There are some positive aspects to being a new Democratic congressman after an election which saw a Republican landslide. Yesterday the new representative for the Vineyard, William Keating, enumerated a few.

For one, he said it does not take long to get to know your fellow freshmen party members.

“There are only nine of us,” he said yesterday, the day after he was sworn in.

“That’s the lowest number since 1915. So it just makes sense the nine of us would become close very quickly. And we have,” he said, adding:

“All the delegation members from Massachusetts I had existing relationships with. I served with three in the legislature.”

The second positive cited by Mr. Keating is that because the Democrats lost so many House seats in the midterms, it put a lot of skilled political staffers into the job market.

And as a newcomer to Washington — even one with long experience in state politics, “You need a skilled legislative director and chief of staff,” Mr. Keating said.

He has them now in the form of Garrett Donovan as his chief of staff and Mira Kogen Resnick as his legislative director, both seasoned veterans on Capitol Hill. “We’re still assembling some staff, but we’re largely completed with that. So we’re up and running. We’re about set,” Mr. Keating said.

The new representative for the 10th Congressional District hopes to have his Hyannis office open soon, too. He has digs in Washington: a basement apartment a short walk from the Capitol, in a home owned by a Congresswoman, her husband and two-year-old child.

And he has his Washington office, with which he is particularly pleased.

“During the lottery for office space I was fortunate to get a very low number,” Mr. Keating said.

“I selected John F. Kennedy’s Congressional office. Number 315. It’s exciting to me to sort of bring that office back to Massachusetts. It also was the office of the first woman Congressman, Jeannette Rankin.”

But two busy months since the election, Congressman Keating admits that he is only at the end of the beginning.

“The period between the election and the swearing in yesterday, we were warned, would be like sipping water through a fire hose, things would be coming so quickly,” he said. “They were right. There really wasn’t time off, between the work involved in setting up an office and taking advantage of some of the orientation programs that were offered.”

Finally on Wednesday, came the swearing in, and on the telephone Mr. Keating sounded weary but exhilarated. “It was certainly a day I’ll remember for the rest of my life. It’s a terrific honor to have this job. We were joined by about 170 people from the district. Including the Vineyard. And we got together in a couple of rooms, and later went to the Dubliner [a Washington pub] for a celebration at night,” he said.

He characterized the first day as “a mixture of ceremony and friendship, mixed in with a few votes here and there.”

The votes on day one were mostly procedural things, not of great import, although he said the rules debate contained “some substance.”

“And today, we’ve just voted to cut our own budgets by five per cent,” he said.

As for his goals, he said one of the first priorities is just to get to know people. The former Norfolk county district attorney said he had already sought out a couple of ex-prosecutors from the other side, for networking, both within and across party lines. It’s the way to get things done, he said.

“And having the district I have helps too. There are a lot of people who have second homes, who vacation on the Cape and Islands regularly. Links come with the district, which is very advantageous,” he said.

His other priorities?

“Since we last spoke [in an interview with the Gazette during the campaign], there was a tragic incident where a 16-year-old young man was found dead in Milton, which is part of the county I represented as district attorney until two days ago.

“Our investigation revealed he had breached security at an airport and stowed himself into the wheel well of a plane.

“So what I have done here is issue a request for a hearing on this incident, because I think it’s important not only for security in this area but also it might be a problem for airports around the country. I’ve talked to members of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee and Homeland Security Committee.

“I’m also pursuing an issue that I worked on here for the past 12 years: the human tragedy around opiate addiction. On average 1.7 people in Massachusetts alone, die from an overdose every day,” he said, adding:

“It’s a problem in the Cape and Islands area as well.”

He’s got affordable housing on his radar. Among the guests for the swearing in, he said, was Ewell Hopkins, the executive director of the Island Affordable Housing Fund.

“He’s a person we want to work with. We talked about housing issues during the campaign. We’re already talking about how I can get myself more involved in the Vineyard,” Mr. Keating said.

The freshman congressman said beyond the local issues he is eager to broaden his experience in matters of foreign relations and defense. Not only because they are big a part of the action is Washington, but because they also matter to people here.

“One wonderful thing I found out about this district during the campaign is that I am fortunate to have a very active and interested constituency of people who are concerned about national and international issues as well as local issues,” he said.

“Once we get completely settled, we are planning on venturing out to hear what people have to say about all these various issues. I would like initially to have meetings not structured around an issue.

“We haven’t branded what we will do yet — maybe we’ll call it Congressman at your corner, or Congressman on your Island — but essentially just a coffee and a discussion,” he said.