At a press conference today, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reiterated her support for efforts to reduce the influence of big money in the political process and said that was a motivating factor in her decision to run for Democratic Leader again.

She said, "changing the role of money in politics is really a very important motivator for me to stay in the leader’s office. I think it must be done.”

She continued, “Our founders had in mind a government of the many, not a government of the money. You’ve heard me say that over and over again.”

Here is a (lightly edited) transcript. The video is available on CSPAN's website, and these comments run from about 13 minutes to 14:20.

“[B]ut I talked here about changing the role of money in politics, is really a very important motivator for me to stay in the leader’s office. I think it must be done. When people say that, oh and I read in the course of this week that money didn’t make any difference in the course of the campaign. They all wasted their money. Well that really wasn’t true. The president of the united States the most well known famous respected person on the planet had to spend a billion dollars to set the record straight from what that other big money was putting out there.

“Senate races House races, Tammy Duckworth had $7 million spent against her. $7 million in outside money. This is a Congressional race. This is not right. Our founders had in mind a government of the many, not the government of the money. You’ve heard me say that over and over again. So that was a motivating factor to me and of course it’s at the will of my caucus."

Leader Pelosi has long been an advocate for legislation similar to the Fair Elections Now Act that would help raise the voices of everyday people in our political process. After the most expensive election in history, one which gave a select few donors an inordinate amount of power, her comments--and desire to take action--should be applauded.