Democrats pick Rep. Heck to lead national hunt for 2016 candidates

WASHINGTON – The new Congress is not even one month old, but Washington state Democratic Rep. Denny Heck is already looking ahead to the next session, making plans aimed at reviving his party in the 2016 elections.

After taking a beating in 2014, Democrats in the House of Representatives have tapped Heck to lead their 25-member recruitment committee for next year.

It’s a big assignment for Heck, 62, a second-term congressman from Olympia.

With 247 members, Republicans now enjoy their strongest majority in the House since the Great Depression, and Democrats will need to pick up a net of 30 seats to take back control.

But Heck, a former state legislator, is off and running in his new job with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, known as the DCCC, eager to lead a comeback and already wooing candidates.

“I can think of nothing more important than getting good people to run for office,” Heck said in a statement.

Heck’s spokeswoman, Kati Rutherford, said that any request to talk to Heck had to go through the DCCC. And DCCC spokesman Josh Schwerin said that Heck was not available for an interview.

Republicans were puzzled by Heck’s appointment, expecting the post to be filled by a Democrat with more experience in tightly contested congressional districts.

“In order to regain the majority, Democrats needs to recruit candidates that can win in 30 swing districts,” said Ian Prior, national press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, known as NRCC. “Therefore it is a curious decision to place Denny Heck – a Democrat sitting in a district Obama twice won by 16 points – in charge of recruiting candidates that can win in tough, competitive districts.”

Heck, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, won his last two congressional races easily, with 59 percent of the vote in 2012 and 55 percent in 2014. He lost his first bid for Congress in 2010, receiving 47 percent of the vote in a race for an open seat won by Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler.

Washington state Democratic Rep. Derek Kilmer, one of Heck’s closest allies in Congress, said Heck has had “a long history of inspiring folks to get focused on solving problems” and serve their communities.

“He will be a big part of bringing in a new group of legislators dedicated to getting our country and our Congress back on track,” Kilmer said.

But Republicans noted that the DCCC is off to a tough start in New York, struggling to find a candidate for a special election to fill a seat held by former GOP Rep. Michael Grimm, who announced his resignation in December after pleading guilty to tax evasion.