Keith Ellison and Tim Walz are both attempting to enter House leadership positions. First, Ellison:
Liberals are hailing a three-way fight to lead the Congressional Progressive Caucus as a sign of the growing influence of the Democratic left on Capitol Hill…
Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) are both challenging incumbent Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.).
Looks like it might be an uphill fight for Keith, as Grijalva and Woolsey are both more senior members. If, however, Keith does succeed in winning the chair, it looks like it’ll be a pretty influential position:
But this year nine of the 13 candidates the caucus supported won election, and its membership is expected to grow to 80 members. In addition, Democrats will control both ends of the Capitol with sizable majorities, and the White House will be occupied by a Democrat with a liberal voting record.
“The progressive caucus is on the map now,” Woolsey said in an interview. “We just want to make sure our new president and vice president keep in mind who we consider to be the base of our party.”
We’re rooting for you Keith!
As for Tim Walz, he isn’t so much “attempting” to win a leadership position, he’s already won one:
Rep. Tim Walz of Mankato, fresh off his re-election to a second term, agreed to serve as a Midwest regional Democratic whip after being drafted by five committee chairmen for the post, his spokeswoman said.
Before joining the Tuesday’s meeting of Democratic lawmakers from seven states, Walz said he was not seeking any leadership post for the upcoming 111th Congress. But that was before he was urged to accept the job by the two Minnesota committee chairs, Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson of Detroit Lakes and Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Jim Oberstar of Chisholm. They were joined by Appropriations Chairman David Obey of Wisconsin and the Michigan duo of Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell and Judiciary Chairman John Conyers.
“They felt they needed a moderate voice at the table in the whip organization,” said Meredith Salsbery, Walz’s press secretary. Walz will join the team of House Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C. , third in rank under Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland. They were easily re-elected by the newly expanded Democratic caucus during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
What does this mean for Walz’s gubernatorial prospects? Probably not much. You could see this as a sign that Walz plans on staying in Congress, or you could just see it as a smart move by a politician who is keeping his options open.
In other Walz news, the Congressman is apparently supporting John Dingell bid to remain Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. That’s too bad. Dingell is too close to the auto industry and has been less than friendly to attempts to fight global warming.
A hat tip to Bluestem Prairie on both Walz stories.
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Ummm, what happened to Betty McCollum.
Peterson and Oberstar are major committee chairs, Ellison is a leader within the Progressive Caucus even if he looses his bid for Chair and now Walz has Betty’s former spot and I hear nothing of her moving up or grabbing for any leadership.
I know she was in the doghouse with some over her overt actions against Al Franken even after the endorsement. I thought the leadership kind of gave her a pass.
Ironic that Lieberman gets to keep his committee and everything when he went out and campaigned against the President-elect and essentially the party yet, Betty is out of business for a primary grudge.
Betty is on the Appropriations Committee, which is pretty huge, and she’s on the Democratic Steering Committee
McCollum is also very close to Nancy Pelosi, who supported McCollum in 2000 before she had won the primary. The next year, McCollum gave the speech nominating Pelosi for Whip before the caucus. McCollum had some sort of role with the DCCC during the ‘05-‘06 cycle involving races in the Midwest. She’ll do fine. This year was her big chance for the Senate if she wanted it, and she passed it up. Since she can keep her seat for basically as long as she wants it, she’s on track to become one of the Cardinals of the House some day. Unless the Republicans fulfill their long dreamed-of goal of collapsing the 4th and 5th CDs into each other in a future redistricting fight.
Keith lost, sadly. He’s well positioned for a future leadership position though.
And I doubt Walz would take this if he seriously wanted to be Governor.
Keith never had a chance against Woolsey — she got Cindy Sheehan into the 2006 State of the Union, is a self proclaimed former “welfare mother”, tried to revoke the Boy Scouts charter, and wrote on Congressional stationary to ask for clemency for a rapist (denied). Pretty awesome credentials.
Betty has moved herself effectively in the caucus and is taken the right steps to become a very influential legislator.
This is one more indicator that Tim Walz is not running for Gov., no matter how many people want him to. Maintained a strong warchest through his campaign, holds a seat that the national leadership wants to keep, takes a leadership position in Congress, positioned himself to help national candidates, and has a strong push from a number of local people to stay in the seat they damn near killed themseleves to help him into? Sounds like someone who is staying in Congress and climbing the ladder, not someone setting himself up for a run for the Statehouse.
If Tim really wanted to be Gov, I think you would have seen him stumping for candidates in the 2nd, 3rd, & 6th Districts a lot more, instead of raising money there.
According to The Nation, the vote in the Progressive Caucus race was:
Woolsey 30
Grijalva 26
Ellison 23
That’s not a terrible showing for a member just entering his second term going up against two more senior candidates.
Walz has announced he will NOT be running for Governor in 2010.
I’ll write my “I told you so” diary as soon as I get “permissions.”
Booyah for the first CD.
lojasmo -
where are you seeing this?
Reported to my wife by Walz’ staff, at Tim’s request.