House Democrats who are more moderate in their views and in tossup congressional seats are running away from pro-abortion Speaker Nancy Pelosi as her liberal, pro-abortion agenda threatens to sink their re-election campaigns.
More than a dozen have said publicly they will not support another Pelosi bid to run the House should Democrats somehow manage to keep it.
Whether they would stick by their pledge should Democrats keep control is another story, but their public spurning of the abortion advocate who shepherded the abortion-funding ObamaCare bill through the House is telling.
Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania on Tuesday became the latest to come to the conclusion that it makes sense politically for him to not align himself with Pelosi publicly.
Altmire told Roll Call that the next Congress would “certainly necessitate new leadership in the Speaker’s position” because she is too partisan for Democrats if they manage to hold the House, but with a slimmer majority.
“I hope that she is not a candidate for Speaker,” he said. “I don’t think the issues that she’s pursued are good for the district I represent.”
Altmire has gone as far as running commercials saying he “not afraid to stand up” to Pelosi and pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
In response, Pelosi’s spokesman Nadeam Elshami largely ignored the comments, saying, “The Speaker’s focus is on Democrats winning the election and retaining the majority, which we will.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, second in command of the House Democrats after Pelosi, also told Roll Call he thinks “she’ll have enough votes” to retain her position as Speaker.
But House Democratic member Jim Marshall of Georgia has also run ads against the speaker and Democrats Gene Taylor of Mississippi, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, and Bobby Bright of Alabama have all publicly said they do not support Pelosi.
“We need to have leadership from the middle, conservative centrist leadership. It’s too hard to govern from the middle if you’re from the far left or the far right,” Marshall spokesman Doug Moore told The Daily Caller.
The publication contacted the offices of 50 so-called moderate Democrats, known as Blue Dogs, and received only one response supporting Pelosi, from Mike Thompson of California.
The Daily Caller indicates Walt Minnick of Idaho, Michael McMahon of New York, Scott Murphy of New York, Travis Childers of Mississippi, Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Zack Space of Ohio, and Chet Edwards of Texas are others who have shunned Pelosi in public comments.
The question of whether Pelosi will retain her position as Speaker may be moot if Republicans manage to win enough seats to regain control of the House.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen, who runs one of the most respected polling firms in the nation that is closely tracking the November elections, predicts Republicans will pick up 55 seats in races for the House of Representatives. That’s well over the 39 needed to recapture the chamber.
Last week, Ipsos pollster Cliff Young projected a 227-208 split for the GOP.
Should GOP candidates pick up that amount, the November election will have resulted in a landslide victory for pro-life advocates.
If Republicans are elected as the majority in the House for the first time since 2006, GOP lawmakers will likely replace Pelosi with pro-life Rep. John Boehner, an Ohio congressman who is the current Minority Leader.
