Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) "gets" the New Democrat message about as thoroughly as is possible for any public servant.

"The changes in our country that brought the New Democrat movement into being are accelerating," says the three-term San Francisco-area congresswoman, whose comfortable victories in her last two elections prove that she has transformed her formerly "safe" Republican East Bay district into "solid" New Democrat country.

"There's no going back," she concludes.

Now Tauscher has a new national platform from which to spread that message. Late last week, the Democratic Leadership Council announced that she will serve as its vice chairman, succeeding former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, who now heads the Los Angeles public schools. DLC President Al From made the announcement at a Jan. 12 strategic retreat in Sacramento, Calif., for state New Democrat elected officials.

"Ellen Tauscher has been a strong and vocal leader within the Congress, who has worked tirelessly on behalf of the New Democrat movement," From said. "As vice chair of the DLC, she will be on the front lines in helping the DLC carry out our political and policy goals for the coming year."

The vice chairman works closely with the DLC and its national network of elected leaders, identifying new political talent and implementing state-by-state strategies to further expand the New Democrat movement. In her new role, Tauscher will address various issues highlighting the New Democrat philosophy, travel on behalf of the DLC, and be a key national spokesperson for the organization.

"I'm looking forward to sharing the New Democrats' common-sense philosophies with elected officials across the country and bolstering the DLC's identity as the intellectual center of the Democratic Party," Tauscher said. "This is an historic time for our party. The DLC's solutions that go beyond the stale ideologies of the left and right and the New Democrats' work to govern from the center will be more important than ever before."

Tauscher's policy and political resume both in and out of elected office is a tour de horizon of New Democrat achievements. In 1989, she founded the ChildCare Registry -- the first national research service on the subject -- and later published The ChildCare Sourcebook to help other working parents make informed decisions about their children's care needs.

As a member of Congress, Tauscher is a leader on technology, trade expansion, child care, transportation, veterans, and military personnel issues and is one of Congress' leading experts on nuclear nonproliferation. Her fiscally responsible, bipartisan, independent brand of leadership was coined "Tauscherism" by Time magazine.

Tauscher was the first person in her family to attend college and earned a degree in early childhood education from Seton Hall University. Born in Newark, N.J., in 1951, she lives in Alamo, Calif., with her daughter, Katherine.