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Reflections on Loss and Acceptance From Those Swept Out of Congress

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and then all of the sudden you’ve been cast aside,” said Michael N. Castle, Republican of Delaware.Credit...Drew Angerer/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The script for political losers is well known and oft repeated: regret nothing, recall your fondest legislative victories and accept the will of the people.

But as giddy freshmen lawmakers arrived at the Capitol this week — some of them walking along the elaborately tiled floors for the first time — some senior lawmakers talked openly of feeling swept away by a tidal wave of voter sentiment.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and then all of the sudden you’ve been cast aside,” said Representative Michael N. Castle, 71, the Delaware Republican who was defeated in his Senate primary bid by Christine O’Donnell this fall.

He ponders daily, he said, which is preferable: to falter in a tight race with a Democratic opponent, or to have lost in the primary, as he did, to the inexperienced Tea Party candidate who never had a shot in the general election.

“My wife argues it’s almost better to lose the way we did because it all seems so irrational,” he said. “But you lose, you lose. I wish I could say one way was fun. They’re both pretty bad.”

Over the next weeks, about 70 members — most Democrats — will cast their last votes, pack up their offices and head for the door. Some of the biggest names — Senators Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, and Arlen Specter, Democrat of Pennsylvania — will join old timers, one-termers and others in their last walks up the stairs of the Capitol, now bathed in the silver light of fall, as elected officials.

The sweep of senior lawmakers from office in one of the largest electoral upheavals of Congress in decades, returning the House to Republican control, is among the most striking of changes in postmidterm Washington. Along with some retirements, “the cumulative seniority lost is pretty great,” said Burdett Loomis, a political science professor at the University of Kansas.

Denial and bargaining are behind them, and some members who lost seem to have arrived at a shaky acceptance, shaped by their sense that the election was not about them.

“I don’t think the election had very much to do with me, and I don’t think it had much to do with my opponent,” said Representative Rick Boucher, a Democrat who had served Virginia’s Ninth Congressional District since 1983. “That frustration and anger and desire to send a message transcended the knowledge my constituents had of my work in the district.”

Representative Earl Pomeroy, a Democrat who lost his Congressional seat in North Dakota, concurred: “I don’t have a feeling of searing personal repudiation.”

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“I expected to leave at some point, that I’d make that decision in due course. I’m not angry; I’m disappointed,” said James L. Oberstar, Democrat of Minnesota.Credit...Drew Angerer/The New York Times

Mr. Boucher, 64, says he is even feeling a sense of adventure. “I’m pretty philosophical about it,” said Mr. Boucher, a part of the Blue Dog routing. “There is almost a liberating quality looking for a new path in life.”

Perhaps not everyone has reached their postelection state of Zen. Mr. Specter and Mr. Feingold have kept relatively low profiles since their respective losses in the primary and the general elections.

When a reporter asked Mr. Specter in September about the Democrat who defeated him in his primary, he declined to be interviewed, citing a squash engagement. Likewise, Ike Skelton, the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, chose not to be interviewed about the end of his 34-year career, his spokesman said.

A career in Congress can be long, but the exit from glory is swift. Defeated and retiring members must vacate their offices at the end of the month, so that all freshmen and their staffs can have offices by opening day.

“There’s not much time for a losing candidate to mope,” said Mr. Pomeroy, who will soon head to the Capitol’s basement, where a cubicle with a single phone and computer await him to finish out the lame-duck session.

Over at the office of Representative James L. Oberstar, an 18-term Democrat who lost to a political novice in Minnesota, the maps, certificates and photographs with presidents are still hanging, but some are festooned with yellow Post-it notes indicating where they will end up. His children want copies of bills, and the Minnesota Historical Society will take other items.

Mr. Oberstar, who was tossed out with several state legislators from his area, said he was no match for the “upfeed” from the powerful Republican ground game that moved against him. “I expected to leave at some point, that I’d make that decision in due course,” he said. “I’m not angry; I’m disappointed.”

Perspective has come in many forms. “It’s fascinating,” said Representative Chet Edwards, Democrat of Texas. “I received more votes in 2010 than I received in the last nonpresidential year, when I won by 58 percent. More people in my district voted this year than in 2008. It’s just a reflection of what an exception to the rule this election was.”

At the end of his campaign, he said, he was visiting a hospital in his district and ran into a couple who said they were supporters. Inquiring about their visit, he said, they told him: “We lost our daughter earlier this year as the result of a drunk driver. And now our son has been in the I.C.U. for 30 days because a text-messaging driver ran into his car and amputated his leg.”

Mr. Edwards said: “I tell you, it took my breath away. After a few tears and hugs, I called my wife and said if our biggest concern is that we have to look for a new job, we’re doing all right.”

For those Democrats who served ony one term, their entire tenure was a mad rush of seemingly politically toxic votes, ending in nearly instant repudiation. Still, who would trade it?

“I wouldn’t take anything for it,” said Representative Dina Titus, Democrat of Nevada, her eyes rimmed red, as she left the House floor the other night. Clutching a pair of high heels, Ms. Titus walked in her stocking feet into the members-only elevator, and the door slid quietly behind her.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: Reflections on Loss and Acceptance From Those Swept Out of Congress. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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