(cross-posted at Daily Kos)
In the 2006 election season, Democrats picked up 30 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate. Because senators have 6-year election cycles, there’s not an immediate need to worry about their re-election prospects. However, because the House holds elections every 2 years, we’ll be forced to defend our substantial gains soon. To that end, Adam Nagourney of the New York Times actually wrote a decent article that chronicles the initiatives the House leadership is taking to help out representatives who will have undoubtedly have a tough election in 2008. According to a graphic in the Times article, the following representatives are involved in the program:
- Joe Courtney (CT-02)
- Patrick Murphy (PA-08)
- Ron Klein (FL-22)
- Nancy Boyda (KS-02)
- Harry Mitchell (AZ-05)
- Baron Hill (IN-09)
- Tim Walz (MN-01)
- Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-08)
- Tim Mahoney (FL-16)
- Chris Carney (PA-10)
- Jerry McNerney (CA-11)
- Joe Sestak (PA-07)
- Nick Lampson (TX-22)
- Zack Space (OH-18)
The 110th Congress has not even been sworn into office. But in a measure of the determination not to surrender the majority in two years, Representative Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive speaker, has instructed aides to begin acting immediately to help Democrats who won by small margins in districts where President Bush did well in 2004 or who coasted in because their opponents were mired by controversy. Those new members are methodically being given coveted spots on high-profile committees, in particular the Financial Services Committee, a magnet for campaign contributions, and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, a platform from which to send money for projects back home.
Their names will be affixed as co-sponsors atop big-ticket measures on ethics and stem cell research that are to be voted on in the first 100 hours of the new Congress, Democratic leaders said.
The special group has attended orientation sessions on topics like delivering constituent services and getting their names regularly into local newspapers.
I do like how these orientation sessions that this particular group has been attending deals with local issues. One of the reasons Democrats did well in 2006 is that the elections became more of a national referendum on the Bush administration and the Republican Party than it was necessarily about the individual performance of the representatives on a local level. In the summer of 2005, I interned at my congresswoman’s office (Rep. Nita Lowey of New York’s 18th District), and the vast majority of the issues that constituents called in about weren’t national issues. They were specific matters on an individual level such as obtaining the necessary paperwork for green cards. In fact, the only national issue that I remember there being multiple calls about was CAFTA (which Lowey voted against, reflecting the sentiment of the constituent calls I had received). Similarly, when I volunteered on the campaign of Rep.-elect Patrick Murphy, there was a heavy focus on the national issues, particularly Iraq. However, constituents, when they contact a representative’s office, will almost always be concerned about a local matter and not a national one. That’s why I appreciate the attention to constituent services and getting attention in local papers.
Another good point made in the article is how the committee assignments for the new representatives are a good match for the newly-elected representatives. For example, Murphy (the only Congressional member to have served in the current conflict in Iraq) and Rep.-elect Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania’s 7th District (a retired admiral) are both on the Armed Services Committee, which will play to their strengths. Rep.-elect Tim Mahoney of Florida’s 16th District will be on the Financial Services Committee, which makes sense given his professional background in the financial services field. In Connecticut’s 2nd District, Rep.-elect Joe Courtney defeated Rob Simmons by roughly 90 votes. A large part of Simmons’ campaign was based on keeping the submarine base in Groton open (something that all Connecticut politicians appeared to claim credit for), so it makes sense that Courtney will be seated on the Armed Services Committee. In the Times article, Rep.-elect Nancy Boyda (KS-02) notes that input on committee assignments was taken:
Nancy Boyda of Kansas, who startled Democrats by winning with 51 percent of the vote, was given her first choice, Armed Services, after, she said, she informed Democratic leaders of the prevalence of veterans in a district that had largely escaped Democratic notice until the final week before Election Day.
“They are doing everything they can to match up my district with committee assignments,” Ms. Boyda said. “That has been a huge help.”
It will be interesting to see if we can hold on to some of these districts in 2008, as the turnout in a presidential election year will undoubtedly be higher for the GOP. Our work will definitely be cut out for us in such districts as TX-22, KS-02, and PA-10, where Democrats were elected this year in areas where Bush won in 2004 by more than 20 percentage points. Perhaps the best example of what all of our newly-elected representatives should be doing is Rep.-elect Dave Loebsack (IA-02), who unseated moderate Republican Jim Leach in a Democratic-leaning district. Although he won by a narrow margin, it’s a seat that, barring a serious challenge from the GOP, we should be able to hold. Nevertheless, Loebsack continues to campaign throughout his district, making sure to acquaint himself with his constituents:
So even before his Jan. 4 induction as a member of the 110th Congress, Loebsack has been applying campaign-like vigor to raising his profile and developing a stronger rapport with his new congressional constituents — keeping a busy schedule of town hall meetings and “listening posts” in cities and towns across the southeastern Iowa district.
[…]
Since winning on Nov. 7, Loebsack has met with chambers of commerce across the 2nd District and has held meetings with local residents from Ottumwa in the southern part of the district to Cedar Rapids in the north.
“I don’t want this to be a period when I’m somehow out of touch with people in the district,” Loebsack said. “After all, I’m going to Congress to represent them.”
Local observers say Loebsack’s series of constituent events is a smart way to raise his profile during the “honeymoon” period between his election and the start of the 110th Congress. As an academic from the northern part of the 2nd — which also includes strongly Democratic-leaning Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa — Loebsack needs to build his ties with the more rural and conservative voters, including some Democrats, in the southern part of the district.
Likewise, Rep.-elect Steve Kagen (WI-08) has been making the rounds in his district, which had been held by the GOP gubernatorial candidate in Wisconson, Mark Green:
…Kagen has hardly broken stride since Nov. 7, storming the district in an attempt to gain political traction.
Kagen, who has been assigned to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure by House Democratic leaders, said he is trying to build support among small business owners — and any other constituents he can reach, for that matter. He said in an interview with CQPolitics.com that he stops to say hello if “there are two cars outside a building.”
The lesson to be learned from those like Loebsack and Kagen – who aren’t in the ‘special group’ that the House leadership has deemed necessary to train separately – is that it’s never too early to start campaigning. It’s an unfortunate reality in the House, where representatives have to juggle the concern of properly representing their district while keeping an eye on a re-election that comes too soon. That’s one of the reasons I’ve decided to start Progressive Wave, a blog which will be tracking all of the new Democratic members in Congress. Many of them will have a tough re-election campaign in 2008 (and beyond), and by having local bloggers keep tabs on what is occurring within the district, it’ll be easy to point to a record of accomplishment when the next election rolls around.