Bucshon built a very specific profile in Congress. He says he won't seek re-election.
EVANSVILLE — Republican Larry Bucshon’s announcement that he will not seek re-election to Congress leaves an unexpectedly open seat that may attract lots of candidates and attention from both major parties — just like the year he was first elected.
In 2008 Bucshon, then a Warrick County-based heart surgeon, considered challenging Democratic Rep. Brad Ellsworth in Indiana’s 8th congressional district but ultimately decided to stand down. But 2010 looked a lot better for Republicans nationally, and Bucshon declared his intention to challenge Ellsworth.
Then came U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh’s surprise announcement on Feb. 15, 2010 that he would not run for re-election. Coming just four days before the deadline to file for Senate and House seats, the bombshell announcement set in motion an unexpected chain of events.
Ellsworth announced on the last day for filing that he would run for Bayh’s seat. The 8th District, in turn, became an open seat for election purposes — and an inviting target. Five GOP candidates already had filed to run. Two more followed.
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Backed by national Republican congressional leaders, Bucshon had all the advantages that counted in a GOP primary featuring a whopping eight candidates — but he scraped by his closest competitor, Owen County-based conservative activist Kristi Risk, by a surprisingly close 33-29% margin.
It had been a race in which only a plurality of votes was needed to win. Like Risk, most of the other Republican candidates were identified with the conservative Tea Party movement. Political analysts later said if just one or two of those candidates had dropped out, Risk — outgunned financially and organizationally by Bucshon — would have won.
The retirement decision was made at Christmas
Bucshon’s announcement that he will retire from Congress didn’t come as late in the game as Bayh’s did 14 years ago — but it did come as a surprise. He had said he intended to run in the 21-county 8th District at least one more time in 2024. The filing period for congressional candidates in Indiana begins Wednesday and ends on February 9.
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The 61-year-old Bucshon, who lives in Evansville when he's in the 8th District, told the Courier & Press he arrived at his decision not to run for an eighth two-year term over the Christmas holiday.
"Every two years I think about what the right thing to do is, both for the office and for my family, and I came to the conclusion that it's time to move on to the next stage of my life," he said. "I don't know what I'll do next, but I'm going to retire from Congress."
With Monday’s announcement, Bucshon now joins about two dozen House members who are seeking other offices or retiring heading into the 2024 election.
Bucshon said early in his congressional career that he envisioned staying perhaps 10 or 12 years.
Congress was never meant to be a lifelong career, he said Monday.
"People should come and serve for a period of time and then other people should have the opportunity to serve," he said. "I really believe that, and that was part of the decision-making process."
What is Bucshon's legacy in Congress?
In Congress, Bucshon has established himself as a subject matter expert in health care and a serious, sober minded — if unspectacular — legislator. He isn’t seen on national news shows at night weighing in on the culture wars that roil politically polarized America.
The former heart surgeon arrived on Capitol Hill in January 2011 with his sights set on a slot on the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee. The oldest standing legislative committee in the House, Energy and Commerce had developed the controversial health care reform package that roiled the previous year’s mid-term elections.
It is, in the parlance of Congress, an “A” committee — one of the three most critical and coveted, the others being Appropriations and the tax law-writing Ways and Means. It also has the widest jurisdiction of any congressional committee, including aspects of telecommunications, healthcare, consumer protection, food and drug safety, environmental and energy policy and interstate and foreign commerce. Members deal with a complex web of competing business interests.
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But Bucshon had aimed too high. He had to plod through his first four years on the Hill with less prestigious assignments before the House GOP leadership finally looked his way.
Bucshon's legislative profile on Congress.gov speaks to one reason he isn't the go-to congressman on hot-button issues: his issues aren't sexy, using that term in the political sense.
Bucshon has advocated forcefully for fixes to the way Medicare pays physicians. On other issues, such as changing a law that ties Medicare payments to value instead of volume, his has been a prominent voice. Along with other members of the House GOP Doctors Caucus, Bucshon last year crafted a discussion draft of a bill intended to ensure more reliable payments for physicians.
Bucshon said he wants his legacy in Congress to be that of a member "who fought for access to quality health care."
"We extended the Medicaid program for pregnant mothers for a full year," he said. "We had a couple of pieces of legislation over the years that took away co-pays for critical things that people might need in health care.
"So overall, big picture, the work I've done on a lot of things related to health care to increase access and quality of health care for the American people, is probably the biggest thing."
Bucshon has said he works "in the weeds" to effect change in Congress. He acknowledged there is no single splashy, highly publicized piece of legislation bearing his name.
"But there's a lot of smaller things that I've been involved in over the years that I think have made the system better," he said. "It's not perfect, but I think that's been my focus."
'A very serious legislator'
Several of Bucshon’s colleagues in Congress — Republicans and Democrats — told the Courier & Press in 2018 that he is a solidly effective member.
“He’s a workhorse, not a show horse,” said Minnesota Republican Tom Emmer, who now serves as U.S. House Majority Whip. “On health care issues, on insurance issues related to health care, Larry is a guy that has some very significant influence behind the closed doors.
“Larry is a guy that people listen to within our (Republican) conference when he talks — because he’s not always talking.”
Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan said Bucshon doesn’t preen for the cameras, doesn’t take cheap shots and doesn’t do anything policy-wise that indicates he is anything less than sincere about improving health care.
“Larry cares about this stuff. He takes leadership on issues. We might not vote the same way, but he cares about stuff,” said Dingell, a colleague of Bucshon’s on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Colorado Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette teamed up with Bucshon in 2017 to draft the Diagnostic Accuracy and Innovation Act, designed to improve regulatory oversight of diagnostic tests.
"(Bucshon's) medical background really helps him have some of the substantive information," said DeGette, also a member of the subcommittee on health.
DeGette represents a progressive, urban Denver-area district. She called Bucshon "a very serious legislator."
"He's no-nonsense. He gets it done," she said. "And if he disagrees with you he knows why, and he'll say why, and then you can work through it."
By one measure, Bucshon’s record of legislative achievement has improved as he has built seniority in Congress.
The 8th District congressman was the 32nd most effective of 222 Republicans who served in the House in 2021-22, according to a “Legislative Effectiveness Score” devised by the Center for Effective Lawmaking. He ranked 149th most effective of 250 Republicans who served in the House in 2015-16. In his first term in 2011-12, he ranked 231st of 245 House Republicans.
The Center, a partnership between the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, factors into its formula the importance of legislation offered by members, how many of the bills move forward in the lawmaking process and how far they go.
The elections haven't been close
Bucshon leaves Congress having never lost an election in his Southern and West Central Indiana district. But it wasn’t because no one was willing to take him on.
Although he built his power and influence as he went in Congress, Bucshon was dogged by challenges from within his own party in his first four re-election campaigns. The general line of attack from Republican primary election challengers: Bucshon hadn’t distinguished himself as a revolutionary conservative whose actions in Congress could move the needle on issues.
"He's just part of the ol' gang, the Republican establishment that more or less works hand in glove with the Democrats," said Dr. Richard Moss, who challenged Bucshon in 2016 and 2018. "They come back (to their districts), they make their claims, they make their promises — then they go to Washington and they vote as big government and liberal Republicans."
But Bucshon turned back all the intraparty challenges by substantial margins, defeating one of his primary opponents by 50 percentage points.
The veteran Republican congressman has solidified his hold on the 8th District by assiduously cultivating a public profile in its 21 counties and by using all the advantages of incumbency. He is helped by the fact that the 8th District's political terrain is favorable for the GOP.
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The district hasn’t changed much as a result of redistricting effected in 2021. In the following year’s election, the 8th District retained Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey and Gibson counties. Bucshon also had to tend to Orange County, the part of Crawford County that wasn’t already in the district and part of Fountain County. It made no difference politically: Bucshon won 66% of the vote against Democrat Ray McCormick and Libertarian Andrew Horning.
None of Bucshon’s Democratic challengers has garnered more than 36 percent of the vote against him since former state Rep. Dave Crooks got 43% in 2012. Bucshon beat his 2018 opponent, William Tanoos, by 12 points in Tanoos' home base, Vigo County.
Bucshon may not be on the ballot this year, but he won't be absent from the campaign trial. He said he anticipates helping the Republican nominee to succeed him. And no, he won't be endorsing anyone before the May 7 GOP primary election.
"I would expect a legitimate Democratic candidate to get to an open seat race," he said.
With Bucshon's announcement on Monday, that race begins now.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Congressman Larry Bucshon won't seek re-election from Indiana's 8th District
