Today’s New York Times has an interesting article about the role that the 35 Democrats freshman Members of Congress are having on the direction of the agenda on Capitol Hill:
WASHINGTON — It took Representative Dan Maffei of New York two tries, $4 million and the retirement of a Republican incumbent to win his House seat last year. After all that, he wants to avoid becoming a one-term wonder because of an unpopular vote on health care.
“We can’t afford to make enemies,” said Mr. Maffei, a former Congressional aide and a Democratic member of the freshman class that played a role this week in slowing House consideration of a health insurance overhaul, upending plans by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to meet President Obama’s goal of approving a bill before the August recess.
Of 35 first-term Democrats, Mr. Maffei, who represents the Syracuse area, and 25 others occupy suburban, small-town and rural seats they took out of Republican hands, seats Republicans are eager to take back. As a result, junior Democrats want to be sure the emerging health care plan is one they can embrace, particularly after they have already had to cast a difficult vote on climate-change legislation.
“As long as I feel comfortable that I had the opportunity to address issues that I have raised, I am willing to take the tough vote,” said Representative Frank Kratovil Jr., Democrat of Maryland. “What I am not willing to do is follow the lead simply to follow the lead.”
As the House prepared to leave town until after Labor Day, the health bill was taking on some of the ideological hue of House freshmen, many of whom represent districts in Southern and Western states that were previously out of reach of Democrats, far from the urban centers that have long been the party’s base.
Given that many of these Freshman Democrats were elected in districts that had been held by Republicans and that some of them, like Virginia’s Tom Perrielo, won their seats by razor-thin margins, the Democrats would be wise to listen to them.
