Progressive women outnumber 'blue dog' Dems

Progressive women outnumber 'blue dog' Dems

By Allison Stevens, Contributing Writer
December 4, 2006 talkback

WASHINGTON (Special to the NNPA from Womense-news)--The success of Democrats in this year's midterm elections is often attributed to the rising influence of the conservative wing of the party.

But women's rights activists say that progressives-and progressive women in particular-are in fact enjoying a much stronger power surge.

The Blue Dog Coalition, for instance, is a group of fiscally conservative Democrats whose numbers will grow by nine next year, bringing total membership to 44, or about a fifth of the House Democratic conference. Top priorities for the caucus have been pushing to balance the federal budget and lowering the federal debt.

But Denise Baer, president of Strategic Research Concepts, a political consulting firm in Bethesda, Md., said that the Blue Dog Coalition's numbers don't compare to the strength of the progressive or women's caucuses.

"We heard a lot about the Blue Dog Democrats being the largest caucus in the House of Representatives," Baer said at a post-election news conference. "The Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues is really going to be the largest caucus . . . So women are going to be leaders."
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Don't hear much about this. I guess the corporate media is too busy promoting the conservative Dems.