Democrats Vie for Post That Doesn’t Exist

Three prominent Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, are waging an intense battle for a top House leadership post that won’t even open up unless their party topples the chamber’s slim Republican majority in the 2000 elections.

The curious Democratic contest for House majority whip demonstrates anew the appeal of two primal questions in politics: What if? and Why not me?

Pelosi, a staunch liberal, is trying to become the first woman to hold one of the top three House posts and the first Californian to do so in a dozen years. Her opponents are Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), a veteran power broker who offers himself as a centrist, and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), an icon of the civil rights movement.

The job they seek, which entails counting noses and enforcing party discipline on important votes, ranks third in the House pecking order and is potentially one of the most powerful in Washington.

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), the current majority whip, has used his vote-counting network and fund-raising skill to amass enormous influence at a time when the GOP’s balance of power in the 435-seat House hinges on a mere five votes. Should the Democrats erase that margin next November--a distinct possibility but by no means a sure thing--DeLay would be out and the post would swing open.

Under the Democratic scenario, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri is expected to become House speaker and David E. Bonior of Michigan the majority leader. That would leave the race for majority whip as the key competitive contest.

In the secret ballot that would determine the winner, Pelosi backers are confident she could count on two blocs among Democratic lawmakers: members of the California delegation, eager for a West Coast voice in the leadership, and women, eager to make history.

Said Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), a Gephardt lieutenant who has endorsed Pelosi, “I just generally think women ought to be better represented.”

The whip’s race, percolating since 1998, burst into the open last summer as the three contenders sought to round up pledges of support, or at least prevent a stampede to an opposing camp.

Some leading Democrats welcomed the early skirmishing as a sign of how close their party is to taking back the House. But other party strategists feared that House Democrats would be seen as overconfident.

Sue Harvey, a spokeswoman for Gephardt, said, “All of the candidates understand that first and foremost we have to win back the House.”

Republicans dismiss the enemy maneuverings.

“It’s just silliness,” said Emily Miller, DeLay’s press secretary. “They’re obviously counting their chickens before they’re hatched.”

Pelosi, who has drawn some criticism for being first out of the gate, offered no apologies. “If you want to win, you start early,” she said.

Elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi, 59, is the daughter of a former mayor of Baltimore and a former California party chair. Because she has one of the safest Democratic seats in the country, Pelosi can deploy a deep fund-raising base to aid the party’s candidates in other districts.

In recent weeks, she helped raise $600,000 for the party at a dinner attended by President Clinton and $700,000 at another event that featured former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine). Such financial spadework means a great deal to Democratic candidates running against Republicans in swing districts. And those who win tend to remember who helped them.

Take Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), who emerged from obscurity in 1996 to oust GOP firebrand Robert K. Dornan from Congress. Sanchez said Pelosi offered, unbidden, to raise money for her at a critical early stage. “Nancy doesn’t wait to be asked,” said Sanchez, who has repaid the favor by endorsing Pelosi.

Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel), chairman of the state’s House delegation, said he expects Pelosi to sweep the votes of California Democrats, who hope to make her the first lawmaker from the nation’s most populous state to hold one of the top three House jobs since then-Majority Whip Tony Coelho left Congress in 1989. There are now 28 California Democrats in the House.

Pelosi also is working hard to gain the backing of most of the 29 Democratic women in the House from states other than California.

By themselves, those two groups won’t win the job for Pelosi. But as the top Democrat on foreign operations spending issues, Pelosi also has forged alliances with many lawmakers on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, including committee chairman David R. Obey of Wisconsin.

“If the election were held today, I would win,” Pelosi said.

Claiming Support

Not so fast, say her two opponents.

One of Hoyer’s backers, Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, claimed in an open letter to Democrats last month that Hoyer enjoys more support than either Pelosi or Lewis--”the first choice of over 70 members” in a three-way contest, Cardin wrote, with 10 to 20 more votes in hand on a second ballot.

Hoyer, who has held an array of senior positions in the House since his election in 1981, is positioning himself as a moderate who could help the party govern in the event it achieves only a modest majority. For instance, unlike Pelosi and Lewis, he voted for the landmark welfare reform law.

As one of the party’s top candidate recruiters, Hoyer, 60, also has close ties with many recently elected members. “I can work with all elements of our caucus from right to left and east, west, north and south,” he said.

Lewis, 59, declined to discuss his support in detail. A speaker at the 1963 March on Washington and leader of several civil rights demonstrations during that era, Lewis was first elected to the House in 1986 and is now a chief deputy whip for the Democrats. He hopes to become the first African American in the top echelons of the House since former Rep. William H. Gray III of Pennsylvania, then majority whip, left Congress in 1991.

“With me you get a two-for-one: you get a Southerner and an African American,” Lewis said.