The "Blue Dog" caucus of conservative House Democrats was virtually killed off in last week's voting.
For years the caucus was the home of conservative, anti-leadership Southerners and their allies. But the last two elections have all but wiped out the breed.
Just two years and two weeks ago, there were 54 members of the Blue Dog caucus. That got cut more than in half in 2010, to 25, and now stands at fourteen returning members. Of the eleven who are not returning, four retired (Dennis Cardoza, Mike Ross, Dan Boren, and Heath Shuler), two lost their primaries (Jason Altmire and Tim Holden). four were defeated on November 6th (Joe Baca, Leonard Boswell, Ben Chandler, and Larry Kissell), and Joe Donnelly was elected to the Senate.
This would seem to be the end of an era. In the nine Confederate States not including Texas and Florida, there remain only seven White Democrats in the House. Two (Moran and Connolly) are from the D.C. suburbs, and one (Cohen) from a Black-majority district containing Memphis. David Price is a long-time progressive from North Carolina. The other three--Jim Cooper of Nashville, John Barrow of Georgia, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina--represent the last remnant of the Blue Dog idea.