The 2006 freshman Democratic class — quite possibly the most influential group of first-term lawmakers since the Watergate Babies of 1974 — has a new president: Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.).

The vote was held the week before last, and results were made public Thursday at a press conference with Hodes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the Democratic leadership and Hodes’s fellow freshmen.

The congressman did not disclose whether he and the new class vice president, Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), had reached an agreement to share power by limiting the class officers’ terms to six months. 

The winning slate — Hodes, Walz, communications chairwoman Betty Sutton (Ohio), policy chairmen Ron Klein (Fla.) and Keith Ellison (Minn.), and liaison to the House GOP freshmen Rep. Nancy Boyda (Kan.) — will be replaced in six months.

Being elected freshman class president hardly paves a path to power. After all, who remembers that Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) in 1995 defeated then-Rep. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) by a single vote to become freshman class president?

Twelve years later, Wicker has been relegated to minority status. Brownback, meanwhile, has announced a bid for president — this time, of the U.S.

Sometimes the winners do well. In 1974, former Rep. Norman Mineta (D-Calif.) was elected class president. He went on to become the first Asian-American Cabinet member, serving as commerce secretary under President Clinton and transportation secretary under President Bush.

But success at wrangling an appointment to the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee may be a better indicator of political savvy. Of the 31 Democrats who knocked off Republican incumbents, Reps. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kathy Castor (Fla.) and Jerry McNerney (Calif.) won seats on the Steering and Policy Committee, which gives them a voice in committee assignments and caucus rules.

Running for (and winning) the class president position can expose ambition, and Hodes may be the most outwardly ambitious lawmaker in the new class. Last Thursday, he visited the offices of other freshman members to organize their special order speeches on the House floor Friday morning.

Soon after arriving in Washington, Hodes made it clear that he wanted to be freshman class president, according to Democratic sources. He reserved meeting rooms on the two occasions when the freshman class met.

“Before we organized, we had to decide how we were going to organize,” Hodes said.

He asked the Congressional Research Service to dig up information on how past classes organized themselves. The 2006 class drafted its own mission statement.

Hodes, who defeated former Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.), said some classes had divided the congressional session in half. He could not remember which class awarded six-month terms to its officers.

Reps. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) and Walz also had expressed interest in running. Hare backed out, but Walz, a football coach and military veteran who defeated former Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.), wanted a role to shore up the class’s centrist credentials.

Both men said they came to the amicable power-sharing arrangement. The other positions, Hodes said, went to those who volunteered.

Boyda, who defeated former Rep. Jim Ryun (R-Kan.), said she did not volunteer and that all eyes turned to her once the group decided they wanted someone to reach out to the Republicans in the class of 2006.

The GOP class president is Rep. Bill Sali (R-Idaho).