Cheers, jeers and long walk fears: Lottery decides freshman office spots

WASHINGTON — In politics, as in life, a lot comes down to luck. In fact, every two years in November, it’s pure luck that decides whether dozens of congressional freshmen will get a coveted Capitol Hill office … or one that’s really far from the elevators.

On Thursday, House members-elect gathered in a cramped meeting room under the Capitol to participate in the office lottery. The quirky biennial event is how the newcomers to the House find out what corner of the Hill they’ll call home for the next two years (literally, in the case of members who sleep in their offices).

One by one in a randomly generated order, each member (or a designated staffer) is called up to pick numbers that will determine the office selection order. No. 1 means you’ve got first dibs on picking a vacant office.

Up first was Rep.-elect Craig Goldman, who took his time fishing for a numbered chip out of a polished wooden box, eliciting a joking “C’mon!” from the crowd of new House members.

“Oh, no,” Goldman said, grimacing at the number he had pulled. The Texas Republican grabbed 48.

The big winner Thursday was Laura Gillen, who didn’t even look at the number she pulled before handing it over to an Architect of the Capitol staffer facilitating the drawing. When House Office Buildings Superintendent Joe Yates announced, “No. 1,” the New York Democrat raised her arms as if she had won an actual lottery, shouting with joy and high-fiving some of her new colleagues.

The event offers Hill watchers an idea of who among the incoming freshman class has made the best impression on their peers, who cheer loudly for their favorite co-partisans. Democrats cheered Rep.-elect Sarah McBride of Delaware as she pulled “lucky number 13,” as Yates put it. Republicans seemed thrilled when Michael Baumgartner of Washington grabbed No. 2.

Before the lottery, returning incumbent members have the chance to relocate to a vacated office in a process that’s determined by seniority. That tends to leave most of the freshmen in the least desirable corners of the Longworth or Cannon buildings, facing cramped quarters, bad views or long walks through the complex’s underground tunnels to the House floor.

After the chip draw, as members-elect consulted floor plans and selected from the pool of available office suites, at least one came away happy. Michigan Republican Tom Barrett had been hoping to land a space in Longworth that was held several decades ago by Louis C. Rabaut, an ancestor who served in Congress.

“We got it!” Barrett posted on X. “Thank you to my Freshman colleagues, Republicans AND Democrats, who were kind enough to allow me to select the office once occupied by my great-grandfather.”