Radel Resigns with 2nd Shortest US House Tenure in Florida History

The only other Floridian with a shorter stint in the U.S. House served 141 years ago after successfully contesting the state’s at-large Election of 1870

Republican U.S. Representative Trey Radel’s letter of resignation to House Speaker John Boehner Monday marked an about-face for the embattled Congressman who had endured pressure to vacate his seat ever since his arrest for attempting to buy cocaine in D.C. from an undercover federal agent became public last November.

Over the last two-plus months, Radel had seemingly ignored attempts from GOP colleagues to persuade him to quietly step aside. Instead he remained in office and entered a rehab facility after admitting he was battling alcoholism.

But now, with his resignation effective Monday, Radel will go down in the history books with one of the shortest ever stints in the nation’s lower legislative chamber for a Sunshine State U.S. Representative.

A Smart Politics analysis finds that Trey Radel’s tenure of 389 days in the U.S. House is the second shortest among the 132 Floridians to serve as U.S. Representative in state history, and the shortest among those seated at the convening of a new Congress.

Radel entered the chamber along with five other true freshmen from Florida on January 3, 2013: Republicans Ron DeSantis and Ted Yoho and Democrats Lois Frankel, Joe Garcia, and Patrick Murphy.

But while his colleagues will continue to serve their respective districts on Tuesday and beyond, Radel’s time in the U.S. House of Representatives ended late Monday, for a span of just 389 days.

Only one other Floridian served fewer days in the chamber – and that came under very unusual circumstances.

The state’s fourth U.S. House election after the Civil War in 1870 pitted Conservative Democrat Silas Niblack (a former slave owner and veteran of the Confederacy) against the Republican nominee, Josiah Walls (an African-American) for the state’s lone at-large seat.

Walls, who was nearly assassinated during his campaign, became one of the first black Americans elected to Congress with a 2.6-point victory and was seated on March 4, 1871.

Niblack contested the election, however, on the grounds that Democratic ballots were improperly rejected in several counties.

Nearly two years later, the House Committee on Elections ruled in Niblack’s favor and he was seated on January 29, 1873.

In the end, Niblack served just 33 days in office before the end of the term on March 3, 1873.

Before the U.S. House had ruled on the contest, Walls and Niblack were among four candidates running for two-at large seats in the Election of 1872.

Walls finished second and would retake his seat in March 1873, but Niblack finished third and would never return to the chamber.

Presuming DeSantis, Yoho, Frankel, Garcia, and Murphy each serve until at least May 18th of this year, only one other Florida U.S. House member has served less than 500 days in the chamber.

Democrat William Brockenbrough ran as his party’s nominee for the at-large seat after statehood in 1845.

Brockenbrough was defeated by Whig nominee Edward Cabell by 51 votes but successfully contested the election and was seated on January 24, 1846.

Brockenbrough served 403 days until the end of the term on March 3, 1847.

Radell now becomes the seventh Floridian to resign from the U.S. House and the fifth to do so over the last 12.5 years:

· Four-term Republican Joe Scarborough resigned in September 2001, giving the reason he wished to spend more time with his family

· Eight-term Republican Porter Goss resigned in September 2004 to become Director of the CIA

· Six-term Republican Mark Foley resigned in September 2006 after it became public he had sent sexually explicit messages to at least one underage male former page

· Seven-term Democrat Robert Wexler resigned in January 2010 to become President of the Center for Middle East Peace

Two other Florida U.S. Representatives resigned from their seats since statehood:

· One-term Republican William Purman resigned in January 1875 to become a member of the Florida House for one session (Purman had already won reelection to his U.S. House seat, which he took at the start of the 44th Congress in March 1875).

· Ten-term Democrat Lex Green resigned near the end of his final term in November 1944 to enter the U.S. Navy where he served as a lieutenant commander. Green had already decided not to seek reelection to his seat that cycle but instead ran for and failed to receive his party’s nomination for governor.

Shortest Tenures of Florida U.S. Representatives Since Statehood

US Representative	Party	Years	# Days
Silas Niblack	Democrat	1873-1873	33
Trey Radel	Republican	2013-2014	389
Ron DeSantis	Republican	2013-present	390*
Lois Frankel	Democrat	2013-present	390*
Joe Garcia	Democrat	2013-present	390*
Patrick Murphy	Democrat	2013-present	390*
Ted Yoho	Republican	2013-present	390*
William Brockenbrough	Democrat	1846-1847	403
Noble Hull	Democrat	1879-1881	690
James Kehoe	Democrat	1917-1919	729
Claude L’Engle	Democrat	1913-1915	729
Courtney Campbell	Democrat	1953-1955	730
Bill Gunter	Democrat	1973-1975	730
Suzanne Kosmas	Democrat	2009-2011	730
Chester McMullen	Democrat	1951-1953	731
Edward Stack	Democrat	1979-1981	731
Tim Mahoney	Democrat	2007-2009	731
Sandy Adams	Republican	2011-2013	731
David Rivera	Republican	2011-2013	731
Allen West	Republican	2011-2013	731
Jesse Finley	Democrat	1876-1877; 1879; 1881-1882	783
Charles Hamilton	Republican	1868-1871	975
Alan Grayson	Democrat	2009-2011; 2013-present	1120*
Richard Nugent	Republican	2011-present	1121*
Dennis Ross	Republican	2011-present	1121*
Steve Souterland	Republican	2011-present	1121*
Daniel Webster	Republican	2011-present	1121*
Frederica Wilson	Democrat	2011-present	1121*
Ted Deutch	Democrat	2010-present	1385*
George Hawkins	Democrat	1857-1861	1419
William Purman	Republican	1873-1875; 1875-1877	1422
Augustus Maxwell	Democrat	1853-1857	1460
Charles Dougherty	Democrat	1885-1889	1460
Robert Bullock	Democrat	1889-1893	1460
Stephen Mallory	Democrat	1891-1895	1460
Charles Cooper	Democrat	1893-1897	1460
Dannite Mays	Democrat	1909-1913	1460
Emmett Wilson	Democrat	1913-1917	1460
Ruth Owen	Democrat	1929-1933	1460
George Smathers	Democrat	1947-1951	1461
William Lantaff	Democrat	1951-1955	1461
James Grant	Dem/Rep	1987-1991	1461
Craig James	Republican	1989-1993	1461
James Bacchus	Democrat	1991-1995	1461
Katherine Harris	Republican	2003-2007	1461
Ron Klein	Democrat	2007-2011	1461

* Still in office. Data through January 28, 2014. Table compiled by Smart Politics.

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