News

Panel fight reaches up to leaders

by Alexander Bolton - 11/17/08 7:57 PM ET

The top two Democratic leaders in the House are expected to vote for different lawmakers to lead the Energy and Commerce Committee in the next Congress.

Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) have taken neutral public stances in the high-profile contest between Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and his challenger, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).

{mosads}But lawmakers, aides and lobbyists following the race believe that Pelosi will vote for Waxman and Hoyer will back Dingell when the vote takes place later this week.

“I just know Steny and he’s not the type of person to push a person out of his chairmanship when he has performed as John has. I just know his values,” said Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), who is supporting Dingell.

Kildee cited Dingell’s record of accomplishment as chairman in the 110th Congress. He noted that Dingell played a leading role in crafting legislation to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and helped stop a 10 percent pay cut for physicians who serve Medicare patients.

Many Dingell supporters are convinced that Pelosi will ultimately support Waxman.

That perception is strengthened by the role Education and Labor panel Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) has played on behalf of Waxman. Miller, one of Pelosi’s closest advisers, has called lawmakers to urge their support for Waxman, although Pelosi aides stress he hasn’t used the Speaker’s name in those conversations.

Others on Capitol Hill say that mentioning the Speaker’s name is unnecessary because Democratic lawmakers know how strong the Miller-Pelosi relationship is.

“It’s hard to imagine that as a Californian she’s not going to support Waxman,” said a Democratic lobbyist close to Dingell.

Another Democratic lawmaker backing Dingell said: “I think Henry’s candidacy is based on the perception that Nancy wants him to be the chairman.”

A Democratic aide allied with Waxman said many House aides take the view that Pelosi will likely vote for Waxman and that Hoyer will side with Dingell on Thursday, when the caucus is expected to vote on the issue.

Waxman has not released nearly as many of his supporters’ names as has Dingell. Several lawmakers who are known to back Waxman declined requests for comment.

{mospagebreak}“Henry is running a completely inside race,” said a senior aide to a Democrat backing Waxman, pointing out that Waxman has largely shunned press coverage while Dingell has courted it.

The chairmanship race dredges up some Democrats’ memories of the rivalry between Hoyer and Pelosi, a nuisance for the House leaders at a time when they are seeking a unified front heading into President-elect Barack Obama’s first term.

An aide to Pelosi stressed that she has taken a neutral stance and declined to speculate as to whom she might vote for Thursday.

A Hoyer spokeswoman declined to comment.

Some Democrats believe Dingell’s relationship with Pelosi began to fray when he gave a nominating speech supporting Hoyer when Hoyer ran against Pelosi for Democratic whip in 2001. Pelosi’s victory in the race put her on track to become minority leader and, later, Speaker.

Pelosi later endorsed then-Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Mich.) over Dingell in the 2002 Michigan Democratic primary.
Dingell split with Pelosi in a leadership race again in 2006, when he supported Hoyer in his race for majority leader against Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). Pelosi came out strongly in support of Murtha. Waxman, meanwhile, backed Hoyer.

Soon after the 2006 elections, Pelosi created a new global warming committee that tackled issues on Dingell’s turf. At the time, Dingell called the committee as useful as “feathers on a fish.”

Hoyer is viewed as a natural ally of Dingell because he is more centrist than other Democratic leaders, just as Dingell is considered more conservative than other committee chairmen.

“In terms of the whole philosophical approach, it seems to me that Dingell would be more in line with the way Hoyer thinks,” said one lawmakers supporting Dingell.

Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.), co-chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition, said he supports Dingell because he doesn’t want “to see the government take a huge lurch to the left.”

“You need to govern from the 50-yard line and Dingell best represents that for me,” said Boyd, employing a metaphor for the center of the political spectrum.

But Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), another Dingell supporter, emphasized that lawmakers representing a range of ideologies and interests back the sitting chairman.

“We have support across every piece of the caucus,” said Doyle. “There are a lot of people like me who are plain Democrats; we have members of the Progressive Caucus and members of the Black and Hispanic caucuses.”

Dingell has touted his environmental record to court liberal-leaning Democrats.

At press time, Dingell had 32 members publicly backing him, while Waxman had released the names of six members.

House chairmen who back Dingell include Reps. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), Collin Peterson (Minn.) and Charles Rangel (N.Y.).

Dingell has pledged to work with the Obama administration to quickly move healthcare reform as well as legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Dingell’s committee last month released a 461-page draft of a proposal to reduce emissions by as much as 80 percent by 2050.

Mike Soraghan contributed to this article.

Public supporters of Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.)

Jason Altmire (Pa.)
Robert Andrews (N.J.)
John Barrow (Ga.)
Rick Boucher (Va.)
Allen Boyd (Fla.)
John Conyers Jr. (Mich.)
Artur Davis (Ala.)
Diana DeGette (Colo.)
Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.)
Charles Gonzalez (Texas)
Bart Gordon (Tenn.)
Gene Green (Texas)
Baron Hill (Ind.)
Jesse Jackson Jr. (Ill.)
Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas)
John Lewis (Ga.)
Jim Matheson (Utah)
Kendrick Meek (Fla.)
Charlie Melancon (La.)
Dennis Moore (Kan.)
Gary Peters (Mich.) (Rep.-elect)
Collin Peterson (Minn.)
Earl Pomeroy (N.D.)
Charles Rangel (N.Y.)
Mike Ross (Ark.)
Bobby Rush (Ill.)
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.)
Mark Schauer (Mich.) (Rep.-elect)
Heath Shuler (N.C.)
John Tanner (Tenn.)
Ellen Tauscher (Calif.)
Edolphus Towns (N.Y.)