Pelosi, Democrats’ billion-dollar woman, fights on with majority teetering

It has long been known that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to hold the post second in line to the presidency, does not sleep much. These days, as she races in and out of cities across the nation in a grueling, nonstop push for campaign money to hang on to her embattled House majority, even her bedtime hours are consumed with thoughts of how to win. “I don’t count sheep at night; I count districts,” Ms. Pelosi, a California Democrat and longtime party leader, said during a closing blitz across the Midwest on behalf of battleground House candidates crucial to any remaining hope that Democrats have of surviving a Republican onslaught. “I go one by one by one.” The big question is whether she can count to 218, the number required to maintain control of the House — and one that a growing number of independent handicappers believe is out of reach for Democrats.

Even as she follows every twist and turn on the House map, the reality is that this could well be Ms. Pelosi’s final trip around the track as party leader. The majority she has built and carefully nurtured — not once, but twice — is in jeopardy of falling under the weight of public fears about crime and inflation along with heavy Republican campaign spending and the traditional midterm drag on a president’s party in Congress. But if this is her final race, Ms. Pelosi is running through the tape, trying to ensure her candidates have the resources to compete as Republicans pour on the cash. Ms. Pelosi is an 82-year-old juggernaut in Armani, behaving as if holding the House rests in her hands alone. In some ways it does; she is not only the well-established national face of the House majority, but is also by far its most prolific fund-raiser. “My time is money,” Ms. Pelosi said as she lamented the opportunity cost of talking to a reporter when she could be working her cellphone instead. The lifetime returns on Ms. Pelosi’s investment of time and energy are staggering. Since assuming the party’s House leadership in 2002, she has brought in $1.25 billion for Democrats, according to a party tally, including $42.7 million in the third quarter of this year alone. Her haul so for this election cycle is $276 million, reaped at more than 400 events. Just this month, she has visited more than 20 cities. (After a three-day, four-state Midwestern swing last week, she departed on Sunday for a quick trip to Croatia for meetings on Ukraine.)