Latest news with #GluesenkampPerez
Axios
2 days ago
- Politics
- Axios
House Democrat floats radical solution to Congress' age problem
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is proposing something unprecedented: Having Congress' ethics office effectively adjudicate whether lawmakers are too cognitively impaired to do their jobs. Why it matters: The 36-year-old Washington Democrat is publicly calling out a dynamic many of her colleagues refuse to even address — arguing Congress' aging membership is damaging the credibility of the whole institution. Gluesenkamp Perez, an auto shop owner who had never held public office before being elected to Congress in 2022, has built a brand calling out what she says is a disconnect between Washington, D.C., and everyday Americans. The age issue, she told Axios in an interview at her Capitol Hill office, is just another facet of that dissonance. "What I've heard from my neighbors, my community is this idea that this place is being run by a bunch of staffers," she said. "And we're seeing a very real decline in confidence in Congress." Driving the news: Gluesenkamp Perez tried last month to get her proposal attached as an amendment to the House Appropriations Committee's bill funding Congress for the next year. The amendment would require the Office of Congressional Conduct to create a standard to determine members' "ability to perform the duties of office unimpeded by significant irreversible cognitive impairment." That would open the door to ethics investigations into whether a member is mentally incapacitated to the point it is damaging to the House's credibility. Ethics investigations can result in a wide array of consequences, ranging from warnings and fines to — in the case of former Rep. George Santos — the House voting for expulsion. Zoom in: The amendment failed in an overwhelming voice vote, with few if any members of the Appropriations Committee voting for it — a show of just how taboo the topic is. Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), the chair and ranking member of the legislative branch subcommittee, both spoke in opposition to it. Valadao acknowledged "a lot of concern with some of our colleagues sometimes when we see some of their comments," but argued that the House's bi-annual elections are a sufficient referendum on lawmakers' fitness for office. What they're saying: "It's not a comfortable thing to think about time being irreversible and how our lives change, but ... real respect for our communities and the body here is [being] willing to have these honest, candid and difficult conversations," Gluesenkamp Perez told Axios. She said the disastrous debate performance that led former President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 election raised "serious concerns" in her district "that it was not their elected representatives calling the shots." Gluesenkamp Perez said that while she also supports term limits, her proposal would allow Congress to "impartially evaluate these questions" while maintaining a "representative body of all ages and experiences." Zoom out: There have been numerous examples in recent years of lawmakers in their 70s and 80s facing painfully public cognitive decline. Sen. Dianne Feinstein 's (D-Calif.) health and declining mental capabilities were a source of continued heartburn for Democrats in the years leading up to her death at 90 years old in 2023. Former Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), a former Appropriations Committee chair, was revealed last year to have been checked into an independent living facility with 6 months left in her term. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is the latest lawmaker whose decline has been the subject of continued headlines, with the 88-year-old's office repeatedly walking back quotes she gives to reporters. The bottom line: Gluesenkamp Perez plans to continue her efforts and try to build support among her colleagues, telling Axios, "It's clear people want systemic reform. They want accountability."
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Blinded by the light: Should there be restrictions on headlights?
This story was originally published on A Washington Congresswoman is shining a light on what she says is a persistent problem for drivers—overly bright headlights. U.S. Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that the blinding beams are a danger on the roadway. She acknowledged that the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Law tried to improve safety by allowing manufacturers to install adaptive beams, which are supposed to adjust headlights to oncoming traffic and other environmental factors. 'But let's be honest. It has not helped,' Gluesenkamp Perez said. She told the committee she'd like to work with it and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to set standards for headlights, 'that retain visibility for drivers, but also reduce glare and increase safety for other drivers on the road.' She said this is not just a concern in her southwest Washington, Third Congressional District. 'This is something that draws ire from rural Americans, from older Americans, from law enforcement,' she said, adding social media is full of complaints. KIRO Newsradio found no shortage of critics on Reddit. 'Why do you need to send 80,000 lumens into my brain just to see what's in front of you?' one user wrote. Another wrote, 'Used to love driving in the dark too, but it's miserable now, sick of…being flash banged by oncoming vehicles.' 'If you're so blind that you need an industrial laser frying everyone else's retinas to see ahead of you, maybe just don't (expletive) drive,' wrote another.
Hamilton Spectator
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Democratic Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez won in a Trump district. Now she faces an uprising from the left
CENTRALIA, Wash. (AP) — Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez gave Democrats a rare win last fall when she defeated a MAGA diehard in a Republican district in southwestern Washington state. Hailed by some as a model for winning back blue-collar voters who abandoned the Democratic Party in last year's elections, the auto repair shop owner shunned partisanship, refused to engage in culture wars, and concentrated on helping people in her district — preserving VA clinics, for example, or backing funding for vocational shop classes. Whether the second-term congresswoman's strategy succeeds will be decided by voters in next year's midterm elections. But for some progressives in her district, it is proving inadequate to counter the authoritarian tilt of President Donald Trump's second term in the White House. At two town halls she hosted recently, crowds shouted questions or chanted, 'Vote her out!' Many vowed to support a more liberal primary challenger. 'It's a really bad time to be a centrist,' said Liz Oxford, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mom from Centralia. 'She just keeps on coming down as one of the few Democrats to side with Republicans, and that is a really hard thing to accept right now. It's like, look, you ran as a Democrat, and right now Democrats have to draw a hard line.' Is she in danger? Hundreds of people showed up at her town halls last month. Many were furious over her recent votes to censure Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green for disrupting Trump's speech to Congress and for a measure that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. How well Gluesenkamp Perez, 36, navigates the criticism could help determine whether Democrats can retake the House next year. But in a largely rural, red district, some say a bashing from leftist voters might actually help her. 'In a district like Washington 3, you win or lose by being able to get independents and moderate Republicans to cross over the vast chasm that has opened up between the parties and vote for you,' said Sandeep Kaushik, a Seattle-based political consultant who worked on Gluesenkamp Perez's first campaign in 2022. 'And Marie has been almost uniquely successful in doing that in her first two campaigns.' Gluesenkamp Perez is the only Democrat running for federal or statewide office to carry the district in at least a decade, Kaushik noted. Even Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, former Gov. Jay Inslee and newly elected Gov. Bob Ferguson failed there despite winning big statewide. Gluesenkamp Perez's predecessor, six-term Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, did not make it out of the 2022 primary . Right-wing constituents angry about her vote to impeach Trump cast their lot with Joe Kent, a former U.S. Army special operations soldier who promoted Trump's lie that the 2020 election was stolen and touted conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by his supporters. In the general election that year, Gluesenkamp Perez beat Kent by less than a percentage point, flipping the seat for Democrats. Heading into a rematch with Kent last fall , she was considered one of the most vulnerable members of Congress — but won by nearly 4 points and outperformed both Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. So far, one Democrat, Brent Hennrich, has announced a primary challenge. On his website, the former movie theater operations manager who filed to run this week dismissed Gluesenkamp Perez's moderation as the wrong approach for the moment. 'With our nation in crisis, Democrats in Congress must do everything in their power to block the radical Trump agenda, but our incumbent has been far too willing to compromise on bills that threaten our rights, our prosperity, and our health,' Hennrich wrote. What does she stand for? Analysts across the country have pointed to the congresswoman's nuts-and-bolts approach to governing — what she describes as a 'positive policy agenda' — as a remedy for Democratic woes. For her, that's meant securing money for shop programs at vocational colleges, pressing the VA to reopen a clinic in Chehalis so veterans don't have to drive to Olympia, and pushing to allow loggers to thin forests to create jobs and reduce wildfire risks. 'Political polarization has been really destructive to our democracy,' Gluesenkamp Perez told The Associated Press in an interview. 'If you're trying to build a policy agenda that is popular, if you're trying to build a bigger sense of democracy, it's not, in my view, prudent to start excluding people. It's about building a bigger team, just being more useful to more people.' Constituents across the political spectrum have praised her work on local issues. But at her recent town halls, anger over some of her votes was obvious. Those include a vote for the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship for anyone registering to vote. Critics call it a voter-suppression tool meant to hype the notion that illegal immigrants vote in U.S. elections — an exceptionally rare occurrence. The bill could make it harder for women who have taken their husband's last name or transgender people whose names don't match their birth certificates to vote. Gluesenkamp Perez called the bill flawed but said making sure only citizens vote is a popular idea in her district. She also said she knew it wouldn't pass in the Senate. That enraged Carol Brock, the former chairwoman of the Lewis County Democrats. 'I'm all for working across the aisle. I live in Lewis County — there's more Republicans here than there is grass,' Brock said after the town hall in Centralia. 'It doesn't mean I give up my values. If you don't believe in it, why did you vote for it?' Tina Podlodowski, the former three-term chair of the state Democratic Party, posted on Facebook after the SAVE Act vote, 'Democrats can and must do better in WA3 than Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.' This week, Pacific County Democrats began considering whether to call on the state party to refrain from endorsing Gluesenkamp Perez as long as another Democrat is challenging her. Supporters urge her to pick her battles Gluesenkamp Perez said she has spoken up against Republicans when their actions have real effects on people in her district: cutting funding for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoys relied on by fishermen, cutting support to wildland firefighters , gutting hunger relief programs , or proposing Medicaid cuts that she said 'are going to kill people.' 'There's a lot of consternation and anger and rage about things that don't have the force of law,' she said. 'It's really important that we're not torching social capital on things that will not be experienced by most people — or any people.' Perhaps no one has enjoyed the mounting criticism of Gluesenkamp Perez more than Republicans, who say she is being 'abandoned' by Democrats. 'Vulnerable Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is getting primaried and no one's shocked,' the National Republican Congressional Committee said in a statement. 'She's too weak for the far left, too radical for Washington's families, she doesn't belong anywhere.' Some of her supporters say Gluesenkamp Perez must pick her battles — and Democrats in her district should, too. 'We are cutting our nose off to spite our face, to make statements about throwing her out of office,' said Bob Guenther, a Lewis County labor activist. 'We've got to be thoughtful. We've got to flip the Congress or we're in trouble.' ___
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democratic Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez won in a Trump district. Now she faces an uprising from the left
CENTRALIA, Wash. (AP) — Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez gave Democrats a rare win last fall when she defeated a MAGA diehard in a Republican district in southwestern Washington state. Hailed by some as a model for winning back blue-collar voters who abandoned the Democratic Party in last year's elections, the auto repair shop owner shunned partisanship, refused to engage in culture wars, and concentrated on helping people in her district — preserving VA clinics, for example, or backing funding for vocational shop classes. Whether the second-term congresswoman's strategy succeeds will be decided by voters in next year's midterm elections. But for some progressives in her district, it is proving inadequate to counter the authoritarian tilt of President Donald Trump's second term in the White House. At two town halls she hosted recently, crowds shouted questions or chanted, 'Vote her out!' Many vowed to support a more liberal primary challenger. 'It's a really bad time to be a centrist,' said Liz Oxford, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mom from Centralia. 'She just keeps on coming down as one of the few Democrats to side with Republicans, and that is a really hard thing to accept right now. It's like, look, you ran as a Democrat, and right now Democrats have to draw a hard line.' Is she in danger? Hundreds of people showed up at her town halls last month. Many were furious over her recent votes to censure Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green for disrupting Trump's speech to Congress and for a measure that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. How well Gluesenkamp Perez, 36, navigates the criticism could help determine whether Democrats can retake the House next year. But in a largely rural, red district, some say a bashing from leftist voters might actually help her. 'In a district like Washington 3, you win or lose by being able to get independents and moderate Republicans to cross over the vast chasm that has opened up between the parties and vote for you,' said Sandeep Kaushik, a Seattle-based political consultant who worked on Gluesenkamp Perez's first campaign in 2022. 'And Marie has been almost uniquely successful in doing that in her first two campaigns.' Gluesenkamp Perez is the only Democrat running for federal or statewide office to carry the district in at least a decade, Kaushik noted. Even Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, former Gov. Jay Inslee and newly elected Gov. Bob Ferguson failed there despite winning big statewide. Gluesenkamp Perez's predecessor, six-term Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, did not make it out of the 2022 primary. Right-wing constituents angry about her vote to impeach Trump cast their lot with Joe Kent, a former U.S. Army special operations soldier who promoted Trump's lie that the 2020 election was stolen and touted conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by his supporters. In the general election that year, Gluesenkamp Perez beat Kent by less than a percentage point, flipping the seat for Democrats. Heading into a rematch with Kent last fall, she was considered one of the most vulnerable members of Congress — but won by nearly 4 points and outperformed both Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. So far, one Democrat, Brent Hennrich, has announced a primary challenge. On his website, the former movie theater operations manager who filed to run this week dismissed Gluesenkamp Perez's moderation as the wrong approach for the moment. 'With our nation in crisis, Democrats in Congress must do everything in their power to block the radical Trump agenda, but our incumbent has been far too willing to compromise on bills that threaten our rights, our prosperity, and our health,' Hennrich wrote. What does she stand for? Analysts across the country have pointed to the congresswoman's nuts-and-bolts approach to governing — what she describes as a 'positive policy agenda' — as a remedy for Democratic woes. For her, that's meant securing money for shop programs at vocational colleges, pressing the VA to reopen a clinic in Chehalis so veterans don't have to drive to Olympia, and pushing to allow loggers to thin forests to create jobs and reduce wildfire risks. 'Political polarization has been really destructive to our democracy,' Gluesenkamp Perez told The Associated Press in an interview. 'If you're trying to build a policy agenda that is popular, if you're trying to build a bigger sense of democracy, it's not, in my view, prudent to start excluding people. It's about building a bigger team, just being more useful to more people.' Constituents across the political spectrum have praised her work on local issues. But at her recent town halls, anger over some of her votes was obvious. Those include a vote for the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship for anyone registering to vote. Critics call it a voter-suppression tool meant to hype the notion that illegal immigrants vote in U.S. elections — an exceptionally rare occurrence. The bill could make it harder for women who have taken their husband's last name or transgender people whose names don't match their birth certificates to vote. Gluesenkamp Perez called the bill flawed but said making sure only citizens vote is a popular idea in her district. She also said she knew it wouldn't pass in the Senate. That enraged Carol Brock, the former chairwoman of the Lewis County Democrats. 'I'm all for working across the aisle. I live in Lewis County — there's more Republicans here than there is grass,' Brock said after the town hall in Centralia. 'It doesn't mean I give up my values. If you don't believe in it, why did you vote for it?' Tina Podlodowski, the former three-term chair of the state Democratic Party, posted on Facebook after the SAVE Act vote, 'Democrats can and must do better in WA3 than Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.' This week, Pacific County Democrats began considering whether to call on the state party to refrain from endorsing Gluesenkamp Perez as long as another Democrat is challenging her. Supporters urge her to pick her battles Gluesenkamp Perez said she has spoken up against Republicans when their actions have real effects on people in her district: cutting funding for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoys relied on by fishermen, cutting support to wildland firefighters, gutting hunger relief programs, or proposing Medicaid cuts that she said 'are going to kill people.' 'There's a lot of consternation and anger and rage about things that don't have the force of law,' she said. 'It's really important that we're not torching social capital on things that will not be experienced by most people — or any people.' Perhaps no one has enjoyed the mounting criticism of Gluesenkamp Perez more than Republicans, who say she is being 'abandoned' by Democrats. 'Vulnerable Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is getting primaried and no one's shocked,' the National Republican Congressional Committee said in a statement. 'She's too weak for the far left, too radical for Washington's families, she doesn't belong anywhere.' Some of her supporters say Gluesenkamp Perez must pick her battles — and Democrats in her district should, too. 'We are cutting our nose off to spite our face, to make statements about throwing her out of office,' said Bob Guenther, a Lewis County labor activist. 'We've got to be thoughtful. We've got to flip the Congress or we're in trouble.' ___
Winnipeg Free Press
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Democratic Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez won in a Trump district. Now she faces an uprising from the left
CENTRALIA, Wash. (AP) — Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez gave Democrats a rare win last fall when she defeated a MAGA diehard in a Republican district in southwestern Washington state. Hailed by some as a model for winning back blue-collar voters who abandoned the Democratic Party in last year's elections, the auto repair shop owner shunned partisanship, refused to engage in culture wars, and concentrated on helping people in her district — preserving VA clinics, for example, or backing funding for vocational shop classes. Whether the second-term congresswoman's strategy succeeds will be decided by voters in next year's midterm elections. But for some progressives in her district, it is proving inadequate to counter the authoritarian tilt of President Donald Trump's second term in the White House. At two town halls she hosted recently, crowds shouted questions or chanted, 'Vote her out!' Many vowed to support a more liberal primary challenger. 'It's a really bad time to be a centrist,' said Liz Oxford, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mom from Centralia. 'She just keeps on coming down as one of the few Democrats to side with Republicans, and that is a really hard thing to accept right now. It's like, look, you ran as a Democrat, and right now Democrats have to draw a hard line.' Is she in danger? Hundreds of people showed up at her town halls last month. Many were furious over her recent votes to censure Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green for disrupting Trump's speech to Congress and for a measure that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. How well Gluesenkamp Perez, 36, navigates the criticism could help determine whether Democrats can retake the House next year. But in a largely rural, red district, some say a bashing from leftist voters might actually help her. 'In a district like Washington 3, you win or lose by being able to get independents and moderate Republicans to cross over the vast chasm that has opened up between the parties and vote for you,' said Sandeep Kaushik, a Seattle-based political consultant who worked on Gluesenkamp Perez's first campaign in 2022. 'And Marie has been almost uniquely successful in doing that in her first two campaigns.' Gluesenkamp Perez is the only Democrat running for federal or statewide office to carry the district in at least a decade, Kaushik noted. Even Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, former Gov. Jay Inslee and newly elected Gov. Bob Ferguson failed there despite winning big statewide. Gluesenkamp Perez's predecessor, six-term Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, did not make it out of the 2022 primary. Right-wing constituents angry about her vote to impeach Trump cast their lot with Joe Kent, a former U.S. Army special operations soldier who promoted Trump's lie that the 2020 election was stolen and touted conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by his supporters. In the general election that year, Gluesenkamp Perez beat Kent by less than a percentage point, flipping the seat for Democrats. Heading into a rematch with Kent last fall, she was considered one of the most vulnerable members of Congress — but won by nearly 4 points and outperformed both Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. So far, one Democrat, Brent Hennrich, has announced a primary challenge. On his website, the former movie theater operations manager who filed to run this week dismissed Gluesenkamp Perez's moderation as the wrong approach for the moment. 'With our nation in crisis, Democrats in Congress must do everything in their power to block the radical Trump agenda, but our incumbent has been far too willing to compromise on bills that threaten our rights, our prosperity, and our health,' Hennrich wrote. What does she stand for? Analysts across the country have pointed to the congresswoman's nuts-and-bolts approach to governing — what she describes as a 'positive policy agenda' — as a remedy for Democratic woes. For her, that's meant securing money for shop programs at vocational colleges, pressing the VA to reopen a clinic in Chehalis so veterans don't have to drive to Olympia, and pushing to allow loggers to thin forests to create jobs and reduce wildfire risks. 'Political polarization has been really destructive to our democracy,' Gluesenkamp Perez told The Associated Press in an interview. 'If you're trying to build a policy agenda that is popular, if you're trying to build a bigger sense of democracy, it's not, in my view, prudent to start excluding people. It's about building a bigger team, just being more useful to more people.' Constituents across the political spectrum have praised her work on local issues. But at her recent town halls, anger over some of her votes was obvious. Those include a vote for the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship for anyone registering to vote. Critics call it a voter-suppression tool meant to hype the notion that illegal immigrants vote in U.S. elections — an exceptionally rare occurrence. The bill could make it harder for women who have taken their husband's last name or transgender people whose names don't match their birth certificates to vote. Gluesenkamp Perez called the bill flawed but said making sure only citizens vote is a popular idea in her district. She also said she knew it wouldn't pass in the Senate. That enraged Carol Brock, the former chairwoman of the Lewis County Democrats. 'I'm all for working across the aisle. I live in Lewis County — there's more Republicans here than there is grass,' Brock said after the town hall in Centralia. 'It doesn't mean I give up my values. If you don't believe in it, why did you vote for it?' Tina Podlodowski, the former three-term chair of the state Democratic Party, posted on Facebook after the SAVE Act vote, 'Democrats can and must do better in WA3 than Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.' This week, Pacific County Democrats began considering whether to call on the state party to refrain from endorsing Gluesenkamp Perez as long as another Democrat is challenging her. Supporters urge her to pick her battles Gluesenkamp Perez said she has spoken up against Republicans when their actions have real effects on people in her district: cutting funding for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoys relied on by fishermen, cutting support to wildland firefighters, gutting hunger relief programs, or proposing Medicaid cuts that she said 'are going to kill people.' 'There's a lot of consternation and anger and rage about things that don't have the force of law,' she said. 'It's really important that we're not torching social capital on things that will not be experienced by most people — or any people.' Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Perhaps no one has enjoyed the mounting criticism of Gluesenkamp Perez more than Republicans, who say she is being 'abandoned' by Democrats. 'Vulnerable Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is getting primaried and no one's shocked,' the National Republican Congressional Committee said in a statement. 'She's too weak for the far left, too radical for Washington's families, she doesn't belong anywhere.' Some of her supporters say Gluesenkamp Perez must pick her battles — and Democrats in her district should, too. 'We are cutting our nose off to spite our face, to make statements about throwing her out of office,' said Bob Guenther, a Lewis County labor activist. 'We've got to be thoughtful. We've got to flip the Congress or we're in trouble.' ___
