Difference between revisions of "Nancy Pelosi"

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[[Image:nancypelosi.jpg|thumb|Nancy Pelosi currently serves the 8th Congressional district of California]]
 
[[Image:nancypelosi.jpg|thumb|Nancy Pelosi currently serves the 8th Congressional district of California]]
  
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'''Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi''' is the [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=House_minority_leader minority leader] of the [[U.S. House of Representatives]].  A [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]], she is the first woman to lead a major political party in either house of Congress.  She has represented [[w:California|California]]'s [[w:United States House of Representatives, California District 8|8th District]] since 1987 (it was numbered the 5th District until 1993).
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'''Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi''' is the house minority leader of the [[U.S. House of Representatives]].  A [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]], she has represented [[w:California|California]]'s [[w:United States House of Representatives, California District 8|8th District]] since 1987 (it was numbered the 5th District until 1993).
  
 
==Bio==
 
==Bio==

Revision as of 22:11, 9 November 2006

File:Nancypelosi.jpg
Nancy Pelosi currently serves the 8th Congressional district of California

Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the house minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. A Democrat, she has represented California's 8th District since 1987 (it was numbered the 5th District until 1993).

Bio

Background

Pelosi was born March 26, 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., was a U.S. Congressman from Maryland and also a Mayor of Baltimore.

Pelosi attended Trinity College (now Trinity University) in Washington, DC]]. She married and moved to San Francisco where she became involved in Democratic politics, working her way up to becoming party chairwoman for Northern California. In 1984 she served as the head of the host committee for the Democratic Nation Convention that year. In 1986, the year before she was elected to Congress, Pelosi served as Finance Chair to the successful Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which helped the Democrats win back the Senate.

The Pelosi family has a net worth of over $25 million, mainly investments of husband Paul Pelosi. Besides a San Francisco Bay area large portfolio of jointly owned real estate, he also has millions of dollars worth of shares in publicly traded companies such as Microsoft, Amazon.com and AT&T. [1]

Congressional Career

Pelosi won in a special election to succeed Sala Burton and took office on June 2, 1987. She was elected to a full term in 1988 and has easily held the seat since. She has never faced a credible Republican opponent, which is not surprising since Republicans only make up 13 percent of registered voters in the district.

After the Tiananmen protests of 1989, Pelosi became a supporter of the Chinese democracy movement and vocal critic of the government of the People's Republic of China and sponsored the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992.

Democratic Party leadership

Minority Whip and Minority Leader Race

In 2001, she defeated Steny Hoyer to become the House Minority Whip, serving as second-in-command to Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri.

After the electoral defeat of 2002, Gephardt decided to run for President in 2004 and bowed out of his Minority Leader position. The leadership election pitted Pelosi against Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Tennessee centrist Harold Ford, Jr. She stated in 2002, "We must draw clear distinctions between our vision of the future and the extreme policies put forward by the Republicans. We cannot allow Republicans to pretend they share our values and then legislate against those values without consequence."[2]

During the run-up to the 2002 mid-term elections Pelosi showcased what her leadership would look like by opposing Gephardt's decision to back President Bush's Iraq war resolution.[3]

After Kaptur dropped out of the race, Pelosi bested Ford in a 177-29 vote. By way of her victory Pelosi made history by becoming the first woman to lead a party in Congress.[4]

Minority Leader

Pelosi has led the Democratic caucus on any number of issues. Despite losing many critical votes, she and her leadership team have been able to bring a unity to the Democratic caucus that hasn't existed for decades.[5] Congressional Quarterly examined over 600 roll call votes from 2005 where "a majority of Republicans voted against a majority of Democrats" and found that Democrats voted unanimously 82 times and on the party line 88 percent of the time. These are the highest numbers since CQ began keeping a tally of roll call votes in 1956.[6] She also worked hard to defeat the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, which passed the House after 16 Democrats joined the Republicans in voting "yes". She calls the Medicare vote her biggest disappointment.[7]

Pelosi has often allowed members of the Democratic caucus to showcase positions or pieces of legislation rather than keeping the media coverage for herself. Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) introduced a resolution challenging President Bush to come back to House and seek an authorization to use military force before invading Iraq, for example. Another example is that of John Murtha's call for a wthidrawal from Iraq. Pelosi coordinated Murtha's call for withdrawal from behind the scenes while trying to appease the part of the party that opposed Murtha's plan.[8]

2006 elections

In 2006, the Republicans nominated Michael A. Denunzio, and the Green Party nominated Krissy Keefer to face Pelosi in her November 2006 bid for reelection. (See U.S. congressional elections in 2006) [9]


Meet the Cash Constituents

File:Pelosi elections.jpg
Source: Federal Election Commission

Template:Congresspedia money

Controversy

Progressive image

Pelosi is generally very progressive. She was a member of the Progressive Caucus until she became the party leader, when she adopted a policy of not belonging to any caucuses. [10]

Like most House Democrats, Pelosi opposed the resolution authorizing Bush to use military force against Iraq. She has strongly criticized the war effort since then, and introduced an amendment to the FY 2006 Defense Appropriations bill calling on Bush to specify a strategy for success in Iraq, as well as a timetable for a safe withdrawal of American troops.

Also, on July 31, 2006 Pelosi joined Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in leading top congressional Democrats in signing a letter urging President Bush to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2006. The letter was signed by the twelve leading Democrats on the House and Senate committees handling armed services, foreign relations, intelligence and military spending. [11]

In March of 2006 Pelosi received the Unsung Hero Award from the American Legion for opposing a Bush Adminstration policy that would "deduct any additions to disabled veterans' benefits from their military pensions."[12][13]

Despite receiving consistent criticism from left-leaning blogs Pelosi has been pushing her party to embrace new internet technologies, specifically blogs.[14]

Refusal to take part in event honoring Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Tom DeLay

On July 17, 2006, Roll Call reported that Pelosi was refusing to take part in a July 19 event hosted by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. Thirty-seven departing members of Congress were to be honored, including former Reps. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.). Pelosi defended her decision by saying that the two men, "have 'dishonored the House' and 'are unfit to to be honored for their service.'" When informed of Pelosi’s objections to having Cunningham’s name mentioned during the event, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) agreed, saying through a spokesman that, "it would be inappropriate to have a convicted felon on the honor roll." He did not indicate, however, that he agreed with regards to DeLay, who is awaiting a trial on conspiracy and money laundering charges. [15]

Views on Israel

Pelosi addressed the 2005 Policy Conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In her speech she said that the root of the Israel-Palestine conflict is the right of Israel to exist, not the occupation of Palestine, and pledged the protection of the U.S.:

""There are those who contend that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This is absolute nonsense. In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist... The United States will stand with Israel now and forever. Now and forever."[16]

In July 2006, she threatened to boycott the speech by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki to the joint session of congress unless he repudiated his earlier criticism of Israeli aggression against Lebanon. [17]

Beginning August 8, 1991, Nancy Pelosi went on a tour of Israel as part of an Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith congressional mission. The other congressmen on the tour were: Leon Panetta, George Miller and Charles Schumer.

Network neutrality legislation

When Rep. Joe Barton and Sen. Ted Stevens pushed anti-network neutrality legislation in 2006, Pelosi came out in favor of neutrality, angering telecom companies and some fellow Democrats by urging her caucus to fall in line behind her. Roll Call also quoted "insiders" as saying that the damage telecom companies deal to Democrats in retaliation was low because they had already maxed out their campaign contributions to the legal limits until after the 2006 election.[18] Network neutrality has been called the "first amendment of the Internet". [19]

PAC Fined

In 2004 a political action committee (PAC), Team Majority, controlled by Pelosi was fined $21,000 for "for improperly accepting donations over federal limits, according to records and interviews."[20] Pelosi used two PACs, including Team Majority, to raise money for her colleagues during the 2002 election. The fine came from Pelosi's use of multiple PACs to exceed donation limits to other members campaign committees. Two Democratic lawmakers, Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Julie Thomas (D-MD), paid fines of $2,500 each for receiving illegal contributions from Pelosi's PAC. Team Majority ceased operating before the fine was issued.[21]

Earmarks and "pork"

In February of 2003 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Pelosi had sought a $1 million earmark for an advisor and former campaign treasurer's think tank:[22]

Pelosi's office confirmed Thursday that the San Francisco Democrat, who was elected House minority leader in November, obtained the $1 million for the USF center, without requiring [her longtime adviser and campaign treasurer, former Lt. Gov. Leo T.] McCarthy and USF to go through the normal application process for such grants. But Pelosi said the program got the money on its merits, not because of any political ties to the congresswoman. [23]

A 2005 Washington Times report alleges that Pelosi helped a campaign donor secure funds from a federal agency days after one of her staff members returned from a fact-finding trip to Spain that was funded by the donor.[24]

Pelosi and her office denied any connection between the trip and the money sought by WestStart-CALSTART. Pelosi's spokeswoman stated that Republican staffers also went on the trip to Spain.

Committees and Affiliations

Committees

As the House Democratic leader, Pelosi does not belong to any committees.

Coalitions and Caucuses

  • Co Chair, Democratic National Platform Committee, 1992
  • Chair, Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, 1985
  • Co Chair, AIDS Task Force of the House Democratic Caucus
  • Co Chair, Biomedical Research Caucus
  • Chair, Congressional Working Group on China
  • Vice Chair, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
  • Democratic Homeland Security Task Force
  • Democratic National Committee
  • Chair, Democratic Steering Committee
  • Vice Chair, Executive Committee, Democratic Study Group

Boards and other Affiliations

  • Founder, Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS
  • Board of Trustees, LSB Leakey Foundation.

More Background Data

Template:Congresspedia footer Template:Wikipedia

Articles and Resources

Resources

Local blogs and discussion sites

Articles

Swiftboating Nancy Pelosi

Contact

DC Office:
2371 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0508
Phone: 202-225-4965
Fax: 202-225-8259
Email: sf.nancy AT mail.house.gov
Web Email
Website

District Office - San Francisco:
450 Golden Gate Avenue, 14th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102-3460
Phone: 415-556-4862
Fax: 415-861-1670

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