Dina Titus
This article may be deleted soon. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alice Costandina "Dina" Titus is a political scientist specializing in nuclear politics, and a first-term Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 3rd Congressional District of Nevada. Her district is centered on the city of Las Vegas. Prior to the House, she taught political science at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas for 30 years, and was in the State Legislature and Senate for 15, rising to Minority Leader. She faces a close re-election battle, which has been made a priority of both national parties. Her likely opponent is Dr. Joe Heck, a Republican emergency physician associated with the Tea Party Movement, and a Nevada State Senator between 2004 and 2008[1] Committee assignments
Congressional caucuses
IssuesHealth careShe voted for both the November 2009 and final March 2010 Democratic-sponsored House health care bills, and was seen as a key vote in the latter. After the November legislation, she was targeted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.[2] Regarding the final, her concerns were
In addition, she is a cosponsor of the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act. EconomyRather than attending the White House signing of the health care bill, she met with constituents and Jewish groups, and then presided over the House of Representatives as it started work on the Democratic "jobs agenda." The National Republican Congressional Committee accused her of "ducking" the signing,[4] but she said she had new priorities.
Voting ratingsSources: Links to the voting ratings guides of the above organizations together with brief descriptive information on the organizations themselves, may be found at: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Interest_group/Catalogs 2008 ElectionShe was the first Democrat to win the district since it was created in 2002.
Source: Federal Election Results - final official tally 2010 ElectionsCiting David Wassermann of the Cook Political Report, the Las Vegas Sun [6] said that her reelection is by no means a given. He mentioned an overall "difficult climate for Democrats, but also Titus’ own shortcomings, noting that she won her first term in 2008 with 47 percent of the vote in a year that was a wave for Democrats. 'Titus has serious negatives of her own,' Wasserman writes. 'Titus's reputation as a partisan, going back to her days as a state legislative leader, is a serious liability right now.'" She is supported by Emily's List, a Democratic progressive organization encouraging women to run for office. It says she faces a tough reelection fight in a district that swings between Republican and Democratic winners, and considers her to have a "strong moral compass -- strengthening schools, preserving the environment, and protecting the welfare of Nevada's citizens." and to be an "outspoken defender of reproductive rights." [7] Politico reported that in January 2010, she rose in a meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and said of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nevada),
The National Republican Congressional Committee has described the Service Employees International Union advertising, thanking her for voting on the health care bill, as a liability. [4] David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said, of her not attending the signing of the bill but meeting with voters and then presiding over House discussion of a jobs stimulus, "They are counting on the furor to die down and that it will be hard for the opposition to sustain momentum and this amount of venom for eight months [until Election Day]. They would like to shift the focus to some things that will be much more electorally valuable."[5] Education
References
|