Rep. Tauscher’s departure leaves New Dems scrambling for a leader

The New Democrat Coalition was scrambling for a leader on Wednesday with the news that Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) was joining the State Department.

A path forward for the 67-member coalition was anything but clear.

{mosads}Tauscher confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that she had accepted an offer from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to serve as undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security.

“Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asked me to serve as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security,” Tauscher’s statement said. “I accepted it after much soul searching and long discussions with my family and friends.”

But the early reports were news to Tauscher’s New Democrat Coalition co-chairmen, who spent the day assessing what Tauscher’s departure will mean for the coalition, as well as for themselves.

“Everyone had assumed that she was going to be the chair for the next two years,” an aide to a top New Democrat member said. “This caught folks by surprise, definitely. And this changes things a lot.”

In many ways, the timing could not be worse for the New Democrats, who were just beginning — thanks in large part to Tauscher’s leadership — to reassert themselves as a force within the Democratic Caucus after years of wandering through the wilderness as a loosely defined band of individual members.

Part of this strategy was on full display last month, when Tauscher convinced Democratic leaders not only to pull from the floor the mortgage and housing reform bill, but also to give the New Dems a lead role in crafting a new package digestible to the centrist and conservative members of the caucus.

“A lot of us come from Wall Street, and on Wall Street the hallmark of a deal is that as soon as you close a deal, that person [with whom you struck the deal] wants to work with you tomorrow,” Tauscher told The Hill in an interview earlier this month. “The misconception is because we don’t blow our horn all the time, we are not glass-breakers and we are not cage-rattlers, we are not influential.”

Now, Democrats said, the obvious choices to succeed Tauscher include Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) and Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) — the coalition’s three co-chairmen — and Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), its whip, and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), its political action committee chairman — essentially, the rest of the New Democrat leadership team.

But no one from that pool emerged as the “obvious” choice. And aides and members themselves said it would take some time for a clear choice to rise above the pack.

“There’s definitely folks who are interested,” an aide said. “But I don’t think there’s a clear notion of any one person or any one path at this point.”

The problem, one centrist Democrat said, was that Tauscher was the perfect leader, one who could assert influence behind the scenes with the House leadership while effectively communicating the group’s message to the press.

“I think the group has to decide if it wants to have an inside-the-House focus or have an outside player,” a New Democrat member said.

And then there was the additional problem of maintaining the cohesiveness that the New Dems have been able to achieve in the midst of having to select a new leader — a process they all hoped would not grow contentious or even overly competitive.

At the same time, only one member of the New Democrat leadership, Adam Smith, took himself out of the running on Wednesday.

“I’m not personally pursuing it,” Smith said, noting that he’s focused on his own Armed Services subcommittee gavel and his spot on the Intelligence Committee. “There’s a lot of work involved, and I don’t have that kind of time to commit to it.”

For everyone else, hedging was the name of the game — without, of course, forgetting to dole out accolades to Tauscher along the way.

“I think the New Dem Coalition is working on the most important issues facing our country today and is working with the Speaker and helping to craft legislation to help our caucus move forward on a number of issues,” said Crowley. “And I’m flattered that many of my colleagues believe that I have what it takes to lead this coalition forward.”

“The New Democrat Coalition is very important to me,” Schwartz said. “And my playing a leadership role, whether it be as vice chair or in other ways, is certainly a very important priority to me.

“Certainly there’ll be a conservation within the leadership about who takes over, and I hope to be a part of that discussion,” she added.

Crowley and Schwartz may have been most often thought of by their colleagues in assessing who may fill in for Tauscher, but they were also seen as the two members with the most already on their plate.

Among the most prolific fundraisers in the House, both Crowley and Schwartz were given substantial roles by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in what the DCCC admits will be a very challenging 2010 cycle for House Democrats.

That balance, as well as how personal ambitions were weighing against the best interests of the coalition, were on the minds of many Democrats on Wednesday.

In that vein, even New Dems who were thought to be less interested or less ready to be chairman were keeping the door open.

“There’s a lot of discussion with the members and we’ve got a lot of talent to choose from,” said Kind, who would not give a further indication of his own candidacy. “Ellen will be tough to replace, but we’ve got time.”

Bean, who was not available for comment on Wednesday, was also said to be interested in the top spot.