Decodedc

Some politicians slide into Congress after a boring, predictable, easy win as the predestined candidate. Others practically stumble — like Congressman Bill Owens, who was the last man standing in the dust of a political nuclear war back in 2009. In this week’s podcast, host Andrea Seabrook sits down with the Democratic congressman from upstate New York as part of DecodeDC’s Exit Interview series. Owens announced his retirement in January of this year. Congressman Owens is one of the most endangered species in Washington—the rational pragmatist. “My view of the world is that there is a band of rational thought that we should all act in. I’m not saying that there is nothing you should be passionate about. But I think ultimately you have to go back to a thought-process that is fact-based and analytic,” Owens said. But to understand how a lawmaker can be so rational, let’s take a look at how he got to Congress. It was a special election in upstate New York that came at the end of President Obama’s first year in o