Newspaper Page Text
4A Friday, November 9, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
WASHINGTON/POLITICS
Victory aside, Pelosi’s
return as House
speaker not a given
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE I Associated Press
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks at a
news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday,
Nov. 7. Pelosi says she’s confident she will win enough
support to be elected speaker of the House next year and
that she is the best person for the job.
BY LISA MASCARO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Vili
fied by Republicans on
the campaign trail, Nancy
Pelosi emerged as President
Donald Trump’s preferred
choice to become speaker of
the House, arriving on Capi
tol Hill with an air of inevita
bility after leading her party
back to the majority.
The Democratic leader
is positioned to return to
the speaker’s office after
Democrats took back the
House in Tuesday’s mid
term elections. Already the
only woman to have held the
job, she would also become
one of the few lawmakers to
reclaim the gavel after los
ing it.
Pelosi is a “smart
woman,” Trump said
Wednesday during a nearly
90-minute news confer
ence at the White House,
and someone with whom he
hopes to engage in “beau
tiful bipartisanship” and
deal-making. It was a role
reversal from just days ago,
when he warned voters of
her “radical” agenda.
She “deserved” to
become speaker again after
winning the House, Trump
said Wednesday, adding that
he looked forward to doing
“a tremendous amount of
legislation” once power in
Congress is divided between
a Democratic House and
Republican Senate.
At the Capitol, in the
stately Rayburn Room —
named after the last speaker
who returned to the office —
Pelosi was asked if she was
confident she would become
speaker when the new Con
gress convenes in January.
She said simply: “Yes, I am.”
Yet ascent of the Califor
nia Democrat is nowhere
near guaranteed. Many
younger House Democrats,
including some of the newly
elected, have pledged to
vote against her. They are
reluctant to shout the name
“Pelosi” when the cameras
zoom in during the first roll
call of Congress, fearful of
the attack ads that will be
launched against them.
As Trump and Pelosi
extended overtures across
Pennsylvania Avenue, they
also shadowboxed around
the new dynamic created by
the House’s ability to probe
the president’s business
dealings and his administra
tion. The president warned
Democrats not to push too
hard with their investiga
tions, or he would smack
back even harder; Pelosi
vowed that they would con
duct responsible oversight.
The two have reasons
to cooperate. Both want to
score legislative wins to
bring to voters ahead of the
2020 election. They talked
on election night about doing
an infrastructure package
and lowering health care
costs, particularly around
prescription drugs, priorities
for both sides.
“There’s plenty of oppor
tunity,” Pelosi said, noting
she worked productively
with President George W.
Bush during her last turn
as speaker. She also ref
erenced Democratic Rep.
Maxine Waters of Califor
nia, another favorite Trump
villain, who is set to lead the
powerful Financial Services
Committee.
“Democrats come to this
majority with the respon
sibility not to Democrats
— it’s not to Democrats or
Republicans — it’s to the
United States of America,”
she said. “The fact is we’d
like to work together.”
Pelosi is likely to win
first-round voting later this
month to become leader,
when she needs half of
House Democrats to support
her. But becoming speaker
requires a majority of the
full House, 218 votes, and
her slim majority — now
at 222 — leaves her little
cushion.
It’s not just her. Pelosi
heads a trio of septuage
narian leaders, with Demo
cratic Whip Steny Hoyer and
Assistant Leader Jim Cly-
burn, who have held power
since the last time Demo
crats took back the House
majority, in 2006. Each is
poised to move up a slot.
Democrats who want new
leadership have been whis
pering about it for weeks,
and on Wednesday, several
Pelosi opponents announced
their intent to run for the top
posts.
“I’ve been saying for a
long time that the Demo
cratic Party leadership is in
dire need of change,” wrote
Rep. Filemon Vela of Texas,
one of two who wants to run
for the No. 3 job of chief
vote-counter. “Ya es tiempo
de un cambio!” he echoed
his statement in Spanish.
Another Democrat, Rep.
Diana DeGette of Colorado,
also jumped into the whip’s
race.
Both candidacies are a
direct affront to Clyburn,
the highest-ranking Afri
can-American in Congress,
who is in line to become
the whip. He announced his
bid Wednesday, pledging to
“make America’s greatness
apply fairly and equitably to
all Americans.”
Three others announced
their runs for assistant
leader, the new No. 4 post,
including Rep. Ben Ray
Lujan of New Mexico, the
chairman of the campaign
committee who helped
lead his colleagues to the
majority.
So far, though, no one has
mounted a serious direct
challenge to Pelosi, and
some are reluctant to take
on the first female speaker
after an election that
brought a record number
of women to the polls and to
the House.
‘“Thank you for returning
us to the majority. Now we
want to say goodbye’? That’s
very difficult,” said Rep.
Gerry Connolly, D-Va. “But
the math is very difficult for
her, and it’s inescapable.”
Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who
ran against Pelosi last year
as a centrist alternative, said
colleagues want to do what’s
best for the new members
coming from districts that
just flipped from Republi
cans. He said those Demo
crats need to be able to run
for re-election in two years
without being saddled with
the GOP’s attacks on Pelosi.
“The one thing that keeps
emerging in the conversa
tion is, What do we have to
do to protect our new mem
bers?” Ryan said. “What
are we doing to protect the
majority makers?”
Fallout on the Republican
side of the aisle is just as
complicated, with Majority
Leader Kevin McCarthy of
California facing a challenge
from conservative Rep. Jim
Jordan of Ohio for the top
spot in their shrunken ranks.
Both said they will seek the
job of minority leader.
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MARCH) JOSE SANCHEZ I Associated Press
Mourners embrace outside of the Thousand Oaks Teen Center on Thursday, Nov. 8, where
relatives and friends gathered in the aftermath of the Wednesday night mass shooting, in
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Dems vow action on gun
control after Calif, shooting
BY MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Newly ascendant
Democrats are promising congressional
action on gun control amid a rash of mass
shootings, including a late-night assault at a
California bar that killed 12 people.
Measures including expanded back
ground checks and a ban on assault-style
weapons are likely to reach the House floor
when Democrats retake control after eight
years of Republican rule.
“The American people deserve real
action to end the daily epidemic of gun vio
lence that is stealing the lives of our chil
dren on campuses, in places of worship and
on our streets,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi of
California, the Democratic leader who is
running for a second stint as House speaker.
Pelosi vowed to push for a range of
actions to stem gun violence, includ
ing restrictions on high-capacity maga
zines and a measure allowing temporary
removal of guns from people deemed an
imminent risk to themselves or others.
The measures could win approval in the
Democratic-controlled House next year but
will face opposition from the Republican-
controlled Senate and the White House,
where President Donald Trump has prom
ised to “protect the Second Amendment.”
Still, gun control advocates believe they
have the political momentum to make guns
a central issue next year.
The public’s attitude on guns is changing,
said Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch, whose
Florida district includes the Parkland
high school where 17 people were killed in
February.
“We saw it start on Tuesday and we’re
going to see it accelerate in January,”
Deutch said.
Gun control was a major issue even
before the most recent shootings. Lawmak
ers debated action following the Parkland
attack and a 2017 shooting in Las Vegas
that left 58 dead, and ultimately took mod
est steps to boost school safety funds and
improve compliance with the federal back
ground check system for gun purchases.
The Democrats’ new majority includes
dozens of candidates who support gun con
trol, including Lucy McBath in Georgia,
whose 17-year-old son was fatally shot in
2012 and who made gun violence the cen
terpiece of her campaign.
At least 17 newly elected House Demo
crats back gun control measures, includ
ing Jennifer Wexton, Abigail Spanberger
and Elaine Luria in Virginia, who defeated
incumbents backed by the National Rifle
Association. In Colorado, Democrat Jason
Crow beat GOP Rep. Mike Coffman, who
received an A rating from the NRA and
more than $37,000 in campaign contribu
tions from the group.
“I do think there’s new energy” on gun
issues, even before the California assault
late Wednesday night and an Oct. 27 shoot
ing that killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh
synagogue, said Kris Brown, co-president
of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence.
“Our base is worked up, and people are
reacting in a positive way at the ballot box, ”
said Brown, who campaigned with the
three Virginia Democrats in the final week
alongside a stream of volunteers. “A large
number of folks showed up and knocked on
doors and said they finally have a candi
date who will do something about gun vio
lence,” she said.
Wexton, Spanberger and Luria all made
gun violence a central issue in their cam
paigns — disproving the notion that gun
control is a “third rail” of politics that
Democrats should not talk about, Brown
said. “We’re finding candidates who aren’t
afraid to talk about this issue,” she said.
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