Blue Dog PAC

The Hill writes,

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Friday said Democrats need to be a “big tent” party amid clashes over whether candidates are sufficiently progressive enough to be backed by the national party.

“I think we have to have a big tent,” Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight panel and a frequent television presence for the party, said in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“Because it’s one thing to say, ‘OK, I don’t want to be bothered with these folks.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘Let’s pull them under the tent, so we can be effective and efficient in getting something done.’ Period.”

Cummings also talked about how conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats helped the party win legislative victories in the Obama years.

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The Arizona Capitol Times writes,

U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who joined Biggs in a forum sponsored by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, said the original bill rolled out by House Speaker Paul Ryan, the American Health Care Act, was “bad.”

“It was basically Obamacare but worse,” she said.

Sinema, a member the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, said bipartisanship is the most effective way to pass health care reform.

“If (Ryan) wants to get something done, there is a group of Blue Dogs that are willing to do this,” Sinema said. “And we are fiscally conservative Democrats that are willing to find market-based solutions, and I think it would make a lot of sense for him to come and talk to us.”

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The Orange County Register writes,

Jose Luis Correa was the first in his family to graduate from high school, going on to earn MBA and law degrees from UCLA. He’s lived in the district nearly his entire life.

In the November race to replace outgoing Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez, Correa trounced then-Garden Grove Mayor Bao Nguyen, 70 percent to 30 percent.

[…]

“He’s a good guy who knows how to get along with people,” Baugh said, noting Correa’s sensitivity to the priorities of his constituents. “He votes his district and he’s not beholden to one side or the other.”

Besides his burgeoning relationships on both sides of the Congressional aisle, this approach manifests itself in his membership in two moderate Democratic Capitol Hill groups, the Blue Dog Coalition and the New Democratic Coalition. He’s also building a reputation of lending early support to GOP-sponsored bills he agrees with.

While he opposed the GOP proposal to replace Obamacare, he readily acknowledges what he views as the shortcomings of the current plan and has called on Republicans to help fix it.

“I’m not a partisan guy,” Correa said. “I really hate the Republican versus Democrat stuff. Nobody has a monopoly on wisdom.”

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ABC News writes,

More moderate House Democrats say they turned down an invitation to go to the White House to meet with a staffer on the issue. “With all due respect to the folks there, if that particular staffer wants to meet, come meet with the Blue Dogs here,” Rep. Henry Cuellar, (D-Texas), a moderate leader of the Blue Dog Caucus, told ABC.

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The National Journal writes,

But the bipartisan talks seem imperiled even in their infancy. Schrader, a member of both the Blue Dog and New Democrat coalitions, said he is known for working with Republicans but many in his district don’t want him to work with Trump. Rebuffing the president is easier given his extremely partisan posture on some issues—for instance, the administration’s move this week banning the Environmental Protection Agency from using the words “climate change,” Schrader said.

“He makes it easy not to work with him, because he’s wrong on so many issues that are important to so many Americans, whether it’s the budget, immigration, health care,” Schrader said. “That shows how little experience and knowledge he has of dealing with real people and particularly people in this legislative body.”

Schrader added that he also thinks the efforts may ultimately be fruitless because Trump does not know policy enough to negotiate: “The emperor really has no clothes. He has no substance.”

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