Shift in the House would usher in Democrats of a different color

WASHINGTON — He is pro-business and anti-abortion. He is an evangelical Christian and an avid hunter. But, unexpectedly, Heath Shuler is a Democrat and he is running for Congress in North Carolina.

Shuler is part of a phalanx of unusually conservative Democratic candidates who may deliver crucial victories over Republican incumbents and help their party win control of the House.

Republicans warn about what the House would be like if the GOP lost control: a throwback to the unreconstructed liberalism of big-government activism, tax increases and weak-kneed defense policy. They point with Halloween-season horror to a likely lineup of Democratic committee chairmen, including Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and other liberal old-timers.

But, like Shuler, many of the Democratic candidates most likely to win Republican-held seats are cut from a different cloth. Sixteen have been endorsed by the "Blue Dogs," a coalition of conservative Democrats. Several used to be Republicans. Shuler was recruited to run as a Republican a few years ago but opted not to.

With so many conservative-leaning candidates at the forefront of the Democratic effort, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., at least for now, has stuck to a minimalist agenda that steers clear of liberal ambitions.

Instead, Democratic leaders are focusing — and almost all serious Democratic candidates are campaigning on — a limited agenda that includes increasing the minimum wage, repealing tax breaks for oil companies, restoring college-tuition tax breaks, cutting Medicare drug costs and other plans they believe could draw bipartisan support.

The limited agenda has won endorsements from Democrats as conservative as candidate Ken Lucas of Kentucky — a former House member who, before he left Congress in 2004, voted against Pelosi in the traditional party-line vote for House speaker.

Republicans charge that the apparent moderation in Democratic candidates is a smokescreen meant to obscure their support for a party steered by liberals and for initiatives such as tax increases.

"They claim to be pro-life, pro-gun and anti-tax, yet their first vote in Congress would be to elect the most liberal speaker in American history," said Jonathan Collegio, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. "In the first 100 hours they will roll back tax cuts and open investigations into the administration."

An influx of new blood from the Democrats' right wing could test party leaders' ability to maintain the remarkable unity they have forged during their years in the minority.

Among the party's House challengers, 33 are conservative enough to be endorsed by either the Blue Dogs or the political arm of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. Nearly all are on the Cook Political Report's latest list of Democrats most likely to win GOP-held seats. The party needs to pick up 15 seats to win a majority.

With more conservative Democrats in the House, President Bush could have a new opening to reach across the aisle. If Democrats won a majority in the House, they would be severely limited in what they could accomplish legislatively without control of the Senate and with Bush still in office.

Still, even a slim majority would give committee chairmen power to conduct investigations and issue subpoenas — tools they want to use to scrutinize Bush's policy on Iraq and other issues they believe the GOP overlooked.

In line to assume those powers is a cadre of unapologetic liberals of an older generation. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., first elected to the House in 1955, is poised to return to the Energy and Commerce chairmanship he held before Republicans won the House in 1994. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., would return as Appropriations chairman. Waxman is in line to be chairman of the Government Reform Committee, an important venue for investigations.

In addition, minority-group members would gain power in a Democratic House. Black legislators are in line to become chairmen of the committees on taxation (Charles Rangel of New York), the judiciary (John Conyers of Michigan) and intelligence (Alcee Hastings of Florida).

Republicans are spotlighting that lineup and portraying it as extremist. They jumped on Conyers for calling for impeachment hearings against Bush, an idea Pelosi flatly dismisses. Republicans note that Hastings, before becoming a House member, was impeached as a federal judge.

Democrats say they believe such tactics are designed to mobilize conservative voters and will not eclipse their efforts to present a more moderate face.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last year made a point of recruiting conservative candidates and even some former Republicans for this year's midterm elections, in some cases muscling out more-liberal contenders who seemed likely to lose in Republican-leaning territory.

"The Democrats are going to retake the House of Representatives by electing conservative and moderate Democrats," said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. "We're going to move our party back to the middle."

Republicans, in ads and elsewhere, have tried to discredit Democrats' conservative credentials — mostly by linking them to Pelosi.

In Indiana, GOP Rep. John Hostettler is running behind Democrat Brad Ellsworth, a sheriff who opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage. But a new Hostettler radio ad says a vote for Ellsworth would be a vote for Pelosi.

"Pelosi will then put in motion her radical plan to advance the homosexual agenda," the ad says.

In Kentucky, ads by GOP Rep. Ron Lewis call attention to the fact that his Democratic opponent, Mike Weaver, has accepted donations from Pelosi.

"He is not a certified conservative," Lewis said.

But Weaver, a state representative, is against abortion, gun control and same-sex marriage. He also founded a conservative group in the state legislature to push his party to the right.

In North Carolina, Shuler, who is running against GOP Rep. Charles Taylor, is a former National Football League quarterback who turned down Republican encouragement to run for the House in 2002, despite his conservative views. He stuck with the Democratic Party, his spokesman said, because he wanted to "help those who cannot help themselves — and that's the Democratic Party."

But Shuler dodges the question of whether he would support Pelosi as speaker, saying he wants to interview all candidates for that post.

Los Angeles Times reporters James Gerstenzang and Jenny Jarvie contributed to this report.