Pool of moderates is shrinking in Congress

From the NEW YORK TIMES:

…A group of Democrats who are centrists, known as Blue Dogs, have been all but eviscerated from the House over the last few elections, and now three who have been in the Republicans’ cross hairs for years are fighting uphill battles for re-election.

Among Republicans, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Representative Steven C. LaTourette of Ohio, weary of partisan battles, chose to retire this year, and some, like Representative Charles Bass of New Hampshire, have found themselves moving away from the center to survive, a technique employed by Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, who found it was too little too late and lost his primary campaign…

The House is more polarized than at any time in the last century, according to models built by Keith Poole, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia, and Howard Rosenthal, professor emeritus of social sciences at Princeton. The last time the Senate was this divided, according to the joint research, was a century ago…

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