.
From The Hill:
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who stunned Washington with an announcement that he is not running for reelection, might not even finish his remaining term.
Chaffetz told KSL News Radio’s Doug Wright that he may not finish out his full term through 2018. But he said he’s still debating the decision amid uncertainty over how Utah would establish a process to replace him early.
“I will continue to weigh the options, but I might depart early,” Chaffetz told the Utah radio host on Thursday.
According to The Hill, Chaffetz wants to spend more time with his family and return to the private sector.
When asked about running for Utah’s Governorship in 2020, Chaffetz refused to comment one way or another.
As Mary blogged yesterday:
Chaffetz has become one of the most vocal representatives in Congress who has worked hard to find answers on former Attorney General Eric Holder’s blood soaked Operation Fast and Furious, which led to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. He recently held a hearing to find more answers regarding the death of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata, who was killed by Zeta drug cartel members who used guns from straw purchasers connected to another operation.
Chaffetz also worked hard as chairman of the Oversight Committee to investigate failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s private email server when she served as secretary of state. He was one of several congressmen who investigated the Benghazi terror attack that led to the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
“I really like the work in Congress, but I love my family more,” said Chaffetz.
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Comments
Hmmm, who is the ‘source’ for this? Is it a item you can get at the all day breakfast at McDonalds?
You know what Jason? When you ran for this office you made a promise to your constituents that you would faithfully fill out your term. Now your family comes first? What were they doing for the last few terms? The minimum you can do is to honor your promise to the people who sent you to DC to do a job for them.
Do you have a link to any evidence that he ever made such a promise? Because I don’t believe you, I think you made it up. Very few candidates ever make such promises, and when they do (e.g. George W Bush in ’98) nobody believes them.
I don’t recall you (or anyone) complaining when Jeff Sessions, Ryan Zinke, Tom Price, Nicki Haley, Mick Mulvaney, and Mike Pompeo all resigned early from their former positions, breaking the implicit promise you seem to think they made by contesting those positions when they did. That’s because there is no such implicit promise; it’s understood when anyone applies for a job, including an elected office, that one may resign at any time, whether to take up a different position or for any other reason.
Go to hell!
You may be a bit unclear about the meaning of the word “term”. As in, a specific allotted interval of time.
Yes, what of it? A term of office is a maximum, not a minimum. Being elected to a term means your job will expire on a certain date, and if you want to renew it you’ll have to be elected again. It is not a commitment to serve the entire term. If it were, then why did you have no problem with all the people I listed above, who left their jobs early in order to take up their current jobs?
Strange you should mention “honor your promise” since that’s probably what is behind his decision – namely McConnell and Ryan’s failure to honor all of the promises they made to him to get him to abandon his stated principles, leave the Tea Party and join the corrupt, underhanded establishment and help them deny Tea Party candidates. That’s also probably why Ryan seemed to be in such distress with Chaffetz’s announcement.
IIRC, Chaffetz is LDS. There is nothing, no promise or commitment more sacred to an LDS person then their marriage and family.
And that’s no bad thing…
This situation makes me ask why? As in Why the sudden change? I can understand the this is my last term announcement, I just don’t get the I think I might leave early statement. I do have a few thoughts on why, some are innocent, some are quite nefarious. My biggest concern is that, because of some of the areas he has investigated, Mr Chaffetz uncovered something and people are threatening his family over. Hopefully it is much more innocent than that but the sudden move to leave congress makes me wonder.
I have seen that mentioned elsewhere as well. But this action just draws attention to that hypothesis.
Something is going on that we are not privy to. While there may be something nefarious, with threats to him or his family, I get the feeling that there is something far bigger going on, or will be going on in the not too distant future…
There’s no sudden change. Having decided not to recontest the seat, he now has to consider his future options, and it makes no sense to commit himself to one course in advance. He was asked whether he will resign early and told the truth, that he doesn’t know and doesn’t want to make any promises.
Does make you go hmmm – his family was there when he just got elected last year – now all of a sudden his job is taking too much time? If I were a lib I’d wonder if there is some dirt on him that may be coming out. Hope not.
He’s been on this job for eight years already, and if he serves out his term it will be ten years. It’s reasonable at this point, when considering his next step, to think of his family’s needs; if the local Republicans can sort out a candidate it may suit everyone concerned for him not to make the new person wait for the election.
Or there’s an illness in his family he wants to keep private or he’s been threatened….you don’t know crap and act as if you are entitled to know.
If you were a lib …?
Remember not too long ago he was quite ready to throw Trump under a bus.
Never-Trumpers can leave, it’s fine with me.
He has worked so hard in congress that he never resolved any investigation. Meh.
So, what we have here is a career politician who suddenly, without any real explanation, announces that he is not going to seek reelection and may not finish out his current term of office. This is highly unusual.
Now this could be that he is simply tired of the Washington scene. It could be that his wife and family are unhappy with that environment. Understandable, but hardly a reason which needs to be concealed.
There be family health conditions of an emergency nature. Again, hardly something that a public figure would have to conceal. After all, a few hours work investigating the activities of the Representative’s family would disclose if someone was spending a lot of time at the doctor’s office.
Could there be some other, possibly more sinister reason for his departure? Possibly.
Could this be some super secret position change done by the Trump WH? Again, possible.
It is just very strange that a national politician, whose star is clearly on the rise, is suddenly bailing. It will be interesting to see what the reason turns out to be.
It is very strange and hopefully has nothing to do with any threats based on his investigations. If it is not anything nefarious it will be very interesting to discover the reason this rising star is voluntarily bailing out.
it will be very interesting to discover the reason
If the problem is a genuine family crisis, as is certainly possible, it would be rude to intrude.
My money is on “extortion”. They have something on him…obtained through a FISA warrant, perhaps?
Meanwhile, John Podesta suddenly starts tweeting, to taunt Chaffetz.
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/66bzvy/pervert_alert_world_class_pedophile_john_podesta/