It was good to have Derek Schmidt in Iola last week. Thanks go to County Commissioner John Brocker for inviting Schmidt to visit the town’s industries and businesses for the better part of the day.
Now a Congressman, Schmidt said he was humbled by the status of serving as “one of only 12,000 in our country’s history,” he told us. (It’s actually 12,591, of which 10,571 have served as Representatives and 1,329 as Senators.)
It is an honor indeed.
Schmidt noted in a visit at the Register that he took a “pay cut” in his new job as U.S. Congressman as compared to private practice as an attorney.
After he stepped away as Kansas Attorney General in 2023, Schmidt signed on as a partner with Husch Blackwell, a nationwide law firm where he specialized in its technology, manufacturing and transportation industry division, according to its website.
Schmidt’s comment of sacrificing a lucrative salary for public service is a frequent one among politicians.
Don Coover, a rural Neosho County veterinarian and owner of SEK Genetics, said much the same thing in an earlier campaign visit to Iola.
“I’m not doing this for the money,” he laughed, as if a congressman’s salary of $174,000 is of little significance. Coover is vying for the Democratic nomination to oppose Schmidt.
This is not to criticize Schmidt and Coover, but to reflect on how it’s baked into our American DNA that “success” is determined by one’s wealth. Stepping away from that benchmark is seen as a “sacrifice” even if the reward is greater.
To give Schmidt credit where it’s due, he’s devoted a good chunk of his career to public service, first as a state senator of our 15th District from 2001 to 2011, followed by 12 years as Kansas Attorney General, 2011-2023. In the 2022 race for Kansas Governor, Schmidt lost to incumbent Laura Kelly.
There’s little doubt that as a corporate attorney he was earning far beyond what he could make while holding public office.
In a recent podcast, the New York Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro spoke with Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and prolific author. Martin talked about his first experience as a professional.
He had graduated with a degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton School of Business and accepted a position with General Electric.
This was in the 1980s, back in the heyday of Jack Welch, whose cutthroat motto was “Up or out.” If you’re not moving up, you’re fired.
Martin described his tenure there as soul-destroying.
Though there were some genuinely good people at G.E., “there were enough jerks to make it really difficult,” he said. “The emphasis was the bottom line.”
Fittingly, one of the chapters in Welch’s book, “Winning” — which at the time was mandatory reading for every ambitious yuppie, including me — is called “How to work for a jerk.”
