Pelosi Key to GOP 2010 Playbook

WASHINGTON — Republicans are stepping up attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, deciding that a major part of their 2010 electoral strategy will be linking Democratic candidates to her.

The GOP’s targeting of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2006 and 2008 didn’t work. WSJ’s Naftali Bendavid says conservatives are hoping third time’s a charm in 2010.

The approach emerged last week when the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, issued a statement saying it hopes Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, puts Ms. Pelosi “in her place” on Afghan policy. The statement accused Ms. Pelosi, a California Democrat, of putting party politics ahead of national security in her cautious statements on expanding the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

Ms. Pelosi Thursday called the statement sexist. “It’s really sad. They really don’t understand how inappropriate that is,” she told reporters. “I’m in my place. I’m speaker of the House, the first woman speaker of the House. And I’m in my place because the House of Representatives voted me there. That language is something I haven’t even heard in decades.”

In response, Joanna Burgos, an NRCC spokeswoman, said in a statement that Ms. Pelosi “self-righteously believes she is better suited to craft our country’s military policy” than is Gen. McChrystal.

Republicans tried to stanch their party’s bloodletting in 2006 by linking Democratic candidates to the San Francisco lawmaker, who appeared on track to become speaker if the Democrats retook the House. Last year, Ms. Pelosi was already speaker, but her party didn’t also control the presidency. Now, with Democrats holding huge congressional majorities and with Barack Obama in the White House, Democrats are more easily tied to just about anything coming out of Washington. Thus Republicans are betting that voters now associate the House speaker with policies that make them uncomfortable, like generous government spending and a cap-and-trade system for fighting global warming.

In a recent Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll, 44% of respondents had negative feelings about Ms. Pelosi and 27% had positive ones, with the remaining 29% either neutral or not sure. Among independents, 53% viewed her negatively and just 20% positively.

The NRCC aired about a dozen television and radio ads during Congress’s August break linking Democrats in conservative or centrist districts to Ms. Pelosi, often noting how often the lawmaker voted with her. The NRCC plans a similar run of ads over the Thanksgiving break.

In between, the Republicans are issuing a stream of statements mocking the speaker as “General Pelosi” or as an unethical puppet-master. The NRCC is now running an anti-Pelosi television spot in an upstate New York district where a campaign is under way for a special House election on Nov. 3. It features an animated gift box, complete with a yellow bow, dancing around the screen while a narrator describes Democrat Bill Owens as Ms. Pelosi’s “gift” to central New York. The NRCC also has a radio ad in that district telling voters, “What this campaign is really about is keeping Nancy Pelosi in charge in Washington.”

Mr. Owens declined to address the Pelosi connection directly. “My first obligation, priority, is to act in the best interests of my district and the people who live here,” he said in an interview.

The Republican strategy is aimed at retaking centrist districts where Democrats have sometimes won election by persuading voters that they aren’t beholden to liberals such as Ms. Pelosi.

“These campaigns have become national,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), who heads the recruiting of Republican House candidates. “Some people say, ‘I personally like my current Congress member, but I don’t like the way Congress is going.’ Then they find out someone voted with Nancy Pelosi 97% of the time.”

Democrats say the tactics simply show the Republicans are lacking in constructive ideas. “It’s been a proven failure,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which coordinates the Democratic House campaigns. “I’d sum it up by saying, ‘Been there, done that, didn’t work.’ ”

One typical radio ad targeted Rep. Zack Space, a conservative “Blue Dog” Democrat from Ohio’s sprawling 18th district, which covers much of the southeastern part of the sate. “He’s not voting like a blue dog, he’s voting like a lap dog,” the narrator says, as barking is heard in the background. “A lap dog for Nancy Pelosi and President Obama. Space has been voting with liberal Pelosi 96% of the time.” Mr. Space’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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