November 15, 2006

The Washington political world turned upside down on the day after Election Day, November 8. Power here in Washington now changes with the new Senate and new House. The political earthquake continues to roar this week as the new Leadership is selected and gives us all the new political leadership line up.

Nancy Pelosi is no stranger to us. She is most familiar with mayors. As the daughter of the former mayor of Baltimore and as the sister of a mayor, the D’Alesandro family grew up understanding the politics of a city. City politics and city people are part of her DNA.

Throughout her political career as a Member of Congress and a Minority Leader, she and her staff have reached out to us. She has visited us sharing her vision and we have visited with her as we have done our best together to save needed city resources from hostile segments of some Members of Congress. She has stood with us and her elevation to be Speaker of the House is a plus for mayors and cities.

Soon many fresh faces and old friends will take charge of the Congressional committees. Mayors will be there to give support to common priorities long overdue for action.

Let us hope Washington will follow the peoples’ wishes to find an acceptable resolution on the Iraq War. No doubt, it will be the first in line for action.

There are, too, domestic issues that will receive action in the first months of 2007. We must all realize that the window of opportunity is small because of the gridlock that may occur as we come closer to the 2008 Presidential season. At some point, there will be turbulence in both parties as candidates line up to go against one another. But until that all happens, we must act swiftly to work with the new Democratic Leadership in the Senate and the House to put our priority issues up front and center.

Over the next few weeks, Conference President Dearborn Mayor Michael A. Guido will be reaching out to our leadership teams to help formulate a bipartisan realistic agenda. We must be practical and reasonable and we must be strong with grassroots support to support our priorities.

Congress will begin work in early January. And that has put the House and Senate Leadership from both parties up front and center to participate in our 75th Winter Meeting January 24-26, 2007 here in Washington.

Many mayors were active locally in these mid-term elections. We need all mayors to come to Washington in January. Conference President Guido, Conference Vice President Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer, Advisory Board Chair Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and our Leadership will need you here to help establish an agenda and work plan that will help your city as well as other cities throughout our nation.

Yes, there is chaos here now but that’s what is great about this unique Democracy we continue to form and build. There’s all kind of change going on now and change brings opportunity for wins. Over the past few years, we have had to put up a strong protective defensive political effort to save CDBG and other priorities. We start anew now and we have no way to go but up. The people who voted last week want action for our cities and for our people. Conference President Guido will lead us forward. Backed up with our other mayoral leadership, we can win. We can finally do more than save CDBG from elimination. Let’s double it and move forward with a new group of mayors and a new group of Congressional leaders to finally confront and act on the priorities that face our cities, our nation ad our people.

At Thanksgiving time, we are thankful for all of you who serve your cities. And we are thankful for the opportunity given to us here in Washington to harvest our political rewards and come to the table to simply make it better for America.