Junior Senate Democrats waged a behind-the-scenes campaign to shake up the committee assignment process and snag some plum seats on panels ordinarily dominated by veterans, Ryan Grim reports at Huffington Post.
Their goal was to free up spots on what are termed the “Super-A” committees: Appropriations, Finance, Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Commerce. These committees not only handle important legislation, but they also have jurisdiction over major industries that do business before Congress–a plus when it comes to campaign fund-raising.
The effort succeeded to a degree, with assignments shuffled to give Super-A seats to newer members–including freshman Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who landed on the Armed Services Committee.