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Speaker of the House

Who Will Challenge Pelosi for Speaker?


  • Total voters
    12
  • Poll closed .

calamity

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Currently there is only one official candidate: Nancy. But, a long list of others are vying to join the fray. Election is in the first week of the new year. So, who will challenge Nance?
 
As current minority leader, and therefore due to House tradition, there will be no candidates who 'officially' step forward against Pelosi until after the first round House floor vote.

The timeline is that next week or shortly thereafter the House Democratic caucus will vote to endorse someone. That will be Pelosi with near 100% chance. Then in January, there will be the floor vote. Pelosi will be the sole candidate on the Democratic side on the first round. If she wins, she wins. If she doesn't, that's when all other candidates will officially announce and Pelsoi's bid will come to a screeching, flaming wreck.

There's been a ton of candidates named meanwhile. For example Marcia Fudge. However none of these candidates will publicly admit that they are interested.
 
Currently there is only one official candidate: Nancy. But, a long list of others are vying to join the fray. Election is in the first week of the new year. So, who will challenge Nance?

I think Ocasio-Cortez is the Speaker the Dems deserve!
 
Currently there is only one official candidate: Nancy. But, a long list of others are vying to join the fray. Election is in the first week of the new year. So, who will challenge Nance?

I'm not a party member, who cares?

But seriously...nobody is going to mount a credible challenge against Pelosi.
 
As current minority leader, and therefore due to House tradition, there will be no candidates who 'officially' step forward against Pelosi until after the first round House floor vote.

The timeline is that next week or shortly thereafter the House Democratic caucus will vote to endorse someone. That will be Pelosi with near 100% chance. Then in January, there will be the floor vote. Pelosi will be the sole candidate on the Democratic side on the first round. If she wins, she wins. If she doesn't, that's when all other candidates will officially announce and Pelsoi's bid will come to a screeching, flaming wreck.

There's been a ton of candidates named meanwhile. For example Marcia Fudge. However none of these candidates will publicly admit that they are interested.
After a personal meeting the other day with Pelosi, from her statements Fudge appears to be acquiescing and falling in line with her (Pelosi). Obviously, I must emphasize "appears".
 
After a personal meeting the other day with Pelosi, from her statements Fudge appears to be acquiescing and falling in line with her (Pelosi). Obviously, I must emphasize "appears".

Who the hell is Marsha Fudge? And what has she done to deserve to be speaker?
 
I won't hazard here who else may vie for the role.

My own assessment of Ms. Pelosi's skills and accomplishments as the manager of House proceedings, however, suggest to me that she is far and away the best person for the job. I think now is the wrong time to emplace as Speaker an operational novice. Pelosi may not be the only person who can with aplomb do the job, but she or one of the other "old hats" are best suited to "face off" against McConnell, who's as methodically adept as anyone can be and Trump who's procedurally ignorant.

That said, I think the House and Dems would be well served by having a mix of considerably younger/newer, but also willing and able to take direction, persons and "old hands" installed in the "heir apparent" House leadership roles. It is time for Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Hoyer, et al to commence the knowledge transfer process and doing so in a smoothly organized manner now, as opposed to when Dems hold even more formal power, is a far better approach than the alternative. There's too much to lose now by having an inexperienced Speaker (as we saw from the prior two Speakers' tenures), and there's too much too lose later by not now grooming "new blood" to take the reigns then.
 
I won't hazard here who else may vie for the role.

My own assessment of Ms. Pelosi's skills and accomplishments as the manager of House proceedings, however, suggest to me that she is far and away the best person for the job. I think now is the wrong time to emplace as Speaker an operational novice. Pelosi may not be the only person who can with aplomb do the job, but she or one of the other "old hats" are best suited to "face off" against McConnell, who's as methodically adept as anyone can be and Trump who's procedurally ignorant.

That said, I think the House and Dems would be well served by having a mix of considerably younger/newer, but also willing and able to take direction, persons and "old hands" installed in the "heir apparent" House leadership roles. It is time for Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Hoyer, et al to commence the knowledge transfer process and doing so in a smoothly organized manner now, as opposed to when Dems hold even more formal power, is a far better approach than the alternative. There's too much to lose now by having an inexperienced Speaker (as we saw from the prior two Speakers' tenures), and there's too much too lose later by not now grooming "new blood" to take the reigns then.
I agree 100%.

No one is more capable to lead and enact legislation during this critical 2 year period. She met with Fudge, and apparently cut a deal to give the new-wave freshman members a stronger-than-usual presence through leadership positions in the committees. It seems to have calmed-down & appeased the freshmen. It's a brilliant move, and shows Pelosi's leadership skills and ability to cut deals.

Trump thinks he's the consummate deal-maker, but the reality is he's a PR operator, which as we can see by the 2016 election can hold great weight. But now, I think he's going to meet his match in trying to out-deal Nancy girl. No one - not even Obama - could get a national healthcare bill passed, but she did (for better or worse)! That took leadership, moxie, perception, and abilities. She is the consummate vote counter, and can deliver.

I also think the Dems are going to be rock-solidly united as a voting bloc, unlike the chaotic mess that Boehner had to deal with in his Freedom Caucus. The Dems see what unity got just them, they absolutely abhor Trump and the Trump GOP, and I think they're going to play hard together - as a unified group.
 
As current minority leader, and therefore due to House tradition, there will be no candidates who 'officially' step forward against Pelosi until after the first round House floor vote.

The timeline is that next week or shortly thereafter the House Democratic caucus will vote to endorse someone. That will be Pelosi with near 100% chance. Then in January, there will be the floor vote. Pelosi will be the sole candidate on the Democratic side on the first round. If she wins, she wins. If she doesn't, that's when all other candidates will officially announce and Pelsoi's bid will come to a screeching, flaming wreck.

There's been a ton of candidates named meanwhile. For example Marcia Fudge. However none of these candidates will publicly admit that they are interested.

Thanks for that. I did not know the process. Your post is useful information.
 
I won't hazard here who else may vie for the role.

My own assessment of Ms. Pelosi's skills and accomplishments as the manager of House proceedings, however, suggest to me that she is far and away the best person for the job. I think now is the wrong time to emplace as Speaker an operational novice. Pelosi may not be the only person who can with aplomb do the job, but she or one of the other "old hats" are best suited to "face off" against McConnell, who's as methodically adept as anyone can be and Trump who's procedurally ignorant.

That said, I think the House and Dems would be well served by having a mix of considerably younger/newer, but also willing and able to take direction, persons and "old hands" installed in the "heir apparent" House leadership roles. It is time for Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Hoyer, et al to commence the knowledge transfer process and doing so in a smoothly organized manner now, as opposed to when Dems hold even more formal power, is a far better approach than the alternative. There's too much to lose now by having an inexperienced Speaker (as we saw from the prior two Speakers' tenures), and there's too much too lose later by not now grooming "new blood" to take the reigns then.

My thoughts on this are exactly that: The Dems need to cultivate the next generation of leaders. This was supposed to happen under Obama, but the Clintons, Pelosi and Feinstein put a kabash on that. And, that is why the Dems took such a hard hit in 2016. They lacked youthful energy, and therefore lost the youth who splintered off and voted Green or not at all.
 
Pelosi will be the new speaker. Her ability to bring in enormous fund raising dollars alone cements that. I don't see a solid challenger to speaker from the Democrats.

I don't think Pelosi will remain in office longer than another term or two, though.
 
I wish John Lewis would step up and take the gavel; he certainly has the experience to do so, and is relatively uncontaminated vs Pelosi, either by horrid favourability that does the party damage at large via association, or a notorious alignment with big money donors, while being far more charismatic and reflective of its current direction/zeitgeist.

If it isn't him, I can't see it being anyone else at this time sadly.
 
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Currently there is only one official candidate: Nancy. But, a long list of others are vying to join the fray. Election is in the first week of the new year. So, who will challenge Nance?

I'm not happy with many of the democrats who have been in office long-term.

I personally would prefer a different house speaker come January, because I don't think the more establishment democrats are willing to push hard enough.


But I have no ****ing idea who will challenge her taking that position.
 
Currently there is only one official candidate: Nancy. But, a long list of others are vying to join the fray. Election is in the first week of the new year. So, who will challenge Nance?

There is reason for Democrats to hope for a fresh face to lead them. I think this is going to come down to negotiation between Pelosi and any serious challenger. Pelosi has said she has the votes. The speaker position requires a skilled
administrator/negotiator even in less turbulent times. Pelosi is a proven entity. Ultimately I think it will be Pelosi. She recognizes that succession in the position needs to be prepared.
 
Currently there is only one official candidate: Nancy. But, a long list of others are vying to join the fray. Election is in the first week of the new year. So, who will challenge Nance?

Marcia Fudge is the only person to come forward to express interest in challenging Pelosi. She has said she is still considering it and will make up her mind after the Thanksgiving holiday. No official challenger will come forward until after the first floor vote in January. There will be a number of challengers if Pelosi doesn't have the votes after the first vote is counted. Pelosi has said she has the votes.
 
I also think the Dems are going to be rock-solidly united as a voting bloc, unlike the chaotic mess that Boehner had to deal with in his Freedom Caucus. The Dems see what unity got just them, they absolutely abhor Trump and the Trump GOP, and I think they're going to play hard together - as a unified group.

Unity is relatively easy when you're in the minority. Just look at how every Republican voted against Obamacare. It gets much harder when you're in the majority and the people who elected you expect you to accomplish something. But what? Democrats who won in districts that lean Republican will naturally have a different agenda from Democrats in solid blue districts. Reversing corporate tax cuts, Medicare for all, abolishing ICE,and even gun control are going to create conflicts in the party. Pelosi is the best qualified to bridge those conflicts and get legislation passed but some of these new congressmen are already calculating that legislation is going to be hard. It would be a lot easier for these new Congressmen to go back to their districts in 2 years and say that they had one big accomplishment - they voted Pelosi out of the leadership.
 
Unity is relatively easy when you're in the minority. Just look at how every Republican voted against Obamacare. It gets much harder when you're in the majority and the people who elected you expect you to accomplish something. But what? Democrats who won in districts that lean Republican will naturally have a different agenda from Democrats in solid blue districts. Reversing corporate tax cuts, Medicare for all, abolishing ICE,and even gun control are going to create conflicts in the party. Pelosi is the best qualified to bridge those conflicts and get legislation passed but some of these new congressmen are already calculating that legislation is going to be hard. It would be a lot easier for these new Congressmen to go back to their districts in 2 years and say that they had one big accomplishment - they voted Pelosi out of the leadership.

I think Pelosi will have serious and substantive problems acting as an honest, fair and trusted broker/mediator between both segments of the party given her overwhelming and obvious alignment with the establishment segment of it; in fact this is one of the more compelling reasons for replacing her with someone closer to the middle who is also capable of doing the job; like John Lewis.

It's not that there's a dearth of people capable of doing her job so much as there is a dearth of people who are that are willing to take it up.
 
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Currently there is only one official candidate: Nancy. But, a long list of others are vying to join the fray. Election is in the first week of the new year. So, who will challenge Nance?

I'd like to see Maxine Waters as Speaker.

But that's mainly because Trump doesn't like her.
 
I'd like to see Maxine Waters as Speaker.

But that's mainly because Trump doesn't like her.

many of us on the right would love to see Maxine "the moron" Waters as SOTH
 
I'm not happy with many of the democrats who have been in office long-term.

I personally would prefer a different house speaker come January, because I don't think the more establishment democrats are willing to push hard enough.


But I have no ****ing idea who will challenge her taking that position.

The times (Trump in office) dictate a seasoned person in this role. We already have enough people in Washington that have no clue about the job they are in. We don't need the added instability of a new speaker.
 
The times (Trump in office) dictate a seasoned person in this role. We already have enough people in Washington that have no clue about the job they are in. We don't need the added instability of a new speaker.

I'm not at all persuaded by the idea that a new speaker in and of itself will create some kind of great and deleterious instability, though I agree we need a seasoned person.

A new speaker with the chops for the role, the ability to reconcile the two camps within the party and that isn't utterly reviled by the public is exactly what's needed.
 
It fascinates me to see liberals discussing the merits of various potential contenders when most other times the decision appears to be based primarily on the "need" to promote a certain demographic.

I figure that when it gets time to vote the top contender will be a gender neutral person of color with solid agnostic credentials.
 
It fascinates me to see liberals discussing the merits of various potential contenders when most other times the decision appears to be based primarily on the "need" to promote a certain demographic.

Definitely true of ID politics centric elements of the party (which are not the majority), not at all accurate otherwise. In my experience, the primary concerns with regards to contenders for the position of Speaker are capability, appeal (relative to both the party and the general populace) and policy. My support for John Lewis as an example has absolutely nothing to do with fulfilling any demographic quota and everything to do with his considerable experience, charisma and policy positions/voting history; I feel he's a qualified, clean candidate who is well liked by Dems and public at large who can effectively bridge the two major factions within the party.
 
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It fascinates me to see liberals discussing the merits of various potential contenders when most other times the decision appears to be based primarily on the "need" to promote a certain demographic. I figure that when it gets time to vote the top contender will be a gender neutral person of color with solid agnostic credentials.
�� I don't believe there is such a thing "most qualified." Never have. Or said another way, "There are multiple ways to skin a cat."

Instead one must recognize that each and every qualified candidate will bring a unique perspective and skillset to the table. Sure, it is difficult to replicate a single person's individual "touch" or "style." However when similar candidates are selected again and again for the same role, the traits shared between them tend to product the same results and deficiencies which limits the effectiveness of the role.

Selecting qualified candidates who are therefore diverse in their experience, thinking and approach is an effective way to prevent such ruts.
 
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