The Last Word on Congressional Naming Etiquette from The Emily Post Institute (Seriously)

Background–Bob McEwen, and his supporters, and his ads, have been referring to him as “Congressman McEwen” throughout the campaign:
BizzyBlog Post on Channel 5 Report (Channel 5 link no longer works);
Bizzyblog Post on the Campaign Flyer
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I wish these folks had a greater sense of urgency (the e-mail inquiry was sent on May 31; they autoresponded 2 days later promising an answer within 2-3 weeks; I just got this response today, 14 days later). But given who they are, I wouldn’t want to be rude and complain about it (bolds and italics politely added by me):

(click “more” to see the Emily Post Insititute’s response, which includes BizzyBlog’s original inquiry)

Subject: Emily Post Institute Reply
From: questions@emilypost.com
Date: June 14, 2005 2:31:30 PM EDT
To: tblumer@monetarymatters.com
Reply-To: EmilyPost@emilypost.com

Dear Thomas Blumer,

Thank you for writing The Emily Post Institute.

You asked the following question:

Dear Questions at Emily Post,

We have a person who was in Congress from 1981-1993 and has been out since then who has decided to run for Congress again.

I have two questions:
1. As voters, if we get the opportunity to speak with him, is the proper way to address him as ‘Congressman Lastname,’ or ‘Mr. Lastname’?
2. In his campaign ads, where he is obviously running against people who have never been congressmen or congresswomen, is it proper for the ad narrator to speak of him as ‘Congressman Firstname Lastname is a conservative hero’ or should he by the rules of etiquette be required to describe him with ‘Firstname Lastname is a conservative hero’?

I believe that the rules of etiquette when applied to former presidents allow a person to address him (someday her?) as ‘President Lastname,’ and MAY allow an ad narrator to refer to him as ‘President Firstname Lastname,’ but I have the impression that the rules for a former congressperson, or anyone who hasn’t been president, may be different.

I also wonder if the passage of 12 years since the person in question has been in office alters the answer in any way.

Thanks for considering these questions.

Regards,

Thomas W. Blumer
Mason, OH

We are pleased to provide you with the following answer.

A Congressman does not carry his or her title forward once out of office. He is John Jones, or John Jones, Former Congressman. Presidents, by the way, are not addressed as President once they retire their office.

So there.

I have heard that at least one GOP campaign might be interested in what The Emily Post Institute has just told me, but I wouldn’t want to break the rules of etiquette and contact them directly.