WASHINGTON - House Democrats made history yesterday, electing Baltimore-born Rep. Nancy Pelosi as their leader - the first woman to take charge of her party in either chamber of Congress - and Rep. Steny H. Hoyer as whip, the No. 2 leader and the highest post attained by a Marylander in the House in more than two centuries.
Elected to serve with them were Reps. Robert Menendez of New Jersey as third-ranking leader, the first Hispanic to hold a leadership post; and James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, an African-American who will fill the party's No. 4 position.
Hoyer is the first Marylander to hold a top leadership post in the House since George Dent served briefly as speaker pro tempore in 1798.
Emerging from a six-hour private election whose outcome will shape the tone and direction Democrats take over the next two years, Pelosi vowed to seek the political center - even though her voting record during her 15 years in Congress reflects the liberalism of her San Francisco district.
"What the Democrats will do, working together, is to build consensus around an economic growth message, and that will be right down the center," an exuberant Pelosi said after her selection. "It's not about contrast right to left. It's about a message for economic growth."
Still, Pelosi's victory ensures that there will be a clear and easily caricatured distinction between Republicans and Democrats in the 108th Congress, which convenes in January.
On one side stands Rep. Tom DeLay, the conservative Texas Republican elected yesterday as House majority leader. On the other is Pelosi, who came of age in the Democratic bastion of Baltimore and represents one of the most liberal areas in the country.
"She is our leader, and she's going to define the Democratic Party," said Rep. James P. Moran Jr. of Virginia. "And Tom DeLay is her foil, and we couldn't have picked a better one ourselves."
Menendez was elected caucus chairman by one vote over Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.
Many Democrats hailed the group as a patchwork quilt that reflects the "big tent" of the Democratic Party. But, privately, some expressed disappointment that while the new leaders are diverse in gender and race, all are Capitol Hill veterans steeped in traditional Democratic themes and accustomed to being dissenters rather than problem-solvers.
Critics say those patterns have helped sentence House Democrats to five consecutive terms in the minority.
A small but vocal group of moderate and conservative Democrats, led by Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. of Tennessee, who launched a late bid against Pelosi for the top post, sought unsuccessfully to reverse the trend.
With the support of conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats, Ford, 32, ran a weeklong drive for the top post, based on his message that the party must work to appeal to a broader base after its sweeping losses in the midterm elections. But Ford garnered only 29 votes to Pelosi's 177.
"The American people are tired of Democrats just telling them what we're against," Ford said later, sounding the theme of his intense but abbreviated campaign. "They want to know what we're for. We've lost the confidence and, I think, the trust of the voters."
Hoyer, who lost to Pelosi last year in the race for minority whip - the party's vote counter and No. 2 leader - brings a note of moderation to the leadership group. His relationship with Pelosi, which dates to 1963 when both worked as interns for Sen. Daniel B. Brewster of Maryland, has not always been warm, especially during the hard-fought whip race.
Hoyer is known for his ability to work with Republicans and to cut deals among moderates in both parties. But he said his new role might require him to be more outspoken on issues on which his party differs with Republicans.
"I believe in my party, and I believe in our policies," he said. "There will come times when we will have deep and significant differences of opinion [with Republicans], and I intend to state those as forcefully and emphatically as I can."
Indeed, Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership in Congress have a formidable job ahead as they pick up the pieces from this year's elections - in which they lost ground to Republicans in the House and surrendered control of the Senate - and try to plot a winning strategy for 2004.
Senate Democrats re-elected their leaders by acclamation, handing new terms to Sens. Tom Daschle of South Dakota as majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada as whip and Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland as the No. 3 leader, the secretary of the Democratic Conference.
The two teams must craft clear messages on issues that Republicans are likely to highlight in the next Congress. These include national security, tax cuts and a prescription drug benefit under Medicare.
Tough decisions will be required of Pelosi and her team, such as how closely to question the Bush administration's policies in the war on terrorism and a potential conflict in Iraq; whether to call for rolling back the tax cut; and how to articulate Democrats' differences with Republicans on creating a prescription drug benefit.
"We can't keep doing the same thing we've been doing and defining ourselves by whether we want to attack Bush or give him some slack," said Rep. Albert R. Wynn, a Prince George's County Democrat who supported Ford's bid for leader. "We need to have a vision."
Pelosi took her first step toward addressing those issues yesterday when she nominated Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, a moderate with broad experience on defense and budget issues, as her assistant leader.
"My theme as leader will be safety and soundness for the American people," Pelosi said.
In another effort to highlight her ability to work with moderates, Pelosi asked Rep.-elect C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Baltimore County, a centrist, to give one of several nominating speeches before yesterday's leadership elections.
Though Pelosi is more liberal than he is, Ruppersberger said, she understood that his district required a different touch.
"She came to Baltimore, and she campaigned for me and helped me raise resources, and she understood that in my race, she had to come down the center," Ruppersberger said.
Ruppersberger won a top slot in his freshman class yesterday, when he was elected as its representative to the Democratic Steering Committee, which is in charge of assigning lawmakers to congressional committees.
It will take more than hand-picking a moderate assistant leader or touting her assistance to centrists for Pelosi to succeed, many aides and lawmakers said privately.
"There's lingering concern about what direction Pelosi will take the caucus, and is she ready to do it," a top Democratic leadership aide said.
Her opponents in the race for leader, who included Ford and Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, "were a reflection of that," the aide said.
"I think and hope that she takes to heart the lesson of inclusion and new ideas that Harold Ford's candidacy presented," said Rep. John Tanner of Tennessee, a supporter who is a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition.
Asked whether he thought Pelosi would now embrace more-conservative elements of the party in her new post, Blue Dog leader Rep. Charles W. Stenholm of Texas said: "Ask me in 180 days."