Sarbanes: ‘This wasn’t going to be the last thing I did’; hopes to pass ethics reform as he leaves Congress

As Paul Sarbanes ended a 40-year political career in 2007 that included five U.S. Senate terms, his son, John was sworn into his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Paul Sarbanes came to the House chamber to watch his son take office. The Sarbanes-to-Sarbanes handoff — Paul was 73 and John 44 — felt “like a passing of a torch. It was very emotional; it was very poignant,” said former U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who has known the younger Sarbanes since he was a boy.

But John Sarbanes never intended to remain in Congress throughout his working life, as his father had, he told The Baltimore Sun in the first interview since his surprise Oct. 26 announcement that he won’t seek a 10th term.

While Congress is filled with members who followed a parent’s or spouse’s path to Washington, Sarbanes said his father, who was 87 when he died in 2020, never pressured him to follow suit.

“I always thought, even from when I first began serving, that this wasn’t going to be the last thing I did,” said Sarbanes, 61, a Democrat. “I don’t have anything defined yet, except that I know I want to do something that is impactful where I can make a difference that has service as part of it.”

“He is his own man,” said Mikulski, a Baltimore Democrat.

John Sarbanes’ announcement seemed abrupt not only because it caught even political insiders by surprise, but because it represents the end of a political era. A Sarbanes has represented Marylanders continuously, in one office or another, since Paul Sarbanes joined the state House of Delegates in 1967 as Democrat representing Baltimore.

“The Sarbanes presence in Maryland politics has certainly been around for, shall we say, half a century,” said Mikulski, who served in the Senate from 1987 to 2017 after five terms in the House.

When third-term U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, 80, a longtime friend and ally of the Sarbanes family, announced in May that he would not seek reelection, it didn’t surprise Sarbanes that his name quickly surfaced as a possible successor to Cardin, who is a Democrat from Baltimore.

“I mean, I think some people probably saw that as a kind of an inevitable next step for me,” Sarbanes said. He was 4 when his father was elected to the House of Delegates and 8 when his father entered Congress in 1971.

Not only did his dad become one of Maryland’s longest-serving U.S. senators, but the 3rd Congressional District that John Sarbanes represents has produced three senators: Paul Sarbanes, Mikulski and Cardin.

The district includes Howard County and parts of Anne Arundel and Carroll counties. Because its boundaries shifted during redistricting after the 2020 census, Sarbanes’ Baltimore County home is outside the 3rd District. There is no requirement that House members live in the districts they represent.

After Mikulski’s election to the Senate in 1986, Cardin held the 3rd District seat until Paul Sarbanes’ Senate retirement in 2007. Cardin replaced him in the Senate, and John Sarbanes filled the House seat.

In 2000, Democratic ticket campaign signs in the district read “Sarbanes/Cardin,” referring to Paul Sarbanes’ Senate reelection bid. Six years later, they read “Cardin/Sarbanes, referring to John Sarbanes’ U.S. House candidacy.

“The line was that we didn’t have to print new signs up,” Cardin said. “All we had to do was change the order. We bonded immediately, as Paul Sarbanes and I had bonded.”

But John Sarbanes, an attorney, had no intention of following Cardin to the Senate.

“I certainly never felt any direct pressure from my father to continue on in a particular job for the duration of my career,” said Sarbanes, who had been in office for 13 years when his father died. “I think part of it was that I had done other things before I got to Congress where I saw that you can make a real impact.”

His pre-Congress law practice focused on health care with Venable LLP in Baltimore. He had previously immersed himself in education issues during seven years as special assistant to the state superintendent of schools following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1988.

John Sarbanes remained close to his father following his election to Congress. He said his father, the son of Greek immigrants, had a quiet way of connecting with people.

“After my mother had died and (Paul) was living at the retirement community, he would call me when I was driving home from Washington and ask about my schedule for the day and reflect upon his own time there,” said Sarbanes, who is married with three adult children.

On the walls of his Capitol Hill office are framed photos of the ship’s manifest from when his grandfather, Spyros, came to America in 1909, and of the Mayflower Grill in Salisbury, which was owned by Spyros and his wife, Matina.

Sarbanes has in his home a gavel from the 1974 impeachment hearings of former President Richard Nixon that was gifted to Paul Sarbanes by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Chairman Peter Rodino and then passed on to John. The elder Sarbanes, in his first House term, introduced the first article of impeachment against Nixon.

Like many veteran lawmakers, Sarbanes said he can grow weary of partisanship and dysfunction in the Republican-controlled House, which dumped Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October and replaced him with Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson after three other GOP hopefuls could not muster enough votes.

“He’s a serious legislator,” Cardin said of Sarbanes, who has a low-key, professorial demeanor. “He really does not like to waste time. And the inefficiencies of our political division is something that can wear on you.”

Sarbanes has emphasized Chesapeake Bay protection, health care, environmental education and government reform.

In 2019, Democratic leaders, in a symbolic move, made Sarbanes’ reform legislation the first piece of legislation introduced in the new, Democrat-controlled House. The measure proposed new ethics rules, campaign finance disclosure requirements and voting rights protections.

The legislation passed the House in 2019 — and again in 2021 — but couldn’t gain the 60 Senate votes needed to break a Republican-led filibuster.

Despite the setbacks, Sarbanes has saved a House clerk’s slip that marks the bill’s introduction. If Democrats reclaim a House majority in the 2024 elections, he remains hopeful it could pass as he departs in January 2025. “I actually feel very good about where the effort is. If you’re on that democracy team, you continue to be on it until we get it done,” he said.

Sarbanes does not plan to endorse a successor but says he is pleased at the quality of prospective candidates for the seat.

Democratic state Sen. Sarah Elfreth of Anne Arundel County filed a statement of candidacy Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission and officially kicked off her run Saturday in Annapolis.

“I’ve been tired of the chaos and toxicity that comes out of Washington, D.C.,” Elfreth said. “I thought hard over the last nine days. I came to a simple conclusion that Congress isn’t gonna get any better unless good people run.”

Democratic delegates Vanessa Atterbeary and Dr. Terri Hill, both from Howard County, also say they will run.

Among the Democrats still considering bids are Howard County Executive Calvin Ball and Democratic state Sen. Clarence Lam, also both from Howard County.

Republican Yuripzy Morgan, a lawyer and former WBAL-AM political talk show host who challenged Sarbanes in 2022, is considering running. Berney Flowers, a Howard County Republican, has announced for the race.

The filing deadline is Feb. 9 for the May 14 primary.

Sarbanes said the timing of his announcement was not haphazard.

“I wanted to make sure that anyone who was interested in running for the 3rd District seat would have sufficient time to give careful consideration,” he said. “I’ve been sort of thinking for a few months that this would be the right moment.”