Two defeated first-termers said Nancy Pelosi moved the party too far to the left. Dem losers still blaming Pelosi

As victims of the House Democratic election massacre speak out about what caused their ouster last November, they are pointing their fingers squarely at a Washington duo: Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.

Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) moved their party’s agenda too far left during the past Congress. And then they failed to help rescue the party’s mostly supportive lawmakers, two defeated first-termers who have joined Washington-based think tanks said Tuesday.


“Moderates and independents who leaned toward Obama didn’t come out because they saw a continuing polarization. Health reform was only supported by Democrats. So, the message from Washington was that Obama was getting his way,” said former Rep. Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.), who has become a senior fellow with Third Way, the centrist Democratic group.

Party leaders and liberal allies told him that he was too pessimistic last fall when he warned them that he was in danger of losing. Obama and Pelosi “couldn’t bring themselves to believe that it would be this bad,” said Maffei, who unsuccessfully sought a late campaign stop by Obama. “Low turnout was why I lost. My opponent [Republican Ann Marie Buerkle] was seen as fringe and votes didn’t think she could win.” He lost by about 650 votes.

Former Rep. Glenn Nye (D-Va.) blamed Pelosi’s liberal agenda for his more decisive 10-point loss. “A winning political strategy is to take issues that are popular with the center. Democratic leadership brought too many votes that weren’t going to be enacted. It was a ‘choose and lose’ approach,” said Nye, now a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund.

Like Maffei, Nye rejected the conclusions of Pelosi and her allies that the weak economy caused most Democratic losses. He said that he would have benefited from less sweeping health reforms, for example. Instead, “message voters” hurt him with competing sets of voters. “Independents saw votes that hurt us. Liberals were unhappy that we didn’t make enough change. It was lose-lose,” Nye said.

The former lawmakers commented in interviews following a downtown breakfast organized by Third Way. Also present was former Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who lost a primary for governor last year and has joined a downtown law firm.