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House Democrats begin their annual issues retreat today in Philadelphia. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and gang will have to come up with a strategy for taking back the chamber from Republicans. Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Today in the Morning Line:

House Democrats huddle: House Democrats begin their annual issues retreat Thursday in Philadelphia. President Obama speaks at 7:10 p.m. EST. With all the focus on Republicans, their newfound governing majorities in Congress, and the divisions within their ranks between establishment and tea party members, its worth pointing out that Democrats are dealing with their own simmering issues. As Politico noted Sunday, Nancy Pelosi has big problems in her ranks. The California lawmaker is facing some of the most serious unrest shes ever seen in her dozen years as the leader of the House Democrats: Members complain that the party has no message and no clear plan to retake the majority, despite good news on the economy that should have brought rewards at the polls.

No path back to the majority in sight for Democrats: Its easy for Democrats to paper over some of their midterm electoral issues, given that they control the White House, they feel they have a presidential demographic and electoral advantage, and that Hillary Clinton leads in the 2016 polls. But unless the party can figure out how to appeal to voters in right-leaning districts, drawn in many cases by Republicans, they are going to be out of power in the House until at least 2022, after the next round of redistricting. And theres no indication they will be able to control the maps after next Census, given that Republicans expanded their majority of governors in 2014 to 31, and they now fully control 30 state legislatures. Democrats fully control just 11, while eight chambers are split.

More than numbers, its message: The numbers and structures are what they are. But what do they do about it? As one Democrat said in the above-mentioned piece about trying to make Democrats appeal to the suburbs: [T]he economic message for the suburbs has to be broader than unemployment insurance and minimum wage, although both are important. They dont resonate in the suburbs. Nothing crystallized that more than the White House misstep on trying to do away with 529 plans, the college-savings tax credit plan. After swift blowback from leaders in both parties, the White House pulled the proposal. While better-off families benefit most from the savings plan, given they have enough money to set aside, where do those families live? They dominate the suburbs of America.

In addition to all of this, the kindling is there for a major Democratic internal fire. The only reason its not full blown at this point is because they have the White House. But imagine a scenario in which Hillary Clinton doesnt run, cant run, or she loses. Crazier things have happened. When voters are looking for change, is she the best one to embody that? Theres so much focus on the tea party-establishment rift within the GOP, but if Republicans win the White House in 2016, a version of the Warren Wing Populist-Democratic Realist split will become very real.

Daily Presidential Trivia: On this day in 2002, President George W. Bush branded the term axis of evil during his first State of the Union address. What countries were included in the axis of evil? Be the first to tweet us the correct answer using #PoliticsTrivia and youll get a Morning Line shout-out. Congratulations to Joni Johnson (@celeste1958) for guessing Wednesdays trivia: How many current Supreme Court justices are Jewish? The answer: 3- Justices Kagan, Breyer and Ginsburg.

2016

-The New Hampshire Republican Party will host a presidential forum April 16 and 17, Paul Steinhauser reports.

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Democrats begin to do some soul searching

By Emma Dumain Posted at 1:28 p.m. on Jan. 29

Israel says Democrats are behind the new middle class focus. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

PHILADELPHIA House Democrats are united around a new messaging strategy for the 2016 cycle, according to Rep. Steve Israel of New York.

Middle class, middle class and middle class, the chairman of a newly created Democratic Policy and Communication Committeetold reporters on Thursday morning.

Israel cited theresults of a lengthy survey distributed to Democratslast week as evidence of a new intraparty consensus. The results were revealed to the caucus on the first full day of itsthree-day issues retreat here in the City of Brotherly Love.

Only 90 members responded less than half of the 188-member Vaucus but he said participants hailed from adiverse cross-section of fiscally conservativeBlue Dogs, moderate New Democrats, African-American lawmakers and progressives.

I was pleasantly surprised that 90 members took the time to fill out the survey in the short amount of time given to them, he said.

Still, there are a number of legislative areas where House Democrats could split that could interfere with cohesion in party messaging.

One is ontrade and whether Congress should give President Barack Obama authority to enter into negotiations with certain Pacific countries. There arestrong and vocal factions on either side of the issue, and both groups say that opposition or support for fast-track authority is fundamental to defining the Democratic Party in the next cycle.

Democrats are also struggling for unity on votes to roll back portions of their signature financial regulatory overhaul legislation known as Dodd-Frank,which caused something of an ideological war to break out in party ranks and threatened to sink the government funding bill at the end of last year.

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Democrats Unite Around Middle-Class Message, Israel Says

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