Pelosi under fire:
Two of Arizona’s three incumbent congressional Democrats voice their opposition to keeping Nancy Pelosi atop the party’s leadership. “I do feel deeply disappointed,” U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema says.
Two of Arizona’s three incumbent congressional Democrats prominently noted their opposition on Wednesday to keeping Nancy Pelosi atop the party’s leadership in Washington.
U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., stood next to U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, DOhio, as he discussed his failed bid to oust Pelosi as minority leader in the House. For the second cycle in a row, U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., urged a different choice and regretted her party “decided to double down on its failed strategy of recent years.”
U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., voted for Pelosi but could not be reached for comment. Tom O’Halleran, an Arizona Democrat who has not yet taken office, was in congressional orientation and could not be reached for comment.
Pelosi kept her leadership post, winning the support of about two-thirds of congressional Democrats. But Ryan pulled in 63 votes in a sign of a still-fractured party trying to regroup after an unexpected loss of the White House and smaller gains in the House of Representatives than many expected.
Democrats lost their majorities in Washington after the 2010 elections and have controlled the House for only four of the past 22 years. Even so, the party’s representatives kept intact the current top three positions: minority leader, party whip and assistant Democratic leader.
“I do feel deeply disappointed,” Sinema said of the decision to keep Pelosi as minority leader. She lamented “multiple election cycles where the House Democratic Caucus has not been able to win many of these tough seats across the country — seats which incidentally are a lot like mine. They have trouble winning and retaining these seats. Frankly, the caucus strategy isn’t working.”
Gallego, who is set to begin his second term in Congress in January, said the party needed to choose a better messenger of its opposition to the incoming Trump administration.
“People say they don’t know what we stand for,” he said. Gallego pointed to the September “side deal” to guarantee aid to Flint, Michigan, after its water crisis as a condition to averting a government shutdown as an example that made Democrats look as irresponsible as Republicans in budgeting.
He said he hopes Pelosi sees the dissatisfaction with her leadership to use “more aggressive tone and tactics” in her dealings with the GOP.
As she approaches her third term in Congress, Sinema has distinguished herself as a fundraising power trying to grow her influence within the party. She raised the most money in the nation during the latest cycle among incumbent House Democrats, $4.1 million. Sinema’s Getting Stuff Done political-action committee was among the betterfunded leadership PACs in the 2016 elections.
Sinema, who was scheduled to address incoming freshmen in Congress on Wednesday, recommended that Democrats follow her own practice of maintaining a measure of independence.