Monday's Final Panel

The final session for Monday covered much ground. William Sheward from the University of Winchester presented a paper entitled, "Today's Democrats: Lyndon Johnson's Heirs No Longer?" It covered the changes in the Democrat Party in the last fifty years. It included an interesting look at the ideas of Elizabeth Warren. I'm sure that we are going to be talking about her for a long time.

Robert Williams who is currently based at the University of Huddersfield discussed the Ohio Libertarian Party, which he has stood as a candidate for in recent years.

Marie-Catherine Wavreille from the Universite libre de Bruxelles presented some of her ongoing research into ballot proposition campaigns. She had analysed, as part of her work for a doctorate, the position that elected offices played in such campaigns. She is doing some very interesting work and a number of people commented on how much they are looking forward to seeing future results of her work.

The session finished with a paper that I presented on the reforms associated with the early 1970s in the House of Representatives. The paper looked at the long development which came to its climax in the weeks following the 'wave' election of 1974 and the entry into Congress of the "Watergate Babies". If you are interested in a copy of my paper - do email me on jdavidmorgan@googlemail.com & I will send you a pdf copy. Any comments would be welcome.

The APG held its AGM then we adjourned for a very pleasant meal and evening at a local Indian Restaurant. The conference continues this morning. 

Happy Birthday!

Birthday greetings go to Tom Downey, the youngest of the so-called "Watergate Babies" - the freshmen (and women) elected to Congress in the immediate aftermath of Watergate. He is Sixty Five today. He had only been eligible to be elected to the House for nine months when he won the seat for the second district of New York. (Just two years previously the long serving Republican, James Gover had won with 66% of the vote - and Nixon won 72% of the district's votes!).

The term "Watergate Babies" is certainly no longer appropriate now - and wasn't then. Many had previous elected experience - Downey himself had been a member of the Suffolk County, [New York] legislature since 1971. Joseph Fisher (VA10) was sixty, and almost a third had been born in the 1920s or before.

As previous posts have noted - this year is the 40th anniversary of the 1974 landslide election.

Downey was a law student when first elected. He served in Congress until 1993 (18 years - 9 Congresses). He then founded a lobbying group, the Downey-McGrath Group, of which he is Chairman.

Bob Edgar

Bob Edgar was one of the Democratic freshmen in the 94th Congress ('the Watergate Babies'). This week he passed away suddenly. This interview was recorded in 2011.



A newspaper in his old district (The Delaware County Daily Times) published an obituary which said -

“He was a great American. He was a great Delaware Countian who left a legacy of good work of helping people in this county,” said Delaware County Democratic Party Chairman David Landau on Tuesday afternoon.

The Methodist minister defied Delaware County’s Republican-dominated politics in 1974 when he beat then-Delaware County District Attorney Steve McEwen for Pennsylvania’s 7th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives by 17,000 votes. Dubbed a “Watergate baby,” Edgar was part of the Democratic sweep of Congress in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal and subsequent resignation of President Richard Nixon… The Delaware County Democrat represented the district for six terms until 1986 when he left to make an unsuccessful bid for Republican incumbent Arlen Specter’s U.S. Senate seat, an experience that reportedly fueled his frustration with the undue influence of money in politics.

“To maintain himself all those terms was extraordinary. He was someone who earned the respect of Republicans and Democrats alike. One of the true hallmarks of his tenure was that he was independent and he didn’t treat people differently because of their party affiliations,” said Landau , a volunteer for Edgar’s successful 1984 re-election campaign against Republican Curt Weldon.

Thomas Judge Sr., the former longtime chairman of the Delaware County Republican Party, called Edgar a gentleman and a great congressman after learning of his death on Tuesday afternoon.

“He was very, very conscientious,” said Judge. “We only disagreed once a year and that was in November. He did a very good job as a congressman. I thought the world of him.” inued...

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Judge noted that he could always call Edgar for help and advice on a variety of matters. “Whenever I called him, he would help me out,” said Judge.

Although he was a liberal and a pacifist, Edgar was a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee where he fought for Vietnam veterans suffering from exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, among other advocacy efforts he championed for U.S. veterans.

“He was certainly a person who was an idealist. He was a man of great faith and had values he tried to act on in legislation,” said Landau.

He was the President of 'Common Cause'.

94th Congress

1974 was a dramatic year in American politics (it was pretty dramatic in the UK too - with two General Elections!). President Nixon was brought down by the Watergate Scandal - and President Ford's honeymoon came to a sudden end when he pardoned the former President. The Elections on November 4th brought in a wave of young Democrats - the "Watergate Babies". The Democrats gained a net of 49 seats in the House of Representatives and 5 seats in the Senate.

The new Congress met for the first time on 14th January 1975. The Democratic caucus had agreed a number of rule changes in December, including

• stripping the Democratic members of the Ways & Means Committee of their power to make committee assignments (a power held since 1911). Instead the Steering & Policy Committee - a partly elected & partly leadership appointed body - got the power.
• making the election of all Chairs by secret ballot. This was to be automatic
• nominations of Appropriation sub-committee Chairs had to be approved by a caucus vote
• the Speaker was given the power to nominate all Democratic members of the Rules Committee

In January the freshman class invited all the Chairs of committees to meet them. In the first few days of the new Congress three Chairs were not re-elected! (see post on Wright Patman)

Later in the Congress both parties in the House of Representatives opened their party meetings (Democrats - Caucus; Republicans - Conference). In the Senate the filibuster rule was modified on March 7th - bring the number required down from 67 to 60 (2/3rds to 3/5ths). It was supposed to reduce the impact of the filibuster! As a recent Washminster post outlines - it was not successful - and new moves may come in 2011.

Despite the large Democrat majority in the House, there were problems in getting legislation through. Partly this was due to internal divisions within the Democratic caucus - something President Ford was able to exploit in his use of vetoes. Farrell notes that "By Election Day, 1976, Ford would veto 59 bills and have but 12 vetoes overridden."

At the November 1976 the Democrats gained one seat in the House and one seat in the Senate.

Chris Dodd says farewell to Congress

Chris Dodd first came to Congress as one of the "Watergate Babies" in January 1975. He now retires after 6 years in the House and 30 years in the Senate.