Rep. Pelosi wants to stay as Dem leader

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Rep. Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday she will seek to remain the House Democratic leader for the next Congress.

Pelosi, D-Calif., had been mum about whether she would seek another term, fueling speculation that she might turn over the leadership mantle to someone else and raising questions about where the party would head after a decade under her rule.

But during a meeting Wednesday with the House Democratic Caucus, Pelosi said she'd seek to remain minority leader in the 113th Congress, a leadership aide in the room told The Hill.

"Leader Pelosi told a packed caucus meeting, including the incoming members of the 113th Congress, today that, if Steve Israel is willing to take on the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] again, then she will happily place her hat in for leader," the aide said.

Pelosi also used the meeting to mark the arrival of newly elected Democratic members, the aide said.

"They say a picture is worth a million words. Well, this picture is worth millions of aspirations of the American people," the aide reported Pelosi as telling the caucus. "This new class makes our caucus historic — the first time in legislative history that a caucus will be a majority of women and minorities."

"We may not have the gavel," she said, "but as I can see in this room, we have the unity."

Pelosi was House speaker from 2007 until 2011, the first female leader of the lower chamber.