Katherine Rizzo is the “Inside Congress” editor for Congressional Quarterly and CQPolitics.com, supervising coverage of congressional leaders; she’s also a former writer for the Associated Press. Click here for Rizzo’s full bio.
Survival depends on knowing when to be nimble, when to be fast, and when to be invisible.
At the moment, Rep. Boren would like to be all three.
He is the lone Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation. His district voted for President Bush over Sen. John Kerry four years ago, and gave Sen. Hillary Clinton two-thirds of its votes in the presidential primary in February.
Up to now, he’s been pretty safe, winning his elections by wide margins. Mr. Boren has an effective fund-raising operation and more than $800,000 in campaign cash.
Just as important, Boren is a big name in Oklahoma. His dad, David L. Boren, was the state’s governor, served in the U.S. Senate for 16 years and now is the Head Sooner, the president of the University of Oklahoma.
But the father caused the son some discomfort when he signed up as an early supporter of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential bid. Boren the elder doesn’t have to stand for election, so he can back anyone he wants without fear of retribution. Not so the son, whose job is on the line in a July 29 primary and then again in November.
Avoiding a Presidential Endorsement
The congressman is so skittish about how the voters in his district will view him that he never made a presidential endorsement. Even after Sen. Clinton carried his district, Mr. Boren remained officially uncommitted. And now that it’s clear who the Democratic Party’s nominee is going to be, Mr. Boren is still trying to stay as uncommitted as he can.
It’s red-state paranoia. And it’s not crazy.
To stay in step with his conservative district, Mr. Boren cannot be a party-line Democrat.
But to be effective in Washington, Mr. Boren cannot go out in the field and bash the presumptive nominee, either. And so we saw him this week doing an Oklahoma two-step: He says he will be voting for Sen. Obama and other Democrats because he wants to see the direction of the country change, but he’s not endorsing Sen. Obama because the Illinois senator is too liberal for his liking.
He’s not alone.
Rep. Nancy Boyda, whose district includes Leavenworth, Kan., says she might not even go to the convention that nominates Sen. Obama for president. “I’m going to stay focused on doing my job. The good people of Kansas are fine with that,’’ she says.
Rep. Charlie Melancon of Louisiana says that “none of the presidential candidates for either party is doing real well in my district. It’s not a good idea to get close to any of them.” Focused on his own re-election, Mr. Melancon isn’t endorsing Sen. Obama either.
Reps. Boyda, Melancon and Boren are part of a faction in Congress that calls itself the Blue Dog Coalition.
They’re Democrats who push fellow Democrats to act more like Ronald Reagan Republicans.
For instance, they try to vote as a bloc against new spending unless there’s an equal amount of money cut out of the federal budget someplace else. They’re largely from places where “gun” isn’t a scary word and “gun control” is a threat to hunting and target practice, not a way to combat street crime.
Pelosi’s Winning Formula
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California has proven she understands that keeping her party in power means making sure her party keeps the centrists who brought them to power. (“Our majority makers,” she calls them.)
It’s been a winning formula.
The Blue Dogs get re-elected, and the Democrats stay in power, in part by not even scheduling votes on the kind of topics that are popular only among the party’s most left-leaning members. The party’s top leaders may wish they could enact everything on every liberal’s wish list, but so far they’ve been careful to avoid doing that.
If either Mr. Boren’s primary opponent, political unknown Kevin Coleman, or the Republican running for the seat, Raymond Wickson, want to put out a flier showing Mr. Boren and Ms. Pelosi as two peas in a pod, there won’t be any gun control, abortion or gay rights votes for the foes to point to.
That may be the best boost Ms. Pelosi can give to Mr. Boren and the other Blue Dogs.
Republicans have so many open seats to defend (27 compared with eight for the Democrats) that if Mr. Boren and his pack hoard their cash and play it safe on such touchy subjects as the Obama campaign, their attackers may try to pick off weaker, slower political animals elsewhere.
Write to Katherine Rizzo at KRizzo@cq.com
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