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Whether Hawaii's congressional delegation serves the state's interests as well as its size and distance from Washington might allow was the central question Peter Rosegg, an editorial writer and reporter for the Honolulu Advertiser who had just completed a year as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow on Capitol Hill, came to address. He argued that the delegation performs adequately by Washington standards and carries somewhat more clout than Hawaii's small population might suggest, but that its influence is declining and will fall sharply when its longest-serving and most senior member eventually retires. Rosegg assessed the delegation's members individually: the senior senator commanded wide respect and some fear among colleagues, though earmarks for institutions unrelated to Hawaii and unresolved sexual harassment allegations had complicated his standing; the junior senator was personally popular but not a legislative heavyweight; the senior congresswoman was regarded as a serious policy legislator focused on education and labor; and the delegation's more recently seated representative was making a visible impression by cultivating alliances across the aisle. Rosegg also observed that no member of Congress from Hawaii has ever been defeated in a re-election bid.
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