WASHINGTON -- When Rep. Jason Altmire finished his inaugural speech on the U.S. House floor this month, he walked over to the "Murtha corner," a group of seats where Pennsylvania Democrats gather around the state delegation's senior member.

"Great job," Rep. John Murtha, a Johnstown lawmaker in his 17th term, told the freshman Democrat from McCandless, who had talked for less than two minutes on the benefits of stem cell research. "But now, you're not allowed to speak again for three years."

The pair laughed. They both knew Mr. Murtha couldn't be any less accurate. Mr. Altmire would give his second floor speech the next day, during the debate on whether the government should have the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries.

He spoke again last week, and he's preparing for assignments on two influential panels: the Education and Labor Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. Altmire is one of 42 freshman House Democrats who captured seats in the November election, giving their party control of the chamber for the first time in more than a decade. Democratic leaders are showing their appreciation through plum committee assignments, frequent face time and heavy publicity for the new members -- many of whom won close races in districts with large numbers of Republican voters.

Campaign committees for both parties already are preparing for 2008, when Republicans will need a net gain of 16 seats to take back the majority.

"We want to make sure that they're re-elected," Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said of the new Democrats. "So we're giving them the opportunity to generate local press and show that they're busy and getting things done in Washington."

Much has changed since 1974, Mr. Murtha's first year in office. That, too, was a time of political upheaval, as the country dealt with the aftermath of the Vietnam War. In a special election, Mr. Murtha won a Republican seat by only 122 votes. Yet most Democrats paid little attention to the former Marine when he arrived in Washington. The party already possessed an overwhelming majority.

"I didn't speak probably for six or seven months." Mr. Murtha said in an interview last week. "I had no reason to speak."

The Watergate scandal ended the status quo, according to Julian Zelizer, a Boston University specialist in congressional history. Newly elected members started demanding government reform.

An even bolder freshman class rose to power in 1994, when Republicans swept the midterm elections and ended decades of Democratic control in the House, promising a new era of fiscal responsibility and an end to corruption scandals that had plagued Democrats. Rep. Phil English, R-Erie, won his seat that year and quickly secured a spot on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which writes the federal budget.

"The freshmen really wanted to change Washington, and they weren't willing to be quiet," Dr. Zelizer said. That often created political headaches for then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who had to contend both with a new crop of fiercely partisan Republicans and with Democratic President Bill Clinton. Mr. English described the time as a "tug of war" between GOP leaders and freshmen.

The new Democrats of the 110th Congress, which started this month, also are calling for an end to politics as usual in the nation's capital. But they largely represent moderate and conservative districts, and their political philosophies in many ways mirror the views of their constituents.

Mr. Altmire, who last year defeated Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, is anti-abortion -- as is Pennsylvania's new junior senator, Democrat Bob Casey.

In this era of intense partisanship and narrow majorities, both parties understand that the 2008 campaign already is under way. Eager to protect their recent gains, Democratic congressional leaders are giving new members every resource they can muster. "A lot of these freshmen need to make names quickly," Dr. Zelizer said.

Mrs. Pelosi has a special office that doles out advice to new members, including help with hiring staff and setting up district offices. When the House is in session, the new speaker hosts Wednesday-morning breakfasts with the freshmen. She has encouraged them to speak on the House floor and at news conferences as often as possible, Mr. Altmire said.

Her office also tried to satisfy requests for committee assignments, including those from Pennsylvania's new Democrats: Mr. Altmire, Chris Carney, Joe Sestak and Patrick Murphy.

Mr. Murphy and Mr. Sestak, both military veterans who won in swing districts in the Philadelphia suburbs that have been leaning toward the Democrats in recent years, now sit on the House Armed Services Committee.

Mr. Carney won in a heavily Republican district in the state's northeastern corridor, after former Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Luzerne, admitted to a long-term affair with a much younger woman. He could face one of the toughest re-election battles next year among Pennsylvania Democrats.

Mr. Carney will chair a subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee, and he joins Mr. Altmire on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. Altmire had hoped for a place on the Ways and Means Committee, which not only writes tax legislation but also has jurisdiction over Medicare and Social Security. Before her defeat, Ms. Hart had a seat there, but House leaders put no freshmen on that panel this year.

Still, Mr. Altmire says he's satisfied with his transportation assignment. "Yeah, it was tight, but I found a spot for you," the freshman recalled Ms. Pelosi telling him at a recent meeting.

"Nancy is the best political mind that I've seen," said Mr. Murtha, a close ally of the speaker. "When I came in, the leadership didn't worry about re-electing freshmen, didn't worry about raising all the money you need to raise. It's changed dramatically, and she's the right person for the time."

Yet Mr. English questioned how much power the new freshmen actually have. "They've been getting great political support," he said. "But they're not necessarily getting their hands on the levers of power."

Democratic leaders also benefit politically from putting the new Democrats in the spotlight, especially military veterans like Mr. Murphy and Mr. Sestak, as they confront President Bush's policies in the Iraq war.

Mr. Murphy headlined a Capitol news conference on Iraq last week. On Jan. 13, Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., a former National Guard sergeant, gave his party's response to Mr. Bush's weekly radio address. And this week, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Vietnam War veteran and former Navy secretary during the Reagan administration, delivered the opposition reply to the president's State of the Union address Tuesday.

All of the attention from party leaders is deserved, Mr. Carney said. "They understand that they're in the majority because of the class of '06," he said.