OmniSpeak

The moderate House Democrats that are also known as “blue dogs”, are in danger of being put to sleep in November’s elections. They suffered serious defeats in 2010, and now it looks like the carnage could get worse. Of the 24 that are still in office, 5 won’t be running again, and there are more than 5 others, who face serious re-election challenges.

 Redistricting is at the center of the problem for the blue dogs. The boundary changes stemming from the 2010 Census report have forced some of the blue dogs to run for office in districts that are even more conservative than their old ones.

Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah, John Barrow of Georgia, and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina count among those who have been thrown into very Republican-friendly territory. All of this is because that Republicans were successful in redrawing the boundaries to these Democrats’ disadvantage.

And November’s election will the the most difficult that they have ever had to face. They all face strong GOP candidates and sit near the top of national Republican hit lists.

“It’s a tough environment out there,” former Alabama Rep. Bud Cramer, a long-time member of the House Blue Dog Coalition, told Politico. “Their [blue dogs’] numbers are down. Redistricting has not been kind to them.”

Newsmax

Tags: a long-time member of the House Blue Dog Coalition, Blue dogs, former Alabama Rep. Bud Cramer, John Barrow of Georgia, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, moderate House Democrats, re-election challenges, Reps Jim Matheson of Utah

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 8:00 am and is filed under Elections and Campaigns, General, In the News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.