House Democ­rats jock­ey for pow­er on Over­sight Com­mit­tee in pos­si­ble race to suc­ceed Raskin

In a “Dear Col­league” let­ter obtained by the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er, Con­nol­ly said the Over­sight Com­mit­tee has been his “top pri­or­i­ty” over his 16 years serv­ing on the body. As the vice rank­ing mem­ber, he high­light­ed that he has passed the most stand­alone Over­sight bills through the com­mit­tee and House over the past four ses­sions of Con­gress.

JAMIE RASKIN LAUNCHES CHALLENGE FOR TOP DEMOCRATIC SPOT ON HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

“Over­sight Democ­rats must be an aggres­sive team focus­ing on defend­ing Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy from Pres­i­dent Trump and artic­u­lat­ing a Demo­c­ra­t­ic agen­da that res­onates with our con­stituents,” Con­nol­ly said in the let­ter. “As a for­mer front­lin­er who sur­vived my tough­est reelec­tion effort by just 981 votes, I know that our work in Con­gress must be seen as respon­sive to the kitchen table issues our vot­ers are fac­ing back home.”

Con­nol­ly announced his intent to run for rank­ing mem­ber of the pow­er­ful com­mit­tee after Raskin launched a chal­lenge on Mon­day to replace Rep. Jer­ry Nadler (D‑NY) as the high­est-rank­ing Demo­c­rat on the House Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee.

The Vir­ginia Demo­c­rat may not be the only one enter­ing the race. The Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er con­firmed that Rep. Ro Khan­na (D‑CA) has been “hear­ing from col­leagues about it, and he’s con­sid­er­ing options.”

Oth­er spec­u­lat­ed chal­lengers include Reps. Alexan­dria Oca­sio-Cortez (D‑NY), who would like­ly receive a sig­nif­i­cant boost from the many pro­gres­sives who sit on the com­mit­tee, Stephen Lynch (D‑MA), and Raja Krish­namoor­thi (D‑IL).

Raskin’s chal­lenge to Nadler is one of sev­er­al intra­party fights occur­ring across var­i­ous com­mit­tees as Democ­rats look for fresh blood, with a loom­ing GOP tri­fec­ta tak­ing over next Con­gress. Rep. Ang­ie Craig (D‑MN) announced last week she would run to be the rank­ing mem­ber on the Agri­cul­ture Com­mit­tee, pit­ting her against incum­bent rank­ing mem­ber Rep. David Scott (D‑GA).

Rep. Jared Huff­man (D‑CA) launched a bid to replace Nat­ur­al Resources Com­mit­tee rank­ing mem­ber Rep. Raúl Gri­jal­va (D‑AZ), but Gri­jal­va elect­ed to bow out. Huff­man will have a clear path to be the high­est Demo­c­rat on the Nat­ur­al Resources Com­mit­tee unless Rep. Melanie Stans­bury (D‑NM) decides to hop into the race. Stansbury’s office told Politi­co she was “tak­ing a seri­ous look” at the posi­tion.

SENATE DEMOCRATS ELEVATE KLOBUCHAR TO NO. 3 LEADERSHIP SPOT, SUCCEEDING STABENOW

Mean­while, Sen­ate Democ­rats ele­vat­ed Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D‑MN) to the No. 3 Demo­c­ra­t­ic spot in the Sen­ate in a closed-door meet­ing at the Capi­tol on Tues­day. Klobuchar will replace Sen. Deb­bie Stabenow (D‑MI) as the chair­woman of the Steer­ing and Pol­i­cy Com­mit­tee.

Sen. Cory Book­er (D‑NJ), who also expressed inter­est in the post, agreed to take the No. 4 posi­tion in Sen­ate lead­er­ship as the chair­man of the Strate­gic Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee.