Conservative Democrats in House to Stick With Party

Rep. W.J. (Billy) Tauzin of Louisiana said Tuesday that he and other conservative Democrats have decided to stick with their party for at least a year, ending speculation that they would join the new Republican majority in the House.

To keep him and other conservatives in the party, the Democratic leadership will have to prove that it wants them, he said. He said he and a number of other Democrats will form an active conservative caucus next month to make sure the party is responsive.

“By this time next year, we will know if the party’s promises of inclusion are true,” he said at a news conference.

Rep. Mike Parker (D-Miss.), another conservative Southern Democrat who had been talking about joining the GOP, also said Tuesday he will stick with his party and work with Tauzin in forming the caucus.

“We’re not interested in just holding hands and talking about how bad things are” for conservative Democrats, Tauzin said. “We’re going to be out there.”

Earlier, Tauzin told the Thibodaux (La.) Daily Comet that he and an estimated 22 Democrats thought to be ripe for the picking by the GOP will likely stay with their party for a year.

No House Democrats have switched since the GOP landslide last month, but one senator, Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, did join the Republicans.

Tauzin, who has represented Louisiana’s 3rd District for 14 years, has been disenchanted with the party leadership on Capitol Hill for several years. He has complained of getting shabby treatment from his party because of his conservative voting record.

In the past, conservative Democrats have had to ask Republicans for time to talk on the House floor because their own party leadership had not liked their views, he said.

Last week, Tauzin won a senior slot on the Natural Resources Committee and the Commerce Committee after the Democratic Party’s Rules Committee decided it would no longer use a score card of party-line votes to determine committee assignments, a policy that penalized Tauzin and other conservatives.