Pat Dollard

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(Reuters) – Democrats in the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to retain Speaker Nancy Pelosi as their leader when Republicans take control of the chamber in January.

Rejecting complaints that Pelosi was to blame for Democrats losing the House in the November 2 elections, they chose Pelosi as their incoming minority leader. Pelosi has served as House Speaker, the chamber’s presiding officer, since 2007. She is the first woman to hold the job. In the race for minority leader Pelosi won 150-43, defeating her only challenger, moderate Heath Shuler.

Politico:

Democrats elected Nancy Pelosi as their minority leader on Wednesday, but only after a brutal two days of arguing behind closed doors and a 150-43 vote that revealed a bloc of disgruntled Democrats to be firmly in the anti-Pelosi camp.

Pelosi’s win as Democratic leader was expected, but the bumpy ride was perhaps the greatest challenge to her authority since she claimed the speaker’s gavel four years ago. Pelosi defeated conservative Democrat Heath Shuler of North Carolina, who ran for minority leader saying “We need to include others in leadership.” (See: Heath Shuler, Nancy Pelosi relationship: It’s complicated)

Pelosi’s victory all but assures that the Democratic leadership team will remain intact despite a historic loss of at least 61 seats in the Nov. 2 election. Several moderate lawmakers in the anti-Pelosi camp used two days of private meetings to vent their frustrations, and in some cases blame Pelosi for the heavy Democratic losses. (See: Democrats in chaos over Nancy Pelosi’s power)

“She is the face that defeated us in this last election,” said Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.), who lost re-election on Nov. 2. “The truth is Nancy Pelosi’s season has passed, and she’s the face of the defeat two weeks ago at the polls.”

The minority leader vote came after an attempt to delay leadership elections was put down on a 129-68 vote, a vote that was seen as a proxy on Pelosi’s leadership. Several Democrats – including some liberals – had pushed to delay leadership elections until Dec. 8.

“When you have taken the largest losses of any majority in a life time, then I think a little time for reflection to better understand the reason for those losses,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who pushed for the delay. “Losing across categories where we do not historically lose votes, women, seniors and others, independents, I think we need to better understand that.”

The discontent over Pelosi and the timing of the leadership elections spilled from many corners during the closed Democratic Caucus meeting.

“I cannot support you in your race for minority leader. Maybe Dec. 8, but not today,” Wu said, according to participants in the room.

Lawmakers on both sides spoke about the effort to postpone the elections, with Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), Jan Schakowsky (Illinois) and Frank Pallone (N.J.) among those who argued to have the leadership elections today.

Schakowsky told colleagues that if they voted to postpone until Dec. 8, the headlines in the next day’s papers would be “Democrats in disarray.”

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Calif.) warned Democrats not to let sexists win by damaging Pelosi and that President Barack Obama, not the congressional leadership, will be the face of the party in 2012.

Both Pelosi and Shuler were nominated for the Democratic leader post by different allies in the caucus. Moderates Jim Matheson of Utah and Larry Kissell of North Carolina nominated Shuler. Reps. Mike Doyle (Pa.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Gwen Moore (Wis.) And Jared Polis (Colo.) stood to nominate Pelosi, lending her camp geographic, ideological, racial, and ethnic diversity.

The Hill:

Despite the party’s drubbing in the midterm elections, Speaker Nancy Pelosi will remain the Democratic leader in the next Congress.

Members of the caucus voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to make Pelosi minority leader, brushing aside a challenge by Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.), a Blue Dog Democrat who says Pelosi’s controversial public image and low approval ratings are a liability to Democrats looking ahead to 2012.

The tally was 150-43.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, Pelosi was nominated by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), while Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), another Blue Dog leader, officially made Shuler a contender.

During his nominating speech, Doyle trumpeted Pelosi’s fundraising prowess, noting she used most of the money to support other members even as conservative groups were spending millions of dollars attacking her.

“She wouldn’t spend it for herself because she was spending it for us,” Doyle said, according to an aide in the room. “How can we fold on her when she’s not folding on us?”

Earlier in the day, House Democrats rejected a proposal to delay caucus leadership elections until December. Behind Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), some Democrats lobbied to push the vote to Dec. 8, arguing that members needed more time to digest the reasons behind their trouncing in the midterm elections.

“Considering these disturbing exit polls, we believe we should not rush to elect a leadership slate next week, but rather spend more time to understand these historic losses,” DeFazio and Kaptur wrote to colleagues last week.

“Before we chart a new path forward, we need to understand where we erred to avoid repeating past mistakes.”

The vote to delay the election — among the first items under debate Wednesday as the full caucus huddled in the Cannon office building — was defeated 129-68, according to Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.).

That led to the first leadership election of the day, in which Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) won re-election as House Democratic caucus chairman in a vote by acclamation.

Voting will continue throughout the afternoon.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) predicted well before the vote that Pelosi would win the minority leader spot by a “substantial” margin.

“It’ll be Pelosi,” Cummings said. “I expect you’ll have a headline that says Pelosi elected Speaker — I mean, leader.”

Pelosi supporters were wondering why the two-term Shuler — who voted against many of the Democrats’ top legislative priorities, including healthcare reform — was qualified for the position.

“The accomplishments of the last two years have been achieved without Heath’s vote,” Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) told reporters. “And now he wants to be leader?”

Pelosi’s contest against Shuler marked the second of five contests. It is to be followed by votes on Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) — who’s running uncontested for minority whip — Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) — for whom Pelosi carved out a new “assistant leader” post last week — and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), who’s vying to keep his spot beneath Larson as vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

If there are no surprises, it means the Democrats will keep the same five leaders in the next Congress — in the same order of seniority.

Some senior Democrats say that all the hype — not to mention controversy — over the leadership races is irrelevant outside the Washington Beltway, where voters care more about policy than intra-party popularity contests.

“Who the minority leader is or isn’t — or who the whip is or isn’t — is very much a Washington-insider issue,” Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Finance Committee, said. “The general public cares about public policy, not personality.”

Asked if Pelosi’s abysmal approval ratings among independents pose a problem for the party looking ahead to 2012, Frank said they don’t “because she’s not running for president.”

“You people are focused on this, the voters aren’t,” he said, referring to the media. “The general public is much more focused on substance.”

Frank asserted that Pelosi had “virtually nothing” to do with the poor election outcome for Democrats.

“Going forward,” he said, “we will be judged on what the public policies are.”