GOP PLANS TO TIE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES TO NANCY PELOSI

…The San Francisco liberal Democrat and Minority House Leader, Nancy Pelosi

 

With the current administration’s lack of doing the people’s business, that may not be so bad for the Democrats in 2018.

 

I find it both interesting and a bit disgusting that the GOP super PAC’s are doubling down on their tactics for electing Republicans in 2018.  That being the tying of all Democratic candidates to House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi.

 

Today, they are trying to tie the losses of the Democratic candidates in the latest special election is South Carolina and Georgia to that strategy.  However, they neglect to state that these were districts that have traditionally been solid Red districts and they had previous been won by 20+ points.  They also neglect to say that in these special elections, they were only won by single digits in both districts.  It’s pretty interesting that in the district in Georgia that had previously been held by Newt Gingrich and then Tom Price, was only a winner for the Republicans by 9 points.  And it was referred to as the most expensive representative election….ever, and that was because of the amount of money spent by both parties.

 

But the Republican’s Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), which has ties to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI), plans to spend $100 million before next year’s midterm elections.  The CLF Executive Director, Corry Bliss said in a recent memo that he sees no reason to abandon a strategy that has paid large electoral dividends for the last six years

 

“During the 2018 cycle, CLF will spend millions of dollars highlighting Nancy Pelosi’s liberal agenda and reminding voters across the country that Democratic candidates are nothing more than rubber stamps for her out-of-touch, liberal policies,” Bliss said in the memo.  “While results pointed to different sets of key issues from one district to the next, we did find a common denominator: Nancy Pelosi,” Bliss wrote.

 

It is true that in the 11 districts that the Democrats have identified as 2018 targets, Pelosi’s favorability is at least 10 points underwater. In one district, Nebraska’s 2nd, where Democrat Brad Ashford is seeking to reclaim the seat he lost last year to Republican Don Bacon, 60% of those polled had an unfavorable impression of Pelosi.

 

The Bliss memo came as the House Democrats reconvene in Washington after a week of finger-pointing about the Georgia loss, and after a new round of unrest among a small cadre of younger Democrats eager to see Pelosi step aside.

 

The CLF’s open commitment to pursuing an anti-Pelosi message in key battleground districts could help fuel the sniping even after Pelosi moved sharply to shut down her internal critics.

 

“Every attack provokes a massive reaction that is very encouraging to me from my members, from our supporters outside and across the country,” she told reporters, touting her fundraising and organizational prowess and accusing her critics of acting out of “personal ambition.”

 

Pelosi also made the point, rooted in national polling, that she is not any more unpopular than Speaker Ryan is: “His numbers are no better than mine. The difference is, we don’t engage in the politics of personal destruction.”

 

The pertinent issue, however, is that Republicans believe Pelosi is especially unpopular in the districts Democrats need to win in order to take back the majority.

 

“Voters associate Pelosi with higher taxes, bigger government, the failures of Obamacare and the dangerous Iran deal,” Bliss said in the memo. “The recent special elections continue to show that when voters learn about a candidate’s ties to Nancy Pelosi and her agenda — they reject it.”

 

Pelosi is a California Democrat that is a radioactive figure in many districts across the country, especially where Republicans have made her unpopular for picking up those seats in the special elections. But she's also a master at energizing the Democratic base, and her liberal resolve.  Some Democrats say, she will draw much sharper distinctions between the two parties than that of more conservative members who might otherwise assume the leadership spot.

"The lesson of the elections is not to back down from a fight," Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) said in a statement. "The lesson learned is we need to fight harder for real, fundamental change for the middle class. And no one fights harder than Nancy Pelosi."

Put another way: "She's in a better position to throw the bombs back at Republicans," a former House Democratic aide had stated.

Before the surprise announcement that Pelosi will run again for minority leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the current No. 2 House leader, was widely seen as the heir-apparent to head the party. The Maryland Democrat is known, in the words of one Democratic strategist, as "a dealmaker, a tactician", someone who "makes the trains run on time."

But making deals with the newly empowered Republicans isn't high on the priority list of liberal Democrats.  They find themselves with a much louder voice following the decimation of the conservative-leaning Blue Dogs, who tended to gravitate toward Steny Hoyer.

Pelosi, a master vote-counter, and her liberal allies spent the week taking the temperature of the Democratic caucus on questions of leadership.  Her decision to throw her name into the ring is indication enough that the responses for her were favorable.

It's also a signal that many Democrats consider the election's midterm drubbing to be unrelated either to the controversial former Speaker or the major legislative victories she won in recent years, including passage of healthcare and Wall Street reform.

Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA), for instance, said Friday that it was the sagging economy, and not Pelosi, that torpedoed Democrats in 2010.

“I don’t think she was a drag on our party," Honda said in a phone interview. "She just said we should do the right thing for the country.

Asked about the Blue Dogs who feel Pelosi was partly to blame, Honda the asked: “How many Blue Dogs are left?”

Hoyer, for his part, announced Friday that he's weighing a run for minority whip, which would set up a tough contest with Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), who wants to keep his current whip role in the next Congress. The decision is the result of "an outpouring of support from Democratic colleagues who have told me that I should remain in our party’s leadership," Hoyer said in a statement.

Hoyer's office said Friday that a final decision on running will come "relatively soon."

In eying the whip position, Hoyer made good on earlier vows not to challenge Pelosi should she want to keep her spot atop the party.

Still, the perils of retaining Pelosi as face of the Democrats are glaring. Republicans this year were wildly successful at branding her a big-government, high-spending San Francisco liberal symbolic of the party on the whole. That strategy seemed to work on the campaign trail, leaving Republicans cheering Friday's announcement that she wants to remain.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result," said National Republican Congressional Committee communications director Ken Spain.

A number of Blue Dogs were also quick to respond to Pelosi's run, aligning themselves squarely against her. Rep. Mike Ross (D-AK), for instance, said he won't support Pelosi "for House Democratic Leader or any other leadership position."

Another right-leaning Democrat, Rep. Heath Shuler (NC), has threatened to challenge Pelosi if she didn't resign from her leadership role in the next Congress.

"The lesson to be learned is that too much caution … gets us into trouble," Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) told MSNBC. "It's not a question of ideological purity as much as the party — my party, the Democrats — need to stand for things."

In the end, the Democrats are gambling to leave Pelosi at the head of the party next year, if that's indeed what happens. Still, some say it's a risk worth taking if the party hopes to rebound from the special elections.

"You can demonize her easier than Hoyer," said the former House aide. "But she's also in the better position to bring the Democrats back from the abyss."

 

But first, the Democrats need to have a clear and concise message for why they should be running the country.  With the current administration’s bizarre way of doing business and the lack of being able to get the people’s business done, plus owning the latest health care debacle, it may not be such a bad situation for the Democrats in 2018.

 

Copyright G,Ater  2017