She's going to get it back.
On Monday, Nancy Pelosi sat down with a group of new media reporters for a wide-ranging discussion, including
how the nation is better off than it was four years ago, and the
truth-challenged Romney/Ryan campaign. All that makes her optimistic about the Democrats' prospects for taking back the House.
[W]e have outraised, out-redistricted, out-recruited the Republicans. I take a little more credit than I should for the recruitment because many of these people self-recruited. They just saw what was happening to our country and said, "I'm not going to let this happen. And I want to be part of the solution." [...]
Some of the places where the polls are looking so good for us are not even on our original map of priorities, so Steve Israel is saying, "I can't even believe some of the polls that we're getting from places that are not even our priority races." And that bodes very well for our priority races. So we think we can get into the 30s. I want 35. I'm willing to say we'll win 35 to net more than 25. But we feel very good.
Now, having said that, they're all close. They're close. These races are close. In one poll that just came out—the Democracy Corps poll—had in the 27 marginal Republican district—in 27 of the difficult Republican districts, difficult for the Republicans—in 27 of those races, by name, the Democrat was around 6 points ahead of the Republicans. That's 27. [...] Twenty-seven. Six points ahead. So we see the makings of it.
Listen to the whole discussion on how Pelosi plans to get the House back.
Nancy Pelosi can envision the speaker's gavel back in her hands, and she sees the specific path for getting there, as you can see in the extended transcript that's below the fold. That's through taking back at 27 seats in districts held by Republicans, but where President Obama won in 2008. Then there are the pick-ups in seats where the unvetted freshman Republicans are "ethically challenged." It's picking up seats in the big states: California, New York, Illinois and Texas. And it's working hard in all the other states to back the strong candidates in states across the map.
That's what we want to do with the Speaker Pelosi Project: find the progressive candidates in the winnable districts that will help Pelosi win her gavel back, and make the House be a functioning body of government again. And make John Boehner cry.
Help prove Nancy Pelosi right in her optimism. Please give $3 to each of our House candidates on the Speaker Pelosi Project page.
(Continue reading below the fold.)
Q: How bullish are you feeling on retaking the House? Some of your folks seem to think [you can], and others don't, so what do you think?
PELOSI: Well, I think those who think it are the ones who know what's going on, and that is that we have outraised, out-redistricted, out-recruited the Republicans. I take a little more credit than I should for the recruitment because many of these people self-recruited. They just saw what was happening to our country and said, "I'm not going to let this happen. And I want to be part of the solution." Many young people being part of the solution, and that's a beautiful thing because it's about the future, and the future belongs to the young.
But the—we have to have 25. You want to know how we're going to get them? Or is that more than you want to know? Because I don't know how interested in politics you all are. I wish that our chairman were here, Steve Israel. He does a magnificent job with this. I can tell you two ways, globally and then discreet. There are 63 seats which were held by Republicans that were won by President Obama. Of those 63 seats, 18 were also won by John Kerry. There are those who say, who count that as a team—we don't. We say, give them 6, we'll take 12 of the seats that were carried by Barack Obama and John Kerry in a presidential year. Of the 45 remaining, give them 30, give them two-thirds. I think that's generous, but this is the worst-case scenario. Give them 30, we'll take 15. Fifteen plus 12, 27.
Then there are districts where [garbled] and these people are ethically challenged and we believe we have an excellent chance to win those seats. People who really weren't vetted by the Republicans but who they're sticking by, but weren't vetted last term. We have to protect our own. We believe that any of the Democrats who could survive the year from hell for Democrats have a very good chance of winning again, especially with President Obama on the ticket. But we could lose a few. We have to be prepared for that.
But in all of that—now taking what I've said to you to the map. In four states, California—starting with California—New York, Illinois—the president won't be there because he's going to win those states. And Texas, where he's not going to be, because he's not going to win that state. So you have four big states that will account for us about half of what we need to win. Four big states, we're totally on our own, where we expect to win two or more seats. At least four in California—in California they tell me six or seven, in Illinois they say six, but say four, three, like that. New York, Texas. Texas we just won the redistricting fight, so depending on how that—what the next step is there, that could be two or three in Texas. Anyway, we figure around 12, around half of what we need.
Then you go to the onesy, twosy states. And that's Maryland, Washington state, Arizona, Iowa—oh, no don't count Iowa, because that's where the president is. All these other states where the president isn't are states where we're on our own, but we'll win. And in those states that takes us, like, to the high teens. That takes us to the high teens. Now we go where the president is. Florida. I don't know if you saw Kathy Castor here earlier. We can win a good—just depending on how things go at the top, we can win three or more seats there. Florida. Ohio. I'm not sure whether the president's in Pennsylvania or not, so I'll just put that aside for the moment. Iowa, I mentioned. Nevada. We'll win two seats in Nevada. So that takes us to the high—I didn't name all the states, but that takes us to the—New Hampshire—takes us to the high 20s.
Some of the places where the polls are looking so good for us are not even on our original map of priorities, so Steve Israel is saying, "I can't even believe some of the polls that we're getting from places that are not even our priority races." And that bodes very well for our priority races. So we think we can get into the 30s. I want 35. I'm willing to say we'll win 35 to net more than 25. But we feel very good.
Now, having said that, they're all close. They're close. These races are close. In one poll that just came out—the Democracy Corps poll—had in the 27 marginal Republican district—in 27 of the difficult Republican districts, difficult for the Republicans—in 27 of those races, by name, the Democrat was around 6 points ahead of the Republicans. That's 27. That was stunning to people because we don't do well in the Democracy poll, it's traditionally been a tough poll for Democrats because they want to know, I think, the worst-case scenario. So it's not been, like, oh, easy, straight. No, it's tough. Twenty-seven. Six points ahead. So we see the makings of it. The races are all close. You know, we lost the House by 250,000 votes last time. You would have thought it was 25 million or something, right? Two hundred fifty thousand. Eight hundred here, 200 here, 189 here. You know, those kinds of things. And then a few thousand in some of the districts. So these are close, and with the presidential—with President Obama on the ballot, that pulls out our base in a stronger way. So we feel pretty good about it.