'Blue Dog' Democrats lead pack in U.S. House

Washington | After 12 years of quietly operating as a minority within a minority, a coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats is enjoying new clout in Congress.

Credited with helping the Democrats regain control of the U.S. House in the 2006 election, the 47 Blue Dog Democrats have since convinced House leaders to include key provisions of their fiscal conservatism in several important budget bills.

Blue Dog membership swelled on powerful House committees overseeing federal spending, Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs.

The coalition's fundraising arm amassed more than $1.2 million so far this election cycle.

And as Democrats revel in a return to power, the Blue Dogs, known for collegiality on rancorous Capitol Hill, balance the party.

"Their role is to temper to potential excesses of the party," said former Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, one of the founding members. "You always need a counterweight in a political party to keep it straight."

Tauzin later switched parties, left Congress, and now heads the drug lobby Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Tauzin and a handful of other conservative Democrats discussed forming the coalition before the 1994 election.

"We did it thinking our party would be in control but knowing it would be in slim control," said former Rep. Glen Browder of Alabama, professor emeritus of political science at Jacksonville State University.

The group coalesced after voters handed power to Republicans in the House for the first time since 1952. Calling themselves Blue Dogs because they thought their views on deficit-free spending had been choked blue by their party, they adopted their mascot from the Blue Dog paintings of Louisiana artist George Rodrigue.

The Blue Dogs' recent rise began when 12 of the 13 freshman members of the group - so-called Blue Pups - won congressional seats previously held by Republicans, including Rep. Nick Lampson, who replaced Tom DeLay in Texas; Rep. Tim Mahoney, who replaced Mark Foley in south Florida; and Rep. Heath Shuler, who replaced Charles Taylor in western North Carolina.

"We didn't get this Democratic majority by replacing liberal Democrats with liberal Democrats," said Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas, one of four Blue Dog leaders. "We did it by replacing Republicans with conservative Democrats."

Those wins swelled the Blue Dog roster to 47, greater than the 35-seat margin Democrats hold over Republicans in the House.

"Our pulse is taken pretty regularly by leadership," said Rep. Robert E. "Bud" Cramer of Alabama, one of the founding members.

Passing PAYGO

Early in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's tenure, the Blue Dogs convinced House leaders to reinstate a federal budgeting practice known as PAYGO, or pay-as-you-go, which requires new federal spending to be budget-neutral or offset by savings. The practice, abandoned in 2002, is a key tenet of Blue Dog philosophy.

"Our common battle cry is balance the budget and pay down the deficit," said Rep. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina.

The House has ignored PAYGO twice since it was reinstated in early 2007, including on the economic stimulus package, but the way the House spends the public's money has changed, say Blue Dogs. "We have to debate it on every single issue, (and) debating certainly cuts down on wasteful spending," Shuler said.

In March, for the second time in as many years, Blue Dogs abandoned their longtime practice of offering an alternate budget blueprint after House budget writers incorporated several Blue Dog ideas, including reinstating PAYGO permanently, into the budget blueprint.

Blue Dogs scored another win when the House included several provisions on Iraq war funding accountability in legislation authorizing defense spending, including requiring the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, to report every six months on taxpayer-funded contracts in Iraq.

Blue Dog formula

Critics contend that Blue Dogs are nothing more than Bush Dogs - Democrats who enable President Bush's agenda to advance in the House.

"There are certainly a lot of them who are voting with the White House, certainly more than Speaker Pelosi would like," said Thomas F. Schaller, associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and author of Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South.

But House leaders cannot afford to criticize those votes because they "would certainly rather have a (Blue Dog) in Congress than lose that seat to Republicans," Schaller said.

Other critics say Blue Dogs too often vote with the Democratic majority. "We're voting with the majority because they are listening to us," Ross said.

Part of the Blue Dogs' success lies in their organization. Potential new members are vetted either as candidates or freshmen.

Members meet weekly without their staffs to pick apart legislation and talk policy, a rarity on Capitol Hill where legislative aides handle much of the nitty-gritty of lawmaking. The Blue Dogs' four-member leadership team has sharply divided responsibilities and includes a whip, who keeps track of where individual members of the coalition stand on various bills and issues.

As the membership has grown, so have the challenges.

"When your group gets a little bigger, it's harder to get all 47 together," Cramer said.

Membership is capped at 20 percent of the Democratic House caucus, a rule that has three conservative House Democrats on provisional status as Blue Dogs.

"The leadership expects our votes on procedural issues and other votes as well, and we've had a tough time deciding what issues we want to take to the floor," Cramer said.

The Blue Dogs have built a formidable fundraising arm, growing its coffers from the low four figures to the high six figures in fewer than a dozen years.

Today, the Blue Dogs' political action committee routinely rakes in $5,000 donations - the largest allowed under law - from other political action committees representing small and big business, unions and gun advocates, among other interests.

Since the current election cycle began in January 2007, the Blue Dog PAC has collected $1.2 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign financing.

In turn, the PAC donates largely to Democratic candidates - $2.2 million since 1996, compared with $25,000 to Republicans and third-party candidates, according to center data.

Best friends

At a time when bickering is rampant both on and off the House floor, the Blue Dogs share a collegiality that extends past politics and policy.

"One of the things that makes them different is the kinship among them. If you see one of them having a beer and a burger ... on Capitol Hill, you'll see others," said Chuck Merin, managing director of lobbying firm BKSH and Associates, who has worked on and around Capitol Hill for nearly 40 years.

Cramer, who is retiring from Congress this year, said he never dreamed the Blue Dogs would become such a important voting block in the House.

"I'm amazed at what we've become," he said.