{"id":694,"date":"2018-09-20T16:05:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T21:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/?p=694"},"modified":"2018-09-20T16:08:37","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T21:08:37","slug":"bnd-kelly-says-congress-needs-new-leaders-bost-asks-hes-taking-old-leaders-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/?p=694","title":{"rendered":"BND: Kelly says Congress needs new leaders. Bost asks why he\u2019s taking old leaders\u2019 money."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h6>\n
Democratic St. Clair County State\u2019s Attorney Brendan Kelly (right), who is challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, says he won\u2019t vote for Nancy Pelosi to be speaker of the House if he wins in November.\u00a0<\/span>BND File Photo<\/span><\/h6>\n

The Bellleville News-Democrat<\/p>\n

BY JOSEPH BUSTOS<\/p>\n

September 20, 2018<\/p>\n

If St. Clair County State\u2019s Attorney Brendan Kelly is elected to Congress and he and his fellow Democrats are able to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kelly will face a leadership vote.<\/p>\n

While on the campaign trail, the Swansea Democrat seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, has said he will not vote for\u00a0Nancy Pelosi to be speaker of the House<\/a>, no matter the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not be voting for Nancy Pelosi under any circumstance,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cI think what\u2019s going to happen is we\u2019ll have so many new people in Congress, that are veterans, that have a different life experience. You\u2019re going to see a generational change in our leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just directed at one person,\u201d Kelly added. \u201cI think we need a whole leadership cadre at the top.\u201d Kelly hasn\u2019t selected anyone in particular he would support for speaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will support the candidate for speaker that will do the most for the people of Southern Illinois,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

Kelly says his position isn\u2019t motivated by political polling about Pelosi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen a poll that says one way or the other about her. It has nothing to do with her, as much as it is the need for the country to break the log jam that we find ourselves in,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cIn order to overcome this divide we do have to have new people. We do need a new generation. I think the folks that are at the top now who have been in control of both parties for a long time are not moving the country passed those divisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposing Nancy Pelosi<\/h3>\n

Pelosi has lots of\u00a0fundraising power in the Democratic Party<\/a>. The California leader has been in the\u00a0Democratic leadership in the House<\/a>\u00a0since 2003, and served as speaker of the House for four years.<\/p>\n

Kelly has\u00a0raised money with Pelosi<\/a>. Pelosi was advertised to\u00a0appear at fundraisers in April<\/a>and June for Illinois candidates, including the St. Clair County Democrat. In August,\u00a0Kelly had a fundraiser with Steny Hoyer<\/a>, the House minority party whip, one of Pelosi\u2019s lieutenants, according to invitations shared by Republican operatives.<\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s position on Pelosi is one held by many Democrats hoping to be a part of the 116th Congress. Nearly 60\u00a0Democratic representatives or candidates<\/a>\u00a0running for Congress have said they oppose Pelosi.<\/p>\n

Earlier this summer, Pelosi, who wants to be speaker again, was asked about Democrats coming out against her being the House leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to win, that\u2019s the simplest answer of all,\u201d Pelosi said. \u201cWhen I\u2019m not in the Capitol and I\u2019m some place else, I\u2019m raising money to elect those very people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans criticize Kelly<\/h3>\n

The National Republican Campaign Committee criticized Kelly for taking Pelosi\u2019s help, and help from her lieutenants, to raise campaign dollars while calling for new leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Brendan Kelly is going to talk the talk, then he needs to walk the walk too,\u201d said NRCC spokeswoman Maddie Anderson. \u201cIf he truly wants \u2018new leadership,\u2019 he needs to return leadership\u2019s money immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bost campaign also has criticized planned advertising in the area for the fall by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and House Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Brendan Kelly has an ounce of honesty in him, he should call for Nancy Pelosi and her D.C. cronies to pull all advertising from the 12th district,\u201d said Dustin Rhodes, Bost\u2019s campaign manager. \u201cAnything short of that is just another example of his hypocritical doublespeak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly called the criticism an act of desperation and called it a \u201cdivisive approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t run on their records, they can\u2019t run on any great thing they\u2019ve done for the country,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cMy opponent cannot run on anything great he has done for Southern Illinois, so he\u2019s got to focus on these personalities.\u201d<\/p>\n

With current\u00a0Speaker of the House Paul Ryan leaving the House<\/a>\u00a0at the end the term, Bost would have to vote for someone new if he\u2019s elected. He has said he would support current House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California.<\/p>\n

On the campaign trail, Bost has talked about how Pelosi wants be back in the speaker position if Democrats take back the House. In a television ad, the second-term congressman said he\u2019s been fighting against Pelosi and that Kelly supports her.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of what my opponent says, what he doesn\u2019t understand is pressure will be put on him if all of a sudden they win, because her base in that caucus, still holds to her,\u201d Bost said. \u201cHe\u2019s never been through one of those votes when you\u2019re arguing over who you\u2019re going to be voting for the leader and\/or speaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the entire story HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic St. Clair County State\u2019s Attorney Brendan Kelly (right), who is challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, says he won\u2019t vote for Nancy Pelosi to be speaker of the House if he wins in November.\u00a0BND File Photo The Bellleville News-Democrat BY JOSEPH BUSTOS September 20, 2018 If St. Clair County State\u2019s Attorney Brendan Kelly is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostforcongress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}