Pelosi Says She Wants to Stay On as House Democratic Leader

Speaker Nancy Pelosi Will Seek to Remain Head of the House Democratic Caucus, Aides Say

Despite steep losses for her party in Tuesday's elections,
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said on Friday that
she would run to remain the leader of the House Democrats,
even as some of her colleagues urged her to step down.

In a letter to her caucus, Ms. Pelosi, who engineered the
Democratic takeover of the House in 2006 but became a
favorite target of Republicans, said that many of the
remaining House Democrats had encouraged her to try to stay
on as the leader after the new Republican majority replaces
her as Speaker -- an unusual move in light of the rebuke her
party received at the polls.

"Based on those discussions, and driven by the urgency of
protecting health care reform, Wall Street reform, and Social
Security and Medicare, I have decided to run," Ms. Pelosi
wrote in her letter.