Membership
Blue Dog membership was nearly cut in half by the 2010 Election, in which 26 members were re-elected but 28 were either defeated or chose not to run for re-election.
The membership is expected to decline further in the 113th Congress. Membership is already down to 25 with the resignation of Jane Harman, one of their more liberal members. Furthermore, four prominent remaining Blue Dogs, Dennis Cardoza of California, Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Mike Ross of Arkansas, and Heath Shuler of North Carolina have announced their retirement; one member, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, is running for Senate (partially due to Republican redistricting efforts).
In the 2012 elections, two Blue Dogs, Tim Holden and Jason Altmire, of Pennsylvania, were defeated in their party primaries, and Ben Chandler of Kentucky, Larry Kissell of North Carolina, and Leonard Boswell of Iowa, were defeated by Republicans in November. Blue Dog Joe Baca was defeated by another Democrat on November 6th, reducing the number of returning members of the Blue Dog caucus to fourteen.
Freshman Blue Dogs in the House are sometimes nicknamed "Blue Pups".
Read more about this topic: Blue Dog Coalition
Famous quotes containing the word membership:
“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)