Leading The Battle For Sweeping Reforms

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FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | December 13, 2018freadshot

“As we begin the fight next month to revitalize our democracy, we are very fortunate to have future Speaker Nancy Pelosi leading the effort.”

With the deal announced yesterday that ensures Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi will become House Speaker in the new Congress, the stage is set for Pelosi to carry out her commitment to schedule sweeping democracy reforms as the first order of business for the new House.

The coming reform battle in January is the beginning of a historic effort to repair our broken political system and reform our corrupt campaign finance system. Democracy 21 will be in the forefront of this fight every step of the way.

The deal made by Pelosi with Democratic rebels involves Pelosi supporting a new rule that establishes term limits for herself as Speaker and for the two other top House Democratic leaders. Pelosi agreed to abide by the term limits whether the Democratic Caucus adopts the new rule or not.

Pelosi agreed to do something that she was going to do anyway. It’s the kind of deal any of us would like to make. Pelosi was never going to pursue the Speakership after 2022, when she will be nearly 83.

It also remains questionable whether House Democrats will actually adopt the proposed new term limits rule, even with Pelosi supporting it.

Meanwhile, while the Democratic rebels have been talking about the need for new, younger leaders, Pelosi has been, in recent years, quietly playing a major role in helping a group of younger House members reach new leadership positions, from which some of them are likely to take over the top House Democratic posts in the not-too-distant future.

In Pelosi’s first run as Speaker from 2007 to 2010, she established herself, in my view, as the most skillful, effective, and toughest House Speaker since the days of Speaker Sam Rayburn in the 1950s.

As we begin the fight next month to revitalize our democracy, we are very fortunate to have future Speaker Nancy Pelosi leading the effort.

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Fred Wertheimer is the Founder and President of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to strengthen our democracy and ensure the integrity and fairness of government decisions and elections. See previous Notes from Fred here.