Nancy Pelosi
Encyclopedia : N : NA : NAN : Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi (born March 26, 1940) is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives. A Democrat, she is the first woman to lead a major political party in either house of Congress. She has represented California's 8th District since 1987 (it was numbered the 5th District until 1993). The 8th covers almost all of San Francisco except for a corner in the southwest that is part of the San Mateo County-based 12th District.
Early life and career
Pelosi was born Nancy D'Alesandro in Baltimore, Maryland to Italian American parents. She became involved in politics at an early age and 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 Washington University) in Washington, DC, where she met her future husband, Paul Pelosi. When the couple married, they moved to his hometown of San Francisco, where his brother was a member of the city's Board of Supervisors (San Francisco city & county--council).
Once the youngest of their five children became a senior in high school, Nancy Pelosi became involved in Democratic politics, working her way up to becoming party chairwoman for Northern California, and joining forces with one of the leaders of California Democratic Party politics, 5th District Congressman Phillip Burton.
She is an honorary board member of the National Organization of Italian American Women.
Family
- Pelosi's daughter Alexandra covered the presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004 and wrote a book about her experiences.
- The Pelosi family has a net worth of over $25 million, mainly investments of husband Paul Pelosi. Besides a large portfolio of jointly owned San Francisco Bay Area real estate, he also has millions of dollars worth of shares in publicly traded companies such as Microsoft, Amazon.com and AT&T. [link]
Congressional career
When Burton died in 1983, his wife Sala won a special election to complete his term. When she became ill with cancer, she suggested that Pelosi run for her seat in 1988. Sala Burton died on February 1, 1987, just a month after being sworn in for a second full term. Pelosi won in a special election to succeed her, narrowly defeating left wing San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt, and took office on June 2, 1987. She was elected to a full term in 1988 and has been reelected eight times, often with more than 70% of the vote. The 8th is one of the safest Democratic districts in the country; Democrats have held the seat since 1949. Pelosi has kept this tradition going. 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.
In the House, she served on the Appropriations and Intelligence Committees, and spent long hours raising funds for other members. She was the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee for two years.
Democratic Party leadership
In 2001, she was elected to the position of House Minority Whip, serving as second-in-command to Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri. Since then, she has campaigned for candidates in 30 states and in 90 Congressional districts, garnering support for her further climb to the top.In 2002, after Gephardt resigned as minority leader to seek the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election, Pelosi was elected minority leader.
Record
Pelosi has been widely praised by liberals for her criticism of steps taken by the George W. Bush administration in the years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 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. [link] Republicans in some areas of the country, especially the South, have used the prospect of a "San Francisco liberal" or "Bay Area liberal" becoming Speaker of the House as a tool to win over voters since they believe Pelosi would likely become Speaker if the Democrats regain control of Congress. Nationally syndicated radio talk-show host Neal Boortz has deemed San Francisco "Pelosi Land". In San Francisco, however, Pelosi is sometimes seen as more moderate than liberal, because she voted for the Patriot Act (which she now opposes) and authored the Presidio Trust Act, which privatized the Presidio of San Francisco. 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.
Quotes
- "Gay people are people too."
- (Response to President Bush's proposed amendment banning gay marriage)
- "Why should we put a plan out? Our plan is to stop him. He must be stopped."
- "He said 'Why would I do that?' I said 'because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.' And he said 'What didn't go right?' Oblivious, in denial, dangerous."
- "That's why they had to make up that story about weapons of mass destruction. Because that was the only thing that would sell to the American people, and that wasn't true."
External links
- [Pelosi's House web page]
- [Democratic Leader page]
- [Is Pelosi Wrong Leader for Dems?] (from beyondchron.org)
- [Profile] (from About.com)
- [Pelosi mines 'California gold' for Dems nationwide: Personal skills, wide network of wealthy donors help party's House leader gather millions] (from sfgate.com)
- [Voting Record] (from Project Vote Smart)
- [record maintained by the Washington Post]
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