Pelosi searches for a game plan
Nancy Pelosi has big problems in her ranks. The California lawmaker is facing some of the most serious unrest sheâs ever seen in her dozen years as the leader of the House Democrats: Members complain that the party has no message and no clear plan to retake the majority, despite good news on the economy that should have brought rewards at the polls. They also accuse senior lawmakers of failing to pull their weight in dues as they occupy coveted committee slots. Story Continued Below Pelosi remains the pre-eminent force in her caucus, and nobody is stepping up to challenge her. But the heightened criticism comes at a time when she has few cards to play to win membersâ loyalty, thanks to big losses in November that shrank the number of Democratic seats on highly sought-after committees. The discontent will be at the forefront of the House Democratic Caucusâ three-day retreat this week in Philadelphia. Based on public and private conversations with more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers, the complaints range from the way the party fills top committee slots to its seeming inability to craft an economic message that appealed to voters. âWhat crystallizes the frustration and concern you see in the Democratic Caucus is the disconnect between the economic numbers and â¦ the electoral numbers weâve suffered these last six years or so,â Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes said. âSo that provokes a lot of soul-searching. Do people not know what is happening in the economy? Do they not believe us that we have something to do with the recovery?â Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly said Democrats are hungry for answers. âI think thereâs a growing desire within the Democratic Caucus, at least from Democrats that I talk to, to try to get to a fundamental understanding of what went wrong, not only in this midterm but in the previous midterm, if weâre going to grow and weâre going to avoid becoming a permanent minority here in the House,â he said. Another Democrat, speaking on background, questioned the brand of economic populism the party has been preaching. âFor me, my evangelical mission is to try to persuade Democrats that we have to pay more attention to the suburbs,â the Democrat said. âAnd the economic message for the suburbs has to be broader than unemployment insurance and minimum wage, although both are important. They donât resonate in the suburbs.â For some Democrats, a retooled message is the only way to dig themselves out of their deep hole. Nearly two dozen members of the New Democrat Coalition â a group of pro-business lawmakers â are expected to carry that plea to the retreat after House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) pressured them to speak up. Coalition members often skip caucus meetings and the annual retreat but have signed up this time. In the past, Pelosiâs stature in the caucus tamped down any dissent. She outworked, out-hustled and outmaneuvered any potential rival, and her influence â bolstered by the millions she raises for House Democrats â is still unmatched. Even after Novemberâs losses, the Democrats unanimously elected her to continue serving as minority leader. âYou heard the vote on the floor when we were trying to elect a speaker,â said California Rep. Xavier Becerra, the chairman of the Democratic Caucus. âI think it was pretty clear, as diverse a group as Democrats are, we are very united behind Nancy Pelosi.â But she is not as unilaterally formidable as she once was. That was shown by her failure in November to get a key ally, California Rep. Anna Eshoo, elected to the top Democratic spot on the Energy and Commerce Committee and the failed attempt to force changes to the $1.1 trillion government spending bill that Republicans crafted in December. A handful of Democrats voted for that bill under White House pressure, but Pelosiâs office argued that she persuaded some on-the-fence Democrats to oppose the measure. And aides close to Pelosi point out that in the three weeks since the new Congress started, sheâs managed to create a coalition of Democrats to beat back a number of Republican priorities and given the White House room to threaten a veto by having the votes to sustain it. âPelosi is invigorated by the challenge of building consensus around a new, economic message, and sheâs shown her members sheâs listening by bringing new blood to the table,â said a source close to Pelosi. âAnd with her sustaining veto threats on every key piece of the Republican agenda, thereâs no question that her power and influence in this Congress has risen.â Still, Pelosi is trying to adjust. She is taking the angst seriously and has tried to quell discontent by appointing junior members to newly created task forces, giving some fresh faces a chance to shine. While the top four positions of Democratic leadership remained static, Pelosi made the surprising move of choosing New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray LujÃ¡n to run the House Democratsâ campaign arm. She also created two task forces focused on addressing the most prevalent criticisms of the Democratsâ midterm election strategy and authorized her deputies to survey members on what they want to change. LujÃ¡n said that in conversations with donors and candidates, Democrats are stressing their stark differences from Republicans on economic policies for the middle class â issues President Barack Obama touted during his State of the Union address. âDemocrats are unified around middle-class economics, and itâs where we are and itâs where we are going into the retreat and in 2016 and beyond,â LujÃ¡n said. Both of the new task forces are run by longtime Pelosi allies: Rep. Steve Israel of New York is the partyâs new messaging guru, while Assistant Leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina will head the so-called outreach and engagement committee. But those bodies were filled out by younger members like Rep. AndrÃ© Carson of Indiana, Cedric Richmond of Louisiana and Joaquin Castro of Texas. Pelosi also tapped Himes to sit on that panel. Even with fewer Democratic spots on House committees, Pelosi tapped a quarter of the sophomore class to serve on the so-called A-list panels, an aide said. Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, who was named to the Education and the Workforce Committee during his freshman year, defended Pelosi and said she made an effort to get him onto his first-choice panel. âNo freshman was on it until I was put on it last year, and now Iâve moved up like five slots in seniority, so that is exactly what I wanted,â Pocan said. Still, the discontent is widespread.