NRCC Tracks Blue Dogs

NRCC tracks Blue Dogs
Posted by
CNN Associate Producer Rebecca Stewart

(CNN) – The National Republican Congressional Committee has their sights set on Blue Dog Democrats, as evidenced by a website launched Thursday.

Republicans currently hold a 242-193 majority in the House of Representatives, a 49-seat majority the party would like to retain-and increase-in 2012.

As Democrats coordinate efforts to regain the advantage they lost in 2010, the NRCC has designed a page devoted to targeting 26 Blue Dogs-a coalition of fiscally conservative, moderate Democrats whose ranks were almost halved during the last midterm elections.

Before 2010 there were 54 members in the caucus.

The website, titled “Where Are the Blue Dogs?” accuses the remaining Blue Dog Democrats of laying low in the face of potentially difficult re-election campaigns that will be troubled by President Obama at the top of the ticket.

Labeling congressmen including California Rep. Dennis Cardoza and North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler as “the most vulnerable incumbents,” the page features a map of the United States. Each time an incumbent appears in public, the map is said to be updated with a paw print, or “Blue Dog sighting.” There is only one print on the entire map–over the White House–though it doesn’t indicate which Democrat made an appearance there.

The Blue Dog Democrats fired back in a statement, saying, “This is just more of the same tired and useless partisan politics the American people are fed up with. Blue Dogs have spent this district work period like they spend every work period: meeting with and listening to the small business owners and working families they represent in their homes, schools, and places of business.”

As for the committee’s online offense, they said, “The NRCC can create all the web pages they want; Blue Dogs will continue focusing on creating jobs and serving their constituents.”

The website launch was first reported by Politico