Almost a third of the Blue Dog Democrats who retired or were defeated in 2010 have gone to work for organizations that lobby their former colleagues in Congress, according to an iWatch News review.
The Blue Dog ranks were devastated by the 2010 election, falling from a high of 54 to 26. Of those no longer in Congress, eight have moved through the “revolving door” to employment with lobbying entities.
The conservative Blue Dogs formed a key voting bloc for much of the last congressional session, drawing impressive fundraising from energy, financial and health care industry groups hoping to impact proposed legislation from the Obama administration. However, once that legislation was either passed or stalled, industry groups began abandoning the pro-business coalition, instead favoring their Republican opponents.
Some have expressed interest in running for their seats in 2012. Others have opted to retire. These are the eight who went on to work for organizations or companies that engaged in federal lobbying during the first quarter of 2011:
Though the past six months have been financially beneficial to the Blue Dog Coalition, it appears that the Dogs’ fundraising intake has slowed, despite all the attention the coalition has received.
After our report last week about the hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions flowing from the energy, financial services, and health care sectors to the Blue Dog Democrats’ political action committee, a number of people have asked us about the other group of centrist Democrats in the U.S. House, the 68-member New Democrat Coalition (NDC).
Following the coverage yesterday about the role of fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats in the U.S. House who seem to have stymied President Obama’s health care reform timeline (including our story yesterday on the group’s campaign contributors), the Blue Dogs have now come under fire from a key group of fellow Dems.
Our examination of contributions to the political action committee of those fiscally conservative Democrats, the Blue Dogs, showed that the energy, financial services, and health care sectors were the top givers.
Whether the subject is health care reform, climate change, or pay-as-you-go budgeting rules, almost everyone, it seems, suddenly wants to talk with the Blue Dogs. President Obama’s White House meeting with members of the fiscally conservative Democratic coalition earlier this week is but the latest indication that the Blue Dogs — 52 members strong — have deftly turned themselves into a key voting bloc at the nexus of power. With them, the Democrats do not need a single Republican to back their legislation; without them, the Democratic agenda would be in serious peril. And as their clout has expanded, fundraising has grown accordingly, not just from traditionally Democratic contributors, but from unexpected quarters as well.
