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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