Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who helped spearhead a letter last week in which 16 Democrats said it was time for Pelosi to stand aside, said that his effort was “bigger than her,” as Democratic aides aligned with him said that some of the defectors were searching for a deal that would ultimately allow them to vote for her.

“Leader Pelosi wants to boil this down to a personal argument, but this is so much bigger than her,” Moulton said in a statement. “It’s about the entire, stagnant, three-person leadership team and having a serious conversation about promoting leaders who reflect the future of our caucus.”

His change in tone reflected the success of Pelosi’s efforts to grind down her opponents through a mix of deft deal-making and quiet campaigning, which has already prompted public reversals from two Democrats and led a third to suggest he might ultimately vote for her.

It was also a stark acknowledgment, two days before Democrats meet behind closed doors to choose their leaders, that nobody in their ranks has been willing to directly challenge Pelosi, a 78-year-old Californian who has led her party for 15 years.

The same is true for the other Democrats who are seeking to keep the No. 2 and No. 3 positions they have held for more than a decade, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, 79, of Maryland, and Rep. James E. Clyburn, 78, of South Carolina.

Moulton’s call for negotiation with Pelosi left open the possibility that he and like-minded Democrats who have pushed for new leadership might be willing to back her in exchange for the promise of a fresh face in a lower-ranking leadership position, or a commitment from Pelosi to step aside in the next year or two to make way for a younger generation. She has called herself a “transitional figure,” a comment some have interpreted as a sign that she does not intend to stay in Congress beyond 2020, although she recently explained that she viewed all leaders as transitional.

And such a compromise does not appear to be in the offing, at least not yet. Matt Corridoni, a spokesman for Moulton, said that Pelosi had not reached out to Moulton to discuss the coming leadership elections, and a senior Democratic aide said he had yet to request such a discussion.

The apparent weakening of resolve among Pelosi’s foes came as a separate coalition of nine House Democrats, dismayed by partisan gridlock, threatened to withhold support for Pelosi unless she backed an overhaul of the rules.

The demands of those Democrats, members of a bipartisan coalition calling itself the Problem Solvers Caucus, put another wrinkle in Pelosi’s effort to win the speakership, a painstaking campaign she has undertaken in the wake of Democrats’ midterm election victories that has involved trying to put down a mini-rebellion among her longtime foes and newcomers demanding change. The preliminary test will be when Democrats meet on Wednesday to cast secret ballots for their leaders.

But the ultimate verdict will not come until January, when the new Congress must elect a speaker on the House floor.

The threat of a leadership fight has given rank-and-file Democrats a tantalizing opportunity to air their grievances and make demands in the hopes of winning concessions from Pelosi, who has said she is certain she will have enough votes to reclaim the speaker’s gavel.

“For us, our rules proposal isn’t about changing leadership; it’s about changing a system that stymies the will of the common-sense majority,” the group said in a statement Monday, adding that its proposals would “help spur immediate action on health care, immigration and infrastructure.”

The group is essentially asking Pelosi and the incoming Democratic leadership to fundamentally alter the procedures of the House, where the majority rules absolutely and its leaders have ultimate say on what legislative proposals are considered. It instead supports allowing bipartisan measures to have a chance of being debated and voted upon.

Among the group’s proposals is mandating that any bill receiving 290 co-sponsors would go to the House floor for debate and a timely vote, an idea that a senior Democratic aide said Pelosi had already agreed to include in proposed rules she will present Wednesday. Another would guarantee that any amendment that has at least 20 Democratic and 20 Republican co-sponsors would get a debate and a vote. The third request, aimed at empowering rank-and-file lawmakers, is that each member be allowed to introduce one bill, co-sponsored by a member of the other party, to be debated and considered on a committee on which he or she serves.

The effort has infuriated newly empowered liberals, who have accused the Problem Solvers Caucus of being “corporatist” Democrats beholden to the same political donors that Republicans rely on. They question why Democrats are always the ones to cede power when they attain it.

The nine Democrats are in addition to the group that signed the letter last week vowing not to support Pelosi, a coalition initially numbering 17 that has shrunk since its leaders first sought to form it. There are also at least four newly elected Democrats who did not sign the letter, but have said they will keep their campaign pledge not to back Pelosi. Another new member who said during his campaign that he would not back Pelosi, Representative-elect Gil Cisneros of California, added his name to the letter Monday.

While she needs only a simple majority to be nominated for speaker this week by the Democratic caucus, Pelosi must win a majority to be formally elected on the House floor Jan. 3, meaning she could afford to lose only 15 Democrats if all lawmakers were present and voting and no Republicans supported her.

Pelosi has been working to dispatch the obstacles in her path, holding a series of conversations in person and over the phone to win support from her detractors.

She is scheduled to meet with the Problem Solvers on Tuesday. Last week, she struck a bargain with Rep. Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio, who had weighed a run for speaker but endorsed Pelosi after she was promised she would be the chairwoman of an election protection subcommittee.

Rep. Brian Higgins of New York changed course and agreed to support Pelosi after a 72-hour effort she initiated to win him over. By the end, she had promised that his two top legislative priorities — a bill to allow people over 50 to buy in to Medicare and a $1 trillion infrastructure measure — would be top agenda items in the next Congress.

In an interview Monday, Higgins said he, like many lawmakers, recognized that Pelosi’s predicament gave him a unique opportunity to maximize his influence by making it clear precisely what he would need to throw his support to her.

“I think that she’s going to get the votes for this, but understand that for members, it’s all about leverage — it’s all about what you do and when you do it,” Higgins said.

The New York Times

Julie Hirschfeld Davis © 2018 The New York Times