Discontent Among Democrats Over Pelosi Leadership

In Atlanta, ads from Congressional Leadership Fund that tied Democrat Jon Ossoff to Pelosi blanketed the airwaves.

The response from some: It better be.

Democratic candidate for 6th congressional district Jon Ossoff concedes to Republican Karen Handel at his election night party in Atlanta, Tuesday, June 20, 2017.

The apparent effectiveness of such attacks alarmed some fellow Democrats, and they show no signs of letting up.

Ryan unsuccessfully challenged Pelosi for minority leader and now says that his party is in trouble in 2018 if Republicans were able to convince independents and Republicans that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for Pelosi’s agenda. “The House remains in play now”.

“I’d like to keep her right where she is, because our record is extraordinary against her”, Trump said in a Fox News interview.

On Thursday, Trump jumped into the political fray, taking a swipe at Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a tweet.

My guess is that Handel’s success owed a great deal to the assertiveness with which Republicans painted Ossoff as a liberal puppet, ready to have Nancy Pelosi pull his strings.

“Republicans have done the targeting of whoever is the Democratic leader from the days of Tip O’Neill, and since the speakership of Newt Gingrich, the politics of personal destruction has been a Republican hallmark”, he said. The Democrats’ special-election losses this week showed that what they have in free-floating anti-Trump money and angst they lack in strategy, message and candidates.

Pelosi insisted that the current leadership structure already gives opportunities to younger members, telling reporters, “I have always featured the young 30-somethings. and they are so impressive”.

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., told AP that “I think it’s time for a new generation of leadership in the party”. “We will take the many lessons learned from Georgia’s 6th District and apply them to the battlefield, which consists of many districts that are fundamentally far more competitive”.

“I don’t know that it’s possible at this point to change our party leadership”, Moulton said.

The Democrats’ long losing streak continued this week in a Southern suburban district that Donald Trump barely won last fall.

They ached for this seat. “To come within a hair’s breath of winning that seat is nothing short of extraordinary”, said House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairwoman Linda Sánchez, D-Calif. Fault lines and fissures exist between the ascendant progressive wing at the grass roots and those Democrats who remain more business-friendly. Tim Ryan of Ohio, Seth Moulton of MA and Filemon Vela of Texas. Republican Karen Handel defeated Ossoff by almost four percentage points, more than twice Trump’s November margin. Then consider that Democrats treated the race as an afterthought; the Democrats’ House campaign arm invested just $275,000 to support Parnell vs. $5 million to help Ossoff – and that the SC legislature strategically redrew the 5th District in 2010 to ensure a conservative electorate. She preferred to run a campaign by demonizing Trump and, as a result, drowned out her economic platform.

Her approval ratings are low, and while House Speaker Paul Ryan’s are similarly weak, the idea of ousting Ryan doesn’t animate Democratic voters the way defeating Pelosi proved to motivate conservatives in the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections, as well as the special election in Georgia.

Voting for unopposed candidates “just seems like an extra step in the process that we could eliminate”, said the sponsor of the Arkansas law, Rep. Charlotte Douglas, who hasn’t faced any opposition the past two elections.

“What was the Democratic message?” he asked. But if Trump isn’t enough to push Democrats into victory, what is?