Page 36 - Time Magazine, Sep. 17, 2018

1940 1975
Baltimore newspapers Pelosi, a housewife and
herald the birth of a baby mother of five, enters
LIFE OF A girl, Nancy D’Alesandro, her first public office as
to the family of a local
an appointed member
LEGISLATOR Congressman and of the San Francisco
future mayor
library commission

1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970

1969 1987 1990
Pelosi moves to Pelosi runs for Congress Fulfilling a campaign
San Francisco, in a special election promise to fight AIDS,
the hometown after a deathbed request Pelosi co-authors the
of her husband from the incumbent; she Ryan White Act, which
Paul, a financier wins a 14-way primary to devotes billions of dollars
take the seat in federal funds to treating
victims of the disease

stars. We were all in love with JFK,” recalls she still envisioned herself as a helpmeet, Human Rights Campaign and an early
Pelosi’s college friend Rita Meyer, one of a a behind-the-scenes player. Then, in 1987, Pelosi supporter. “The people in her
tightgroupof four girlfriends who remain the San Francisco Congresswoman Sala district don’t see her as somebody whose
close today. Her worldview still resembles Burton, who was dying of colon cancer, time has passed. They see her as a very
JFK’s brand of liberalism: Catholic social called Pelosi to her bedside and made her vigorous defender of their rights.”
justice, with a touch of noblesse oblige. promise to run for the seat. When Burton
She embarked on the life of a tradi- died, Pelosi moved into an elegant house IN THESE DAYS of gridlock, most mem-
tional wife and mother. It was 1963, the in the posh end of the district and entered bers of Congress exhibit a sort of learned
year The Feminine Mystique was pub- a fractious 14-way Democratic primary. helplessness, waiting for someone else
lished, and the idea that women would Pelosi positioned herself as a well- to come up with an idea so that they
graduate from college and start careers connected pragmatist, with the slogan can come out against it. It is especially
hadn’t taken hold. She had watched “A voice that will be heard.” She spent bracing, in this environment, to relive
her own mother’s ambitions stifled by more than $1 million, a staggering sum some of Pelosi’s early crusades. She
a domineering spouse. Now Pelosi fol- at the time and more than the rest of the may not have set out for Congress, but
lowed her husband, financier Paul Pelosi, field combined. Her campaign targeted once she got there, she attacked it with
to New York City and then to San Fran- the district’s wealthy residents with flyers urgency—and frequently won.
cisco, giving birth to five children in rapid thatpromisedshewouldfightincome-tax As a junior member, she spent five
succession. hikes. It was likely Republican voters who years fine-tuning a complicated plan to
Her life changed in 1975, with a call carried her to victory, according to Marc preserve San Francisco’s verdant Presidio
one afternoon from then San Francisco Sandalow’s biography Madam Speaker. by converting it from a military installa-
Mayor Joseph Alioto. “Nancy, what are The district was the center of the city’s tion to a public-private partnership with
you doing? Making a big pot of pasta?” gay community. Pelosi became its cham- the National Park Service. Her own party
she recalls him saying. (Pelosi is not pion, fighting for everything from health put the legislation aside, but Pelosi kept
much of a cook.) He offered her a spot insurance and housing subsidies to the at it, enlisting Republican allies, lobby-
on the city’s library commission and in- AIDS quilt, a football-field-size memorial ing fellow members and offering policy
sisted that she take it. “I said, ‘I’m inter- she convinced the National Park Service concessions. In 1995, she managed to get
ested in the library, but I don’t need an to allow on the Mall. She co-authored the a Republican Congress to create the na-
appointment to the commission,’” she bipartisan 1990 Ryan White Act, feder- tion’s most expensive national park—in
recalls. “And he said, ‘You shouldn’t say ally funding the treatment of low-income the middle of San Francisco. As one Re-
that. You’re doing the work; you should AIDS patients, which she muscled onto publican, James Hansen of Utah, mar-
receive official recognition for it.’” That the national agenda and got a Republican veled at the time, “There is no question
was a feminist lesson that stuck with President to sign. She was a supporter of she is a very persistent legislator.”
her—a woman should get the credit she gay marriage at a time when her party was Pelosi claimed to have no interest in
deserved—even if it was amusingly dis- pushing the Defense of Marriage Act. In a leadership position. But when, in 1997, 1940: COURTESY NANCY PELOSI; 1987, 2001, 2006, 2018: GET T Y IMAGES; 2010: EPA/SHUT TERSTOCK
sonant with the mayor’s assumption that 1993, she read a letter from Bill Clinton the only Californian among the Demo-
she spent her days slaving over a stove. at an AIDS rally that the President de- cratic brass stepped down, she saw her
Pelosi became active in California clined to attend in person. When detrac- moment and began jockeying, calling in
politics, raising money for candidates. tors sneer at her “San Francisco values,” favors from her years of fundraising. “She
She went on to chair the California she hears a homophobic dog whistle. raised the f-cking dough,” explained her
Democratic Party and took a lead role in As Pelosi saw it, she was sent friend and mentor, former Congressman
organizing the 1984 Democratic National to Washington to stick up for her John Burton of California. “She ought to
Convention. She discovered a talent for constituents. “She knew people be able to get something for it.”
assuaging the egos of powerful men even personally who were dying by the week,” It took four years for the role Pelosi
as she stood her ground against them. Yet says James Hormel, a co-founder of the wanted, Democratic whip, to open up.
28 TIME September 17, 2018