Dems split over Pelosi bid for minority leader

Battle lines are emerging in the House Democratic Caucus over Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) possible bid to stay on as the minority leader.

Liberal Democrats are mobilizing in support of Pelosi remaining at the head of the party in the 112th Congress, while some centrists said she should step aside in the wake of the party’s loss of around 60 House seats in Tuesday’s election.

{mosads}The growing fault line comes as Pelosi weighs the options in her political future. She has begun reaching out to members to gauge whether she enjoys enough support to stay as the Democratic leader.

“Democrats tend to be more kind to our leader when they have a loss,” said Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the longest-serving member of the House, on Detroit’s WJR Radio. “She can run and probably get elected. I think she has a good chance of doing that.”

The California Democrat has not indicated a timeline for making a decision, but she will likely have to make up her mind before lawmakers return to Washington for a lame-duck session. Though deeply unpopular with the broader public, Pelosi remains well-regarded in a caucus that will lean more liberal after the more conservative Blue Dog Coalition was decimated in the midterms.

Outside liberal groups are already organizing support for Pelosi before she makes a decision. Americans United for Change launched an e-mail campaign on Friday encouraging supporters to “send a personal note to Speaker Pelosi about how much you appreciate her leadership,” and to “make sure she knows that we still support her.”

The liberal website Daily Kos started a similar online petition.

“Democrats lost because they didn’t fight hard enough for popular progressive reforms in the last two years. The Democratic leader least culpable of doing that is Nancy Pelosi,” the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Adam Green, said in an interview. “She’s the last person among Democratic Party leaders who should step down.”

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), the co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, also voiced support for Pelosi.

“She could be anything she wants to be,” Woolsey told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I think she will evaluate and weigh what is best for the Democratic Party and what it is that she wants.”

But for as far as liberals have gotten out in front of Pelosi’s decision, centrists have been just as vocal about their opposition to the Speaker.

“I don’t think it’s likely that I would support her were she to run for minority leader,” Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) said Thursday evening on Fox News. “I don’t know who the other candidates are going to be, but if she is one of the candidates, I probably won’t vote that way.”

Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.), a conservative Democrat and another longtime critic of Pelosi, said he “cannot in good conscience” support her as minority leader, and would support a more conservative Democrat instead.

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), the co-chairman of the Blue Dog Democrats, have also said that Pelosi should step aside, joining the other incumbent Democrats and candidates who had said they would oppose Pelosi as Speaker if Democrats had retained their majority status, during the closing weeks of the campaign.