NYT: New Voices in Congress Will Change the Tone of the Democratic Majority
By KATE PHILLIPS
Published: January 6, 2009
WASHINGTON -- From a former Nixon aide to a former head of Common Cause, a liberal government watchdog organization, the freshman House class of the 111th Congress represents a diverse but decidedly moderate group....
With their formal swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday, the new members offer Democrats expanded majorities in both the House (257-178) and the Senate. If the contretemps over the Minnesota and Illinois Senate seats is resolved in the Democrats' favor, the Senate majority would be 59-41, which includes two independents....
Building on the 2006 class that gave Democrats a majority, this freshman class serves to broaden a moderate coalition considered more conservative on social issues, particularly in the House. The Democratic leadership almost certainly will be mindful — as it was in the 2008 election — of the members’ individual vulnerabilities, especially since several were elected by extraordinarily narrow margins.
Gary C. Jacobson, an expert on Congress and a professor at the University of California/San Diego, described the cumulative impact of the 2006 and 2008 elections: “I think the effect is to move the Democratic caucus somewhat to the right and if it wants to stay as large as it is now, it has to accommodate these folks. “You’re not going to see any wild, left-wing policymaking,” he added. “You’re not going to get the Berkeley wish-list out of this crowd.”...
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The Democratic leadership in the House, headed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will have its hands full with worriers in the new class. And the leaders may not be able to scrape up votes from across the aisle. Both Mr. Jacobson and Thomas E. Mann, a congressional expert and Brookings Institute senior fellow, pointed out that the House Republican caucus has calcified into a more conservative bloc because of retirements of its moderate members. The 2008 election saw the defeat of the last New England Republican, Chris Shays of Connecticut....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/us/politics/07frosh.html?hp