Pelosi vows to expand leadership team
By Mike Lillis - 11/21/18 05:56 AM EST
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to expand the Democratic leadership team, marking her latest bid to win favor from her restive caucus as she seeks the Speaker’s gavel next year.
In a letter to Democrats delivered Tuesday, Pelosi proposed the creation of a new position — a chairman of the Democrats’ messaging arm — as she fights to put down a rebellion from insurgent lawmakers hoping to block her ascension to the Speaker’s chair.
The move is the latest in an evolving expansion of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), which just two year ago was headed by a single lawmaker appointed by Pelosi without the input of other members.
Created in 2015, the office was upsized following the 2016 elections, when retiring DPCC Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who was installed by Pelosi, was replaced by three co-chairs — Reps. Cheri Bustos (Ill.), Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and David Cicilline (R.I.) — who were elected by the full Democratic Caucus.
Pelosi’s new proposal in the leadership structure would add a fourth position at the DPCC amid the clamor from newer members for more power within a caucus that’s been controlled by the same three leaders for more than a decade.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/417776-pelosi-vows-to-expand-leadership-team
