Jim Matheson has changed the past two years. He's a bit more lonely. And he's learned the value of patience.
A 4-year-old named Will has taught the patience.
Living away four or five days a week from son Will and wife Amy is the lonely part.
Still, Matheson, who seeks a second, two-year term in Utah's newly redrawn 2nd Congressional District, says being one of 435 U.S. House members has been a fine experience. He wants more of it.
Matheson, who at 42 doesn't look his age, won't (or can't) say what the next two years will bring him. While he leads Republican John Swallow in the latest Deseret News/KSL-TV poll, the 2nd District was made more Republican by the GOP-controlled Legislature in redistricting last year. And the Nov. 5 election could retire the freshman Democratic representative and send him back to his energy consulting firm and his family.
Like a growing number of U.S. House members — and the other two Utah representatives — Matheson commutes to D.C., usually flying into the nation's capital Sunday night or Monday morning, flying out on Friday, back to his district, family and friends. Much of the House's floor and committee work is squeezed into Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during weeks the House is in session.
"You get a lot of sky miles, you learn how to use that four-and-half-hour flight (each way) to study up on things," write speeches and such, says Matheson, who usually upgrades into first class to get more leg room for his 6-foot-2 frame.
While a number of Utah Democrats hoped one of the children of the late Gov. Scott M. Matheson would get into politics, Jim — the third of four children — wasn't tops on the list. Scott Jr., now the dean of the University of Utah Law School, was believed to be the heir apparent and was courted by the party for several races in the 1980s and 1990s.
But Jim always had the blood for it.
He helped out on his father's two successful gubernatorial elections and ran former Rep. Wayne Owens' unsuccessful 1984 governor's race.
Matheson actually wanted to challenge former GOP 2nd District Rep. Merrill Cook in 1998. But Utah Education Association president Lily Eskelsen was knee-deep early on in the Democratic race and Matheson deferred to her.
2000 turned out to be good timing for Matheson.
In 1998, Cook trounced Eskelsen, but then started floundering amid bad press over a number of missteps. And when Cook was defeated in the 2000 June GOP primary by a newcomer, millionaire Derek Smith, Matheson stood quietly by raising funds and waiting for the fall election.
Running an "I'm-an-independent-thinking-Democrat" campaign, Matheson beat Smith by 14 percentage points.
And it was off on those long plane flights.
Amy Matheson is a pediatrician working for the University of Utah health sciences organization. Matheson says they never really contemplated moving their family back to D.C.
"I've learned to make the best" of the long weekends and extended adjournment time in Utah, says the congressman.
He was once spotted standing by the side of the road in his upper Avenues neighborhood, holding Will on his hip as the boy shouted "car, car" at passing vehicles. "He liked to look at them drive by," Matheson notes.
He has also learned to delegate.
"I've always been pretty much a hands-on guy, especially in business."
After graduating from Harvard, Matheson, who earned a master's degree from UCLA, worked for the infamously bankrupted Bonneville Pacific Corp. in Salt Lake City. "I was a midlevel manager and got laid off along with a lot of other good people when it went under," he recalls.
He then started his own small energy consulting firm, specializing in helping clients save money on their large energy bills.
"But with (congressional) offices to run in Salt Lake and in Washington, and me flying back and forth and all the congressional business I have to do, I've had to learn to delegate stuff these last two years. It's been hard for me."
And unlike the summer of 2000, he can't now be a full-time candidate "like I was before, because Congress is in session and I have to be back there during the week. I just have to trust my congressional and campaign staffs. And I do."
It was staff problems, controversial hirings and firings, that led Cook into trouble.
You haven't seen that with Matheson. He's tapped a few of his father's old staffers to keep things running level at his congressional offices, while his sister-in-law — Robyn Matheson — is managing his campaign this year after apprenticing in his 2000 election.
And it's not like Matheson is mercurial, anyway.
He's not known for quick decisions or ups and downs. He thinks things out, calculates before taking a course of action, says longtime friend and neighbor Eric Leavitt. "And he's cheap," says Leavitt, GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt's younger brother, who has jumped from the family's Republican fold to support Matheson.
Matheson drove a rusted-out sports car for years, until Will was born and he needed more than two seats to carry the family around. "You could see the ground through the floorboards. But it drove OK," Matheson recalls.
As a member of the fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democratic caucus in the House, Matheson would like to think he's treating the taxpayers' money like he did his own.
In this campaign, Matheson is doing much the same he did in the 2000 race: Raise considerable funds, promise to vote in an independent manner — not always for the Democratic Party line — and work hard.
"Intellectually, you couldn't ask for a better job. It is always interesting. And I actually do like getting to know and help people. And basically that's what congressmen do."
"I'm not whining" about missing his family and all the travel, he said. "It's a job I've worked hard to get and hold. I hope to be around for awhile."
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com