• OH-Sen: Dennis Kucinich announced yesterday that he would not be a candidate for the open Senate seat in Ohio, saying he wanted to spend more time with his mothership. (D)
• WA-08: Darcy Burner makes it official that she won’t be running a third time in WA-08; she throws her endorsement behind Suzan DelBene, another former Microsoft exec who hasn’t run for office before. Don’t expect DelBene to have the primary field to herself, though.
• CT-Gov: After a few years out of the spotlight, Ned Lamont is exploring a run for Connecticut governor. Jodi Rell hasn’t decided whether she’s going to run for re-election, and Lamont might also face a crowded Dem primary field.
• IL-Sen: The prospect of a special election to replace Roland Burris was unlikely, given the expense, and now it just got a lot unlikelier: a 3-2 party-line vote against the election in a state senate committee has effectively put the idea to bed.
• CO-Sen: The first Republican opponent for Michael Bennet (or another victor of a Democratic primary) has surfaced, and it’s not the highest-profile guy around: Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck (who’d mostly been discussed as a challenger to Betsy Markey in CO-04). Ex-Rep. Bob Beauprez may be the GOP’s top recruit left who’s still interested, but he hasn’t made anything official yet.
• Blue Dogs: The Blue Dog Coalition two years ago capped its enrollment at 20% of the Dem caucus, but they agreed to raise their limit to 21% to accommodate two additional members. New members include the four freshmen who ran under the Blue Dogs’ endorsement (Bobby Bright, Parker Griffith, Frank Kratovil, and Walt Minnick), two veterans who’ve been on the waiting list (Henry Cuellar and Harry Mitchell), and two more last-minute additions thanks to the lifted cap (Glenn Nye and Jason Altmire). The NRCC has sent out a hilarious press release attacking vulnerable Democratic freshmen who didn’t join the Blue Dogs (such as Larry Kissell), claiming that they were rejected for not meeting the Blue Dogs’ litmus test for fiscal discipline, but the Blue Dogs, to their credit, fired back, saying that the representatives in question didn’t ask to join.
• Votes: Speaking of Blue Dogs, they provided most of the defections on yesterday’s 234-191 vote on the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, which included the controversial mortgage modification provision. After all the agitas from Ellen Tauscher and other New Dems, they almost all voted yea. There were 24 Democratic nays, with Eric Massa probably the biggest surprise: also Mike Arcuri, Marion Berry, Dan Boren, Rick Boucher, Bobby Bright, Travis Childers, Kathy Dahlkemper, Lincoln Davis, Chet Edwards, Brad Ellsworth, Bart Gordon, Parker Griffith, Baron Hill, Tim Holden, Ron Kind, Larry Kissell, Frank Kratovil, Betsy Markey, Jim Matheson, Bart Stupak, Gene Taylor, and Harry Teague. (Big ups to Walt Minnick, who voted yea.) 7 Republican yeas: Mike Castle, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, Walter Jones, John McHugh, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Jim Turner. (Joe Cao didn’t vote.)
• TN-06: Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon gets a challenger: Dave Evans, a Major General in the United States Army Reserve. Rick Goddard 2.0? (J)
These two I’ve heard in the past few years are always complaining about the two party system. Seems to me, unofficially at least, there are three parties in Congress: Democrats, Republicans, and Blue Dogs.
…my House Rep, Michael McMahon, was named “Freshman Majority Whip” and is responsible for coordinating between leadership and the freshman class.
http://www.silive.com/news/ind…
On the “Helping Families Save Their Homes Act” I noticed since the last election and Obama’s strong showing amoung Cubans Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has sounded a LOT more moderate than the past. Interesting to see the Diaz-Balart brothers fresh off strong challenges joining her in embracing moderation aka trying to save their own necks. This shows that the three of them don’t see rising Cuban support for the Democratic Party as a passing fad.
The areas that would benefit the most from mortgage rescue are fast-growing suburbs full of new expensive residential subdivisions. There aren’t a lot of those in the districts of the Dems who voted against it. There are a lot of those in the districts of the Reps who voted for it, especially the ones representing South Florida.
Shuler voted “yea” on the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act.
Why, exactly would DelBene fare any better then Burner? They have exactly the same profile. Trying the same thing over and over will get you the same results.
Disappointed that Nye joined the Blue Dogs. I’m glad that Kissell and Perriello didn’t though!
urban and inner ring suburban districts do and their representatives are the core of the house caucus.
but democrats have lost many of those blue dog districts at many levels in the last 25 years because people there don’t trust the government to spend their money wisely. blue dog has become short-hand for “fiscally conservative,” though many are also culturally conservative in relation to the democratic caucus.
we need them to have our majority and enough of them vote right often enough to make it work.
Happy that IL took the special election off the table. It was a dumb idea. If Burris resigns, Quinn can put in a placeholder (who’s not abhorrent), and the “special election” will be in 2010, when it should be.
the Cuban Republicans voted yea, and Wlater Jones has become so moderate compared to how he used to be. And, I’m not going to give Childers any flack, he’s been a great Representative over all, voting for both versions of the Stimulus act and SCHIP, and all sorts of other big measures in the last congress. He’s a great congressman considering the kind of area he represents and the kind of target he still has on his back.