Chris Dodd for President

In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Senator Chris Dodd introduced his four national co-chairs, Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Xavier Becerra, former Senator and former Ambassabor to China James Sasser, and former National Conference for Community and Justice President Sanford "Sandy" Cloud. The group represents Dodd's appeal to a broad and deep cross-section of America, and the press picked up on that. Ray Hackett calls the four "an impressive group." The Hill, MyLeftNutmeg and the Sioux City Journal all picked up the story. (Update: So did Boston Globe's James Pindell) So who are these folks? Rosa DeLauro and Senator Dodd have worked together in Congress for 16 years. From Connecticut, DeLauro was Senator Dodd's Chief of Staff when he moved from the House to the Senate. She's a member of the House Appropriations Committee and has been a co-chair of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee since 2002. Congressman Xavier Becerra, an assistant to the Speaker of the House, represents part of Los Angeles in Congress. This shocked me -- first elected in 1992, he's the first Latino member of Congress to serve on the House Ways & Means Committee. He's also the only member from Southern California currently on the committee. A former chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and an executive committee member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, he also serves on the board of Close Up and the Smithsonian Board of Regents. He was the first person in his family to attend college: He earned his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Stanford. Dodd and Sandy Cloud have known each other since college. The past president and CEO of the National Conference for Community Justice and a former Connecticut State Senator, Cloud is known for his National Conversation on Race, Ethnicity and Culture telecasts, on which he brings big thinkers together to debate hot issues. Senator James Sasser represented Tennessee for three terms in the Senate, chairing the Budget Committee, where he orchestrated the passage of President Bill Clinton's first budget, which reduced the budget deficit by $500 billion over ten years. After his service, President Clinton appointed Sasser Ambassador to China, where he was posted until 2001. All in all, a pretty handy team to have on your side, as Senator Dodd does.