Will Matt Gaetz go back to Congress in January?

I finished writing this an hour before Matt announced he wasn’t going back. So it no longer matters — but it’s got some fun background information in it….

Original Post:

Just for fun, Politico published this nice data bit:

Anthony Scaramucci had this thought about it:

Matt lasted 0.8 Scaramuccis, and the head of lettuce won.

Now, legally he CAN take his seat for the 119th Congress. He was duly elected and he only resigned from the 118th Congress. There’s some question about whether he would or would not have to resign from the 119th Congress. First, in his resignation letter, which was read on the floor of the House (video here), he only “intended” to resign from the next Congress.

He can alert the Clerk that he intends to take his seat in January, which he hasn’t done yet, since a new primary has not yet been scheduled in Florida. (The Florida laws are somewhat murky, so we’ll ignore them for now.)

From the current House rules:

"House Rules 2. (a): At the commencement of the first session of each Congress, the Clerk shall call the Members, Delegates and Resident Commissioner to order and proceed to record their presence by States in alphabetical order, either by call of the roll or by use of the electronic voting system."

So theoretically, he could just show up. Before I give you my take on it, what do you think? Note: Substack has a ridiculously short character limitation, the second choice should actually read: “Get a position with the incoming regime that does not require Senate confirmation and an FBI background check”.

Here are my thoughts:

There’s still that sticky wicket of an Ethics Report. It might not come out in 2024, but it certainly doesn’t go away. He could face censure, or even expulsion. This is the map of payments published by the Times. They got it from the FBI, and it was the Times that redacted the names.

My question is: where did he get all the money? Congressional salaries for regular members equal $174,000. It sounds like a lot of money, although the members need to maintain residences in DC and their home district (unless they live within commuting distance). It’s why so many members of the House (and Senate) have outside income.

For Matt, that includes his wife’s salary of $157,000. In addition, they own several vacant lots (think about it — they own VACANT LOTS! Deep vein of humor, especially if you, like me, watch a lot of crime procedurals on the television!) This is his most recent financial disclosure form.

He’s actually not a rich guy. His net worth (in 2018, most recent data I could find) is a bit over $300,000. Even if that’s gone up since then, a $10,000 payment to a high school girl here, and another $7,000 there, and more on the map, and eventually it all adds up.

In addition, he withdrew his name for consideration less than an hour after a CNN reporter asked him about a SECOND 17-year-old. Between statutory rape (damn you Merrick Garland), sex trafficking, drug use, and the videos he showed on the floor of the House, and whatever else is left to come out, plus the fact that his fellow House members detest his very existence, I doubt there’s a good reason for him to go back to D.C.

Sure, I could be completely wrong. But if I am, it will be fun to watch! And as an aside, I’d like to thank Matt for resigning when he did, because it puts Moscow Mike Johnson ANOTHER vote down for when the CR comes up next month.