Rep. Tauscher survives by charting centrist path

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jan 9, 2008 | by Lisa Vorderbrueggen

Eleven years ago, feisty Democrat and one-time Wall Street financier Ellen Tauscher espoused a moderate blend of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism, narrowly beating a Republican congressman in California's GOP-leaning 10th Congressional District.

The district covers much of Contra Costa County and part of Alameda County.

Ever since, both sides of the political aisle have hammered Tauscher as too liberal or too conservative.

Left-wing bloggers even threatened to recruit a challenger.

But a decade of ratings compiled by the nonpartisan National Journal reveal Tauscher's voting pattern has remained largely consistent with her original platform on social and foreign policies while shifting modestly to the left on economic issues.

Despite Tauscher's decidedly more partisan tone after the Democratic Party seized control of Congress in the 2006 elections, she retains the most moderate voting record in the Bay Area delegation.

Assailed by both sides

The Journal's composite 2006 liberal scores place Tauscher at 77 percent, well below the high 90s of her renowned liberal colleagues such as Reps. George Miller of Martinez, Barbara Lee of Oakland and Lynn Woolsey of San Rafael.

"Ellen Tauscher has been very successful," said Norman Ornstein, author of "The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America" and a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "But it's also clear that it's not easy being a moderate in today's Democratic Party -- and being a moderate from the Bay Area is particularly difficult."

Conservatives point the finger at Tauscher's advocacy of gay and lesbian rights, including a call for an end to the "Don't ask, don't tell" military policy. She is pro-choice on abortion, supports restrictions on gun ownership and has a close relationship with liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco.

On the other hand, liberals bemoan Tauscher's favorable votes on free trade deals and tightening of bankruptcy restrictions.

They called her a traitor to her party after she was quoted in the New York Times talking about the need for Democrats to avoid leaping off the "left-wing cliff" after the Democratic Party took control of Congress. And a Web site dedicated to her ouster emerged while lefty Daily Kos blogger Markos Moulitsa Zuniga vowed to find someone to challenge her in the 2008 primary election.

No Democratic opponent has emerged and the Web site is no long active, but anti-war activists remain angry about the inability of Democratic leaders like Tauscher to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq and pursue impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Weathering the criticism

Early one sunny November morning, the 56-year-old Tauscher emerges from her Alamo house and climbs into her 1997 white Mercury Mountaineer.

It's a typical start to a Tauscher day, except for the reporter next to her in the back seat of the sport utility vehicle.

There had been an interview scheduled for that morning. But Pelosi asked Tauscher to help organize an oil spill hearing in San Francisco and then fly with the speaker back to Washington. What the speaker wants, Tauscher says, the speaker gets.

The interview-on-the-fly doesn't faze Tauscher, a supremely self- confident, articulate and vibrant woman renowned for her laser focus and plain-speaking vernacular.

She converses easily on everything from political instability in Pakistan to the U.S. nuclear weapons program to friendly negotiations with her 16-year-old daughter, Katherine, about the choice of music on the car stereo.

If criticism of her record stings, Tauscher doesn't let it show. Rebukes are a fact of life in public office, particularly in an era when ubiquitous Web sites amplify the nation's diverse range of political viewpoints.

"Some folks who didn't know or understand my record may have jumped to conclusions that they have had to subsequently modify, but my positions have been well-known for a long time," Tauscher said. "In the end, this is about me and my constituents, not people from the outside who have a megaphone."

Tauscher ran as a fiscal conservative and social liberal in a suburban centrist district. And although legislators redrew its boundaries in 2001 and gave her a safe Democratic seat, it remains a district where her moderate views resonate with voters.

She won re-election by 8 and 10 percentage points against well- funded Republicans in 1998 and 2000 and easily retained her seat against nominal opponents in the past three elections.

So far, the only person running against her next year is Nick Gerber, an underfunded Libertarian-turned-Republican.

"There was a point early on when I didn't realize how much I would enjoy this job," said Tauscher, who still holds the title of Congressional Jeopardy Champion, an annual fund-raiser in the House of Representatives. "But once I realized that I could do the job and that I was effective, then it made sense that I liked it. People like what they are good at."

Rising stock

Tauscher's star has never burned brighter.