House Democrats set gameplan for settling committee battles

• House Democrats' Steering and Policy Committee will first meet to make recommendations on panel leadership and filling vacant seats.
• Then the full House Democratic caucus will have to vote on whether to approve those recommendations.

Driving the news: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and his leadership team will decide on the membership of the steering committee this week, the three current co-chairs wrote in a letter first obtained by Axios.

• The panel will then hold meetings on Dec. 10 and 16 to make recommendations on committee ranking memberships, filling vacant committee slots and committee assignments for new members.

Zoom out: Democrats have at least three potentially contested committee fights.

• Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) is running unopposed to lead the Natural Resources Committee after incumbent ranking member Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) withdrew his reelection bid, but Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) may jump into that race in Grijalva's stead.
• Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.) are both challenging Agriculture Committee ranking member David Scott (D-Ga.).

• Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) is running for Oversight Committee ranking member and is expected to face a challenge from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Axios first reported.

Zoom in: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the current Oversight ranking member, had been running to unseat Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), but Nadler withdrew on Wednesday and endorsed Raskin.

• Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Axios on Wednesday that she is supporting "some" of these challenges to incumbent ranking members.