Pelosi Biographer: "Liberal Heart and Pragmatic Brain" Was the Key to Her Historic Political Career
As legendary former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will retire at the end of her term, the journalist who wrote the book on her recalls what lay behind her political genius.
(Editor’s note: Marc Sandalow was Washington Bureau Chief of the San Francisco Chronicle when Rep. Nancy Pelosi made history in 2007, becoming the first woman elected Speaker of the House of the Representatives. The next year, Sandalow published the first unauthorized biography of the now-legendary politician. First elected to Congress in 1987, Pelosi announced on Thursday that she would retire at the end of her current term, so we asked Marc to reflect on this American political eminence, whom he covered up close and personal. /jr).
By Marc Sandalow
It was a rainy night in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. Nancy Pelosi was nearing the end of a 72-hour campaign swing that would take her from the Gulf Coast to the Rocky Mountains to the heart of Pennsylvania’s coal country.
The year was 2002. Pelosi was the House Democratic Whip, No. 2 in the party’s hierarchy. She was attending a fundraiser for Rep. Paul Kanjorski, an Army veteran several years her senior. I was there in my role as the San Francisco Chronicle’s Washington Bureau Chief.
Though it was not clear when Democrats would regain control of the House, or if Pelosi would ultimately win her party’s nomination for Speaker, the event highlighted the skills that would propel Pelosi to heights no woman – and few men – had ever reached before.
Lackawanna County is 2,500 miles from the corner of Haight and Ashbury, and light years from Pelosi’s Pacific Heights home. Kanjorski would have been regarded as a reactionary within a 100-mile radius of San Francisco.
He supported the war in Iraq, the death penalty, and a Constitutional amendment banning flag burning. He opposed legal abortions and gun control, and supported a ban on gays leading Boy Scout troops
Nevertheless, he was a Democrat. He knew that Pelosi’s presence would pad his campaign coffers, and perhaps enhance his credibility. For her part, Pelosi understood that to win a House majority and reach her goal of House Speaker, Democrats would need to win every seat imaginable.
As the crowd filled their plates with spaghetti and sausage from large tin containers, Kanjorski introduced Pelosi, referring to her as “this pretty girl from California.’’
Pelosi smiled.
Reading the room. Not known for her oratorical finesse, Pelosi informed the crowd that if Democrats won control of the House, Kanjorski would become “chairman of the Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprise Committee.’’
The crowd stared back blankly.
But Pelosi knew how to work all sorts of crowds, and she captured their attention when she recalled with fondness how her father, as mayor of Baltimore, would regularly travel to Scranton in the 1950s to help Democrats.
She praised Kanjorski’s union support and his commitment to the plight of miners and talked of the coal doll she owned that had been given to her father by appreciative miners.
She vowed to take back control of the House and repeating her favorite phrase, said her top three priorities would be: “Our children, our children, our children.’’
The crowd was impressed, though it would be another two years before Democrats would win control of the House.
The ability of a San Francisco liberal, someone who regularly rode down Market Street in the annual Pride Parade, which also featured pierced nipples and testicles, to connect with voters in coal country – and appreciate the importance of doing so – was a testament to Pelosi’s extraordinary political talent.
Liberal pragmatism. She had many qualities that propelled her to the top. Often overlooked was her rare combination of a liberal heart and a pragmatic brain.
She was able to demand attention be paid to the AIDS crisis, stand up for the LGBTQ+ community, insult President George W. Bush for his incompetent warmongering, while at the same time distributing money – often raised from liberal Californians -- to candidates in conservative swing districts.
She understood that simply promoting San Francisco values would not build a House majority.
This is an insight Democrats will need going forward as they chart a path after a midterm in which party candidates as divergent as New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani and Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger both prevailed.
Keeping a party unified is not easy, evidenced by the GOPs failures. Since Pelosi’s first Speakership ended in 2011, Republicans have pushed out three speakers, including Kevin McCarthy, who took 15 ballots to win the job.
Pelosi worked hard to avoid such troubles. House Democratic unity, as measured by Congressional Quarterly, reached its peak during her second speakership.
Republicans endlessly tried to portray her as a loony lefty in thousands of ads which ran election after election congressional districts across the country.
They rarely worked. They did not reflect reality.
She staunchly opposed the war in Iraq but refused to pursue articles of impeachment against George W. Bush. What was the point in consuming a year of energy on a matter, which at best, would elevate Dick Cheney to the presidency?
In her first year as Speaker, she promoted a measure providing job protection for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. But as the bill was on the verge of defeat after conservative Democrats said that they could not support transgender rights, she removed the “t’’ and passed the bill providing protection for “LG&Bs,’’ vowing to come back with another measure when the support was there.
When Obamacare appeared dead in the House, she saved it by removing the public option, which she herself supported, angering liberals but securing the law’s passage.
The only close race. It was her instinct for pragmatism that set her apart from her competition in her first campaign for Congress in 1987, the only close race she ever had. Her chief rival was Harry Britt, a protégée of Harvey Milk, who would have been the first openly gay man elected to Congress.
He portrayed her as a “party girl,’’ beholden to the status quo. He insisted that San Francisco values be shouted from the mountaintop. She won by fewer than 4,000 votes.
Even years later, Britt, who passed away in 2020, said he did not believe that Pelosi’s pragmatic approach was right for a San Franciscan, saying pragmatism should come from a representative from a more moderate district.
Pelosi however always believed that by steering a pragmatic course, she could accomplish far more of her liberal ambitions.
Her record supports her choice. Federal money to battle AIDS, creating a National Park in the Presidio, stricter environmental rules, money for children’s programs, the Affordable Care Act, and being an inspiration to millions of young women were all the result of her approach.
Twenty-three years later, I still wonder how Pelosi kept her smile when introduced as “that pretty girl from San Francisco.’’ I imagine being called “Madam Speaker’’ takes away most of the pain.
Marc Sandalow is a senior faculty member at the University of California’s Washington Center. His biography “Madam Speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s Life, Times and Rise to Power’’ was published in 2008.
Images: (L) Pelosi campaigning for Proposition 50 this week (KTVU-TV); (R) A campaign photo from her first race for Congress in 1987.