Posted on Apr 11, 2014
Can military members serve in elected political positions?
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We all should know that service members cannot express political opinion in uniform, or as a representative of the US Armed Forces. However, there are many examples in history when members of the Armed Forces were not only politically active, but were even serving in full time political jobs.
For example, take former Senator Scott Brown, who served as Senator of Massachusetts while simultaneously serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the MA National Guard. Do you this the is pinnacle of the Citizen-Soldier concept, or do you think this is a bad idea?
Also, while some reservists have filled full time political roles, do you know of any cases of active duty service members filling elected political positions (some local political positions are part-time)?
** Edited update: I found the regulation that appears to govern this. It's not UCMJ but rather DoD Directive 1344.10 which explicitly says it applies to Active Duty personnel, and that reservists can hold public office, unless they are called to active duty for 270 days or more. I assume that means continuously.
Politics
UCMJ
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 17
Tammy Duckworth is currently a Congresswoman (D-IL) and continues to serve in the Illinois National Guard despite being a double amputee from her service in Iraq, when her Blackhawk was hit by an RPG.
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I actually ran for a state office in Georgia in 2008 and was serving in the reserves. One of my opponents took me to court to try to have my name removed off the ballot, because he found the DoD directive. He didn't read the entire directive and subsequently lost the case. I couldn't use anything related to my service on my campaign handouts, if it showed me in uniform. There's a fine line of serving in the military and being politically active.
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CPT Ahmed Faried
unfortunate, we need more vets in elected office. Votevets.org is making some headway in that.
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Reservists can legally do so. Totally legit. In the abstract, I think it is the pinnacle of the CITIZEN Soldier.
HOWEVER... I think it opens a practical can of worms. I am not sure how you are COL Graham one weekend a month without also being Senator Graham. You can thread the needle of not mentioning politics and being 100% in line with the Chain of Command on drill status, but I don't see how your politics can be ignored by your troops. Especially outspoken statements about the current administration. Legal fictions are dangerous.
I believe that the right answer is a change to UCMJ that both allows public statement of political views by serving Officers/Service members while somehow still protecting the neutrality of the military. However, as "right" as that answer is, I have no idea how you could credibly pull it off. So it remains.... tricky.
I can think of any number of AC Officers who started campaigning - subtly or not so subtly while still on active duty. And an even greater number who used their status as a "former" (whether resigned, retired, or IRR) status as Officers as part of their pitch/claim of credibility. I can't think of any who held elected (as opposed to appointed) positions while still in uniform. I believe that would be a clear violation of UCMJ.
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MAJ Ronnie Reams
Reminds me of the SECNAV for Reagan, I think, F-14 jock. When asked how they treated him (LCDR) when he went to NAS Oceania for his drills. He just said, "Aw, shucks, I'm just one of the boys." Of course, this was before the big blow up in Vegas, that did NOT stay in Vegas, and being one of the boys was a good thing.
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