House Democrats seem to have made strategically smart decisions in assigning their members to committees for the 2009 legislative session.  I have come up with some examples, listed below.

Incoming freshman State Rep. Larry Marek, who was elected by a small margin in a fairly conservative eastern Iowa district, has been appointed Vice Chair of the Agriculture Committee.  Longtime State Rep. Dolores Mertz, who is probably the most conservative Democrat in the legislature, remains chair of the committee.  This should help ensure that Democrats stay on the good side of the Iowa Farm Bureau, and it likely means there won’t be any big moves on CAFOs.  This will anger groups on the left, but it is politically expedient.

Almost all vulnerable Democratic incumbents have been kept off the Ways and Means committee.  In a year of budget shortfalls, Ways and Means will likely have to send some tax-increasing bills to the floor.  Members of the committee who vote to send those bills to the floor will be said to have voted for tax increases an absurd number of times because negative direct mail does not typically distinguish between committee votes and floor votes.

As with Ways and Means, the Labor committee also has few vulnerable incumbents this year.  Because unions tend to give money to Labor committee members, in the past, it has been a tradeoff for state representatives who represent fiscally conservative districts but need the campaign contributions from unions to stay afloat.  A few vulnerable incumbents have ended up on the committee in past sessions.  But after a campaign that was dominated by attacks on Democrats for taking tough votes on labor issues, Democratic leaders may be content to let union resources go into their general campaign fund so that they can redistribute it as needed, rather than relying on unions to provide direct support to at-risk incumbents.

In general, most newly elected state representatives were awarded a Vice Chair position on at least one committee.  This happened two years ago, as well.  Although rewarding seniority is important, Democrats realize that the new incumbents need some influence, too, if they are going to hold on to their seats.