Addressing election year 'fights'

To fight the good fight.

Raising minimum wage, advancing immigration reform and adding the words for non-discrimination. These were just some of the "big fights" Christine Pelosi mentioned to the 150 guests who attended the 14th annual North Idaho Democracy Dinner Saturday evening at the Best Western Plus Coeur d'Alene Inn.

Pelosi said it is important to talk about these political issues or "fights" all the time, but it is especially important to talk about them now with the upcoming presidential election.

"That's the excitement of a presidential year," Pelosi told The Press during an interview earlier Saturday. "People are so interested in having a chance to weigh in, in both parties really, that people often track their engagement in issues to a presidential year or presidential campaign, because the issue matters more when it is being voiced by a candidate for president of the United States.”

Pelosi is an author and a member of the Democratic National Committee, as well as a campaign volunteer and California attorney. Her mother is Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of United States House of Representatives and who served as the 52nd Speaker of the House from 2007-2011.

Christine Pelosi said she comes from the "ATM of American politics and volunteer vault of campaigning."

Another issue Pelosi said concerns her is the Electoral College. She said she would like to see the electoral college abolished and for America to adopt the national popular vote so people "would feel as if they have a direct investment in their democracy and that the president is truly accountable to all Americans and not just the Americans in the states that were the tipping points."

"It's becoming an oligarchy if campaigns are decided by elections that are fought by very wealthy people in 12 swing states," Pelosi said. "Which means neither California nor Idaho are going to matter in November except as donor states to Nevada and Colorado."

She said the national popular vote basically says when enough states that equal 270 electoral votes are all voting the same way, then the national popular vote would be used to elect the president.

"The idea being that we transition out of the electoral college and into one-person, one-vote, which is the cornerstone of democracy," Pelosi said.

About 40 people attended Pelosi's "campaign boot camp" prior to the dinner Saturday, which was based off her books: "Campaign Boot Camp: Basic Training for Future Leaders" and "Campaign Boot Camp 2.0."

Pelosi said she covered many of the same issues during the boot camp as she did for her speech, but with the smaller group of candidates, future candidates and a few others, she said they were able to "drill down into people’s issues and concerns."

"What we do is identify our call to service, and then look at strategies and tactics to answering the call to service in a way that's going to help the most people," Pelosi said. "The main message of the book is to find your call to service, answer it with discipline and a campaign — so that you can win — and make the positive change that you want to see in the world."