Democrats To Follow Next Year
As House Democrats prepare for life in the minority, one thing that some RWDs may not be able to avoid is generally popular, conservative legislation coming from the House leadership. Something we haven’t seen until this point in that chamber, but similar to the Senate over the past several years when the GOP took control of that chamber and many white Democrats had to support their agenda on a number of key issues.
I believe the Black Caucus will get a certain number of chairmanships and can join with the GOP on some issues, but generally they are going to be at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Those are simply their ideological differences.
But I would pay attention to several RWDs as they will probably help bolster support joining with the GOP majority on a number of key issues. If they don’t, they may pay the price.
The members I would follow include:
Nick Bain, District 2
Jody Steverson, District 4
Bennett Malone, District 45
Jason White, District 48
Bo Eaton, District 79
Sherra Lane, District 86
Joe Warren, District 90
Randall Patterson, District 115
Also, some of these members have said they won’t be switching parties but if we were to see additional switchers I would expect it to come from among this group.
Regardless of his party, the House GOP should give Joe Warren a chairmanship. Even during the very partisan recent years, he has always been fair to Republicans. He is smart and a true moderate.
Did Republicans tell you that Joe had been fair to them? or did Joe tell you he was fair to them?
Of all the RWD or the Dems in general, Joe Warren would not be at the head of my list. Sorry Ken, realize you have had some good personal relationships with Joe, but he has been far off the reservation as to supporting conservative government.
Warren does have a history as a member of the legislative conservative coalition. On social issues he has been conservative, on spending issues not so much.
Rankin- I think that pretty much sums up all these members, at least the guys who have been there. We will see about the freshman. And we’ll see what they all do when Gunn and company present a conservative approach to spending matters.
McCoy appointed 0 republicans to committee chairs. I want to see Gunn appoint 0 democrats to committee chairs…not a single one. 0. Voters didn’t reject the democrats at the polls only to have Gunn turn around and put them at the head of the table because he’s afraid of being called names. The black caucus has 0 Republicans who ruled like thugs with their fellow democrats when McCoy was in charge. It doesn’t matter if they are purple or green. They are democrats. They too should get 0 committee chairs. I don’t want to hear crap about compromise or understanding. Compromise in the past has always meant conservatives backing up on their positions. Not this time. I suppose we’ll see what Gunn is made of shortly.
I know the Republican majority doesn’t need the Black Caucus to pass anything but revenue bills, but why not get them on our side? It’s not like relegating them to the metaphorical back of the room will hurt their chances of getting reelected. The VRA prevents their numbers from shrinking, so they’re here to stay. The best way to relegate the white Democrats to complete irrelevance is to throw a couple of bones to the Black Caucus and get them voting with the Republicans. There is no downside to cooperation as long as the Republicans remain in the majority.
Bill. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. They have always shown they will not cooporate. You are completely out of touch with reality if you think otherwise. This is the party of personal responsibility. It’s up to them join us. It’s not up to us to compromise one bit of our conservative standards so they can be included. That goes for the black caucus and any seasoned democrat.
Who says we have to compromise our standards to work with the Black Caucus? They may have not wanted to cooperate in the past, but they’ve never faced this fate before. I think we can split some of them out and gain an advantage from it without losing any of our newly earned power or compromising any of our principles. We’re in a position we’ve never been in before and I think it’s too early in the reign of the Republicans to completely shun the opposition.