News: Moderate & Conservative Democrats

Democrats' 'Big Tent' Faces Challenges From Conservative Members

House Democrats fought their way back to power in 2006 and expanded their majority in 2008 by recruiting candidates who could win in moderate-to-conservative districts – a strategy that’s coming back to bite them as they try to move a sweeping liberal legislative agenda. The “majority makers,” as Speaker Nancy Pelosi dubbed them, fit the districts they aimed to win. They railed on big government, spending, and taxes. Some challenged the merits of government regulation, called for more limits on abortion rights, opposed any softening of illegal immigration policy, or appeared in photos toting rifles. Now, on issues ranging from healthcare and climate change to social issues, the “majority makers” often find themselves challenging the very majority they helped to create, to the dismay of liberal Democratic constituencies.

Of 48 races ranked by the Cook Political Report as competitive in 2010, 36 are held by Democrats. In another 60 potentially competitive races, Democrats hold 45 of those seats, as well. “Democrats are in a bind,” says David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report. To hold the House in 2010, “they have to juice up their own base and retain independent voters.”

With the balance in the House at 258 Democrats to 177 Republicans, the majority has some leeway to indulge dissent from its restive conservative wing. But leaders still need 218 votes to move a reform agenda. With the GOP closing ranks on important votes, Democrats can afford only 40 defections on big votes. For now, conservative or moderate Democrats from red districts are claiming most of them – and then some.

Senate Centrist Democrats Threaten To Clip Obama's Credit Card

Centrist Democratic senators are threatening to block a liberal Democratic effort to raise the federal debt limit unless Congress commits to a deficit-reduction task force. At least 10 senators, led by Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), say they will torpedo the must-pass legislation, which would give the Obama administration more than $1.5 trillion in loans that officials say they need to get through 2010, unless leaders agree to the bipartisan fiscal task force. The task force would have authority to force congressional votes to cut soaring federal deficits. Democratic Sens. Evan Bayh (Ind.), Michael Bennet (Colo.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Ben Nelson (Neb.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Mark Udall (Colo.) and Mark Warner (Va.) have backed Rep. Conrad’s call for a task force on debt. The centrist Democrats are at odds with Democratic leaders such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who has opposed creating such a panel because it would take power out of the hands of the broader Congress.

Moderates Win Wall Street Bill Changes

Score one for the New Democrats. The coalition of moderate Democrats, with an assist from the fiscally moderate to conservative Blue Dog Coalition, held up consideration of a crucial Wall Street reform bill for several hours today to protest the way Democratic leadership and the Obama administration has treated some of their proposals. By 6:30 p.m. ET, the moderates had won significant concessions from top Treasury officials on a contentious consumer protection issue. Specifically, the moderates hammered out a compromise on the issue of whether national banks should be subject to tougher state consumer protection laws. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) had promised Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) a vote on her amendment to shield national banks from state rules – a situation known as pre-emption, since the federal rules set by the new consumer watchdog would pre-empt those made by the individual states. The parties also reached agreement on allowing several other amendments, including one from Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) that would scrap the stand-alone consumer financial protection agency in favor of a council of existing regulators.