WASHINGTON -- As the U.S. House rushed to finish its work Thursday night, 4-year-old John Griffin III took to the floor and cast his father's final vote before leaving Washington.
U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, a Republican from Little Rock, called the moment "awesome" and "a nice capstone."
Griffin announced in October 2013 that he was leaving Congress after just two terms to spend more time with his wife and two young children, an announcement that came as a surprise to many in politics. Griffin had recently been named to a powerful House committee that writes tax law, and, at age 46, he was seen by some in national politics as a rising star in the Republican Party. He had already raised half a million dollars for his 2014 campaign.
Between votes last week, Griffin sat in a leather chair next to a lighted fireplace in the House speakers gallery off the House chamber as John squirmed on his lap.
"It's kind of bittersweet because I loved the job so much, but at the same time I'm excited about the new opportunities back in Little Rock," he said. "It's going to be much better for the family."
In November, he won the Arkansas lieutenant governor's position with 57 percent of the vote.
A former aide to President George W. Bush and a former interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Griffin is a lawyer and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General's Corps.
The congressman said he hasn't been back to his Washington office since vacating it the week before Thanksgiving. Instead, he has worked from a small cubicle in the basement, but he said his staff had to find places in cafeterias and empty rooms to work from.
The more than 100 boxes of materials packed up from his House office had started arriving at his Little Rock home before House members headed home, Griffin said, and he's already working to decide which university will get his papers. Hendrix College in Conway, where he got a bachelor's degree in education, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have both expressed interest in them, he said.
"I'm not sure precisely what we're going to do with them, but we do need to figure that out pretty quickly so that they don't have to stay in my garage," he said.
Griffin said he has already spent months reflecting on his time in Congress, including what bills passed and what bills did not. Griffin had two of the 34 bills he sponsored signed by the president, both renaming a post office in Arkansas' 2nd District.
"A lot of times we think about what we're able to get through the Senate, what's stuck in the Senate," Griffin said. "What we often ignore is what pieces of legislation, that in my view would have been harmful, that we were able to stop. Single-handedly the House cannot pass bills into law ... but we can single-handily stop bad stuff. That's often overlooked, but that is an accomplishment."
He said one issue he thinks Congress still needs to address quickly is comprehensive tax code changes. Griffin said he hopes incoming House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will use the draft that he and his colleagues created as a starting place for a tax system overhaul.
"Our committee did great work on that, and I do believe it will serve as the starting point for tax reform in the next Congress," he said.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said it has been a pleasure working with Griffin over the years.
"I can say, without a doubt, that his service has made Arkansas a better place. Whether as a White House staffer, as a U.S. attorney or during his time serving the people of the 2nd District in the U.S. House, Tim always gives everything he has to the job. His work ethic, integrity and commitment to public service are second to none," Boozman said. "I know he will bring that same vigor to the lieutenant governor's office, and I look forward to continuing to work with him to help the people of Arkansas when he takes on that responsibility next month."
Griffin rattled off the past four years' accomplishments for his staff: more than 1,094 U.S. Capitol tours for Arkansans, 145,220 letters answered, 148,699 constituents spoken with, and more than 3,620 cases opened for Arkansans.
"A lot of that casework was done starting with texts or calls to my personal cellphone," Griffin said. "Maybe the letters number would be higher if everybody didn't have my cellphone [number.]"
The congressman's cellphone buzzed repeatedly as he spoke. Griffin has widely handed out his cellphone number for years, even giving out the number during televised debates.
"I tried to set a customer-service, friendly sort of culture," Griffin said.
He said there have been a few prank callers, but most people contacted him personally only when they had exhausted other options for fixing a problem. He said it's helped him get a feeling for what constituents care about.
"People are very respectful with it," Griffin said. "It's allowed me to meet a lot of people and talk to a lot of people individually. A lot of time they are surprised that they actually got me."
Whether he'll keep the same number when he is lieutenant governor and his constituency will be the entire state instead of a congressional district is up in the air, he said.
"Time will tell whether that will be sustainable for me. I think it will."
Over his two terms, Griffin worked to have his family share in his congressional experience. John and Mary Katherine, 7, are familiar with getting around the Capitol building. Their drawings covered the walls of his House office, and John is so familiar with House members that he refers to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, as Boehner, Griffin said.
As Mary Katherine got older she went to Washington less often, but John was consistently by the congressman's side on Capitol Hill, casting votes for his father, playing video games in the Republican cloakroom, pouting because Boehner wouldn't play with John's toy airplanes or trailing a step behind his dad as they wound their way through crowds at the Capitol.
"He has had so much fun just being up here, meeting folks and getting to do things he doesn't get to do back home," Griffin said. "Hopefully, he's learned a little bit in the process."
Griffin and John attended the White House Ball for members of Congress on Monday night, and John met President Barack Obama. He's even been the subject of articles and photos in national publications.
"He's built a celebrity following of his own," Griffin said. "He's on a first-name basis with Paul Ryan and others because he's seen them so much."
Griffin said his parents worked to instill an interest in government and American history in him, and he wanted to do the same with his children.
"I knew that if [John] visited once, he may not remember it, but if I brought him a lot, he would remember it. And if it became routine, if it became something that he just knew, then it would stick with him," Griffin said.
A section on 12/14/2014