Blue Dogs Learned Nothing From The Ass-Kicking They Got In November-- North Dakota

Prairie populists needed... badly

Long time Blue Dog Earl Pomeroy, first elected to North Dakota's sole House seat in 1992, was decisively defeated in November. Pomeroy got 106,371 votes (45%) while state Rep Rick Berg took 129,586 votes (55%). In 2004 Pomeroy won with 185,130 votes (60%). In the 2006 midterm he won with a much increased share (66%) and 142,121 votes. In 2008, with Obama only taking 45% of the vote (141,278) to McCain's 53% (168,601), Pomeroy significantly outperformed them both, with 194,577 votes (62%). But look how his votes fell off this last November. Close to half his voters from 2008 just didn't come to the polls, while Republican votes actually increased. Pomeroy was swept away in the Republican tide that swept the country.

He outspent Berg handily-- $3,671,790 to $2,023,838. Although he voted far more conservatively than most Democrats, he wasn't an extreme right Blue Dog in a league with virtual Republicans like Bobby Bright, Travis Childers and Gene Taylor. He did support, for example, passage of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. But when it came to standing behind the populist values and principles that distinguish the Democratic Party from the Republicans, he fell down badly.

Yesterday Senator Kent Conrad announced he would not be running for reelection next year-- as Byron Dorgan had done last year. Democrats didn't even bother seriously contesting the seat, which went to Governor John Hoeven 181,409 (76%) to 52,854 (22%) against sacrificial lamb state Senator Tracy Potter. With Democrats in serious danger of losing control of the Senate, they can't afford to just give away seats again.

Mr. Conrad's departure after next year will make it harder for Democrats to hold his seat in what could be a tough election season for the party. Democrats will defend 23 Senate seats, many of them in conservative or swing states such as North Dakota, Missouri and Nebraska. Republicans are defending only 10 Senate seats in 2012.

So far, the only Republican to announce retirement plans is Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, whose seat is considered easy for the GOP to retain. The GOP picked up six Senate seats in November, leaving Democrats with 53 seats, to 47 for the Republicans.

...The state has become an emblem of Democrats' weakened position in the upper Midwest. North Dakota's three-person delegation had been held entirely by Democrats since 1992. Like South Dakota and Montana, the state has often displayed a kind of prairie populism and a centrist streak in its social attitudes that has allowed Democrats to win congressional seats even while voters favored Republicans in presidential elections.

Republicans welcomed Mr. Conrad's announcement. "Senate Republicans fully expected North Dakota to be a major battleground in 2012, but Sen. Conrad's retirement dramatically reshapes this race in the Republicans' favor,'' said Brian Walsh, communications director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "We believe this race represents one of the strongest pickup opportunities for Senate Republicans this cycle and will invest whatever resources are necessary to win next year."

Democrats may now look for a centrist candidate to stay competitive in the race to succeed Mr. Conrad. Names offered include Mr. Pomeroy, former state Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp and her brother Joel Heitkamp, a former state senator, local activist and radio personality, among others.

"There are a number of potential Democratic candidates who could make this race competitive, while we expect to see a contentious primary battle on the Republican side," the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said in a statement.

Hoping for a contentious Republican primary is the main Democratic strategy for winning in both North Dakota and in Texas, where Kay Bailey Hutchinson's retirement will create another open seat in another deeply red state where Democrats have forgotten how to campaign as Democrats. Pomeroy, who will probably be handed the nomination, is not just a Blue Dog, but a K Street lobbyist. He and his chief of staff, Bob Siggins, went to work for Alston and Bird's health policy group, a lobbying division of the big-time DC law firm.

Democrat Earl Pomeroy's vote for the health care bill may have cost him his seat in Congress, but it also earned him a job on K Street.

Last week, on the last day of Pomeroy's 18-year stint as North Dakota's at-large congressman, K Street giant Alston & Bird announced that he was joining the firm's health care lobbying division.

The congressman is merely the latest lucky winner in the Great Health Care Cash-out, a tawdry spectacle that further sullies Washington's lobbying culture, and also demolishes President Obama's insistent claims that his health care push was a battle against the special interests. In truth, the bill's subsidies and mandates are a boondoggle for the powerful drug industry and were received warmly by hospitals and the doctors lobby.

Congressmen rarely return to their home districts after leaving office, and with Pomeroy there was never a doubt he was headed to K Street. One of the biggest benefactors-- and beneficiaries-- of Pomeroy's congressional career was the life insurance industry, and sure enough, the American Council of Life Insurers twice (in 2003 and in early 2010) considered hiring Pomeroy as president, according to reports by the Associated Press and Roll Call.

One reason Pomeroy was considering retirement in his recent term was the health care debate. He knew the measure would be a loser in North Dakota, and a yea vote could sink him. Sure enough, his opponent, Rick Berg, hammered him for twice backing Obamacare. While Pomeroy knew Dakotans wouldn't like his vote, he also knew that it would play well with powerful special interests. Responding to Berg, a Pomeroy ad name-checked the lobbies backing him: AARP, the North Dakota Hospital Association, the American Nurses Association, and the North Dakota Public Health Association. Which constituency was he appealing to?

Pomeroy's No. 3 source of funds in the campaign was the American Medical Association. America's Health Insurance Plans-- the lobby for health insurers-- gave the maximum $10,000 to Pomeroy, most of that coming after his vote for the health care bill. The political action committees for Aetna, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis and WellPoint all funded Pomeroy's run.

Pomeroy will still get checks from these companies, but rather than deposit them in his campaign coffers, he'll deposit them in his personal bank account. Alston & Bird's health care clients include the Massachusetts Hospital Association, Aetna and HealthSouth.

Ethics law prohibits Pomeroy from lobbying the House for two years, but he can get started by lobbying the Senate and executive-branch agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services. You can imagine the phone call, "Secretary Sebelius, we haven't spoken since you asked me to support your health care bill, but I was hoping you had time to hear Merck's perspective on the bill's implementation."

Blue Dogs... Ugghhh

Today 3 of the slimiest and most corporate-oriented, anti-family Blue Dogs-- Dixiecrats Mike Ross (AR), Mike McIntyre (NC) and Dan Boren (OK)-- joined with all the Republicans in voting to repeal the health care bill, further muddying the waters and confusing the voters. Look how quickly Republicans jumped on this to try to persuade voters that it isn't only their party working against ordinary working families: