WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders have been working hard on behalf of Democratic challengers, showering them with money and personal attention to expand their majority and to curry favor with future colleagues.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. have contributed thousands of dollars, held countless fundraisers and traveled across the country for Democratic candidates.

In New Mexico, party leadership has focused on giving help to Martin Heinrich and Harry Teague, the Democratic congressional candidates in New Mexico’s first and second districts.

Pelosi contributed $5,000 to Teague and $9,000 to Heinrich; Hoyer gave $9,000 to Heinrich and $14,000 to Teague; Clyburn has contributed $12,000 to Heinrich and $7,000 to Teague; and Emanuel contributed
$7,000 to Teague and $5,000 to Heinrich.

Pelosi, Hoyer and Emanuel have also campaigned in New Mexico in support of Democratic candidates. Hoyer has campaigned for Teague, Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan, the Democrat running to succeed Rep. Steve Pearce, the GOP candidate for Senate, in New Mexico’s third Congressional district.

Stuart Rothenberg, the author of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Report, said this week that the race between Heinrich and Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White (R) would be a toss-up in a normal election year, but Heinrich has an edge.

In New Mexico’s second congressional district, Rothenberg said that Teague “took advantage of a bitter Republican primary, and Ed Tinsley is playing catch up.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has spent more than $1.4 million to aid Heinrich and $1.1 million to help Teague, according to the latest FEC reports.

Despite this communal effort by party leadership to increase the size of the Democratic majority, however, self-interest is at stake, too.

Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn and Emanuel are all campaigning hard to curry favor with future colleagues who will have a say in whether they remain Democratic leaders.

In the weeks after the election, Democrats will meet in Washington, D.C., and hold internal party elections (Republicans will hold their own elections, too). When Congress meets in early January, House members will vote to determine who will be Speaker of the House. The vote normally is split along party lines, so Pelosi will be reelected easily if all Democrats support her.

But leadership races are often contentious, revealing a party’s inner turmoil as well as a lawmaker’s political skills. So the allegiance of incoming freshmen can be crucial.

Perhaps no recent Congressional leader was better at the care and feeding of future members of Congress than former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who campaigned tirelessly in 1994 for Republican candidates who
eventually won.

He not only raised and contributed money to them, but sent them care packages with office supplies, toiletries and snacks. The loyalty he won from GOP candidates helped propel DeLay past then-Speaker Newt Gingrich’s favored candidate to become the majority whip.

The current Democratic leadership has worked well together during the past two years and the leadership team will remain in place during the 111th Congress. But leaders face a big test in 2010, when Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the Democratic Caucus chairman and fourth ranking member of leadership, reaches his two-term limit as caucus chair. It’s either up or out for Emanuel at that point.

Emanuel, a former senior aide to President Clinton before winning a seat in Congress in 2002, led the Democrats to victory in the 2006 mid-term elections as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

What Emanuel chooses to do after the 2010 midterm elections, and how he interacts with Obama if the Illinois senator is elected president, could have far-reaching consequences for the party’s leadership. He
normally chooses the most aggressive and ambitious course of action and has let reporters know that he wants to be the first Jewish Speaker of the House.

“Both Pelosi and Hoyer are same age, both love their jobs, and both could be there for another six years,” a Democratic lobbyist with close ties to House leaders said. “No question that if [Emanuel] stays he will be speaker. The question is whether he can wait.”

“He’s on a path to someday be speaker,” another Democratic lobbyist said. “It’s a question of what are stepping stones along the way and how long will it take?”

With days to go before the 2008 election, speculation about the 2010 midterms and future party leadership might appear pointless given how much can change.

But leadership races determine who sets the party’s message and agenda in Washington, as well as who advises the Speaker and majority leader. So until the moment comes when Emanuel has to give
up his post as Democratic Caucus chairman, he and the other House leaders are busy collecting chits and building new relationships with possible newcomers like Teague and Heinrich.