Democrats in Problem Solvers Caucus fail to reach agreement to support Nancy Pelosi for Speaker

The Problem Solvers Caucus is a group of about 48 members of the House of Represenatives, about half Republicans and half Democrats, whose stated objective is to reach "bi-partisan" agreements on legislation. Among the Democrats in that group, at least nine are now standing in the way of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) becoming speaker of the House.

Just a week ago, sixteen House members, some who just won their seats and are not yet seated, wrote an open letter stating their oppostion to Pelosi's bid for Speaker and endorsing the idea of a change in leadership. At the time, Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) was considered a major contender to the seat and had the support of some of those members. Fudge recently came out in support of Pelosi, though, and not too incidentally, it was right after a small scandal broke in her own local media.

The nine members of the caucus were withholding their promise to support her pending her agreement to demands, including some House rules changes. After an initial meeting with Pelosi, though, they remained unsatisifed.

"While we appreciate Leader Pelosi’s broad commitment to our effort, we have yet to receive specific commitments to our proposed rules changes that would help ‘Break the Gridlock’ and allow for true bipartisan governing in this new era of divided government," the group wrote in a statement. "Without specific changes, we will face more of the same — small pockets of extreme ideologues will continue to block the will of the commonsense majority."

“Although we are at a stalemate in our discussions, and therefore cannot support Leader Pelosi for Speaker at this time we will keep working with the Leader and others in hope of reaching consensus on specific rules changes for more bipartisan, common sense governing," they said on Friday.

For her part, Pelosi has written a letter urging "unity" within her party.

“Our outstanding victory from sea to shining sea has made this truly a Thanksgiving of Hope,” the former Speaker wrote in the letter. “Our victory has sprung not only from the quality of our candidates and the strength of our message, which one news report said was delivered ‘like a jackhammer,’ but also from the mobilization of the outside groups that helped carry that message.”