Elected Official Quotes & Sayings

I do not believe you have to be an elected official to help 'change the world.' In fact, maybe it is easier from the outside. — Chris Gabrieli

Between 1994 and 2008, an individual health-care mandate was a standard GOP nostrum, promoted not only by Mitt Romney, but by Newt Gingrich when he was the highest elected Republican official in the country, and it was endorsed by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Now the mandate is the work of the devil, and authoritarian followers of the GOP, like faithful party members in Orwell's 1984, believe "we've always been at war" against mandates. — Mike Lofgren

Well, I've been in the political arena all of my life, and 10 years of that as a candidate and elected official, and that's about enough. — Jim Hightower

You don't have to be an elected official to be a public servant. — William J. Clinton

I'm not an elected official who puts a finger in the wind to see what the majority thinks; I represent women, whether they're popular or not. — Gloria Allred

Patriotism is not defined by loyalty to a particular elected official or political party. Indeed, excess loyalty to a single individual or party is the very antithesis of patriotism, as it places fealty to that individual or party over allegiance to the country, its interests, and its values. True patriotism is measured by the extent to which one believes in, and is willing to fight for and defend, the defining values and core principles of our country. — Glenn Greenwald

I just think the mood of the country is now that people don't necessarily want an elected official to tell them how they ought to cast their vote. Matter of fact, it's the opposite, and they want to express themselves, and they have a right to, and I'll respect their choice. — John Cornyn

The Constitution is constant. There's not one elected official who has the power to change it. There is a way to amend the Constitution, and the Constitution spells out the procedures that must be taken to change it. Presidents cannot. Now, I know this is gonna shock many of you in the low-information community. — Rush Limbaugh

A president is a high-level official who is elected to carry out a function. He is not a king, not a god. He is not the witch doctor of a tribe who knows everything. He is a civil servant. I think the ideal way of living is to live like the vast majority of people whom we attempt to serve and represent. — Jose Mujica

Under this law (Controlled Substances Act) a bureaucrat-usually not elected-decides whether or not a substance is dangerous and how dangerous that substance is. There's no more messing around with legislatures, presidents, or other bothersome formalities. When MDMA (ecstasy) was made illegal in 1986, no elected official voted on that. It was done "in house." People are now in jail because they did something that an administrator declared was wrong. — Peter McWilliams

Any time an elected official in the world we're in today that appears so dysfunctional challenges a core constituency not of their opponent but of their own political base, I think we should pause and give them credit. — Jeb Bush

Justice is not available to all equally; it is something that many of us must struggle to achieve. As an elected official, I know that fighting for what is just is not always popular but it is necessary; that is the real challenge that public servants face and it is where courage counts the most. Without courage, our action or inaction results in suffering of the few and injustice for all. — Hilda Solis

The principles behind explaining and educating the product or the elected official is similar, even though the actual execution of it is very, very different. — Frank Luntz

I always felt, and I still feel, that the media doesn't belong in a public official's private life. It's a very difficult balance, because if you are elected to public office, people have a right to know a great deal about you, and the press has an absolute obligation to report all of that. But the reality is that there are times in which the reporting is really happening for almost voyeuristic reasons, in the gossip columns. Maybe half of it is wrong, and half of it is correct, and a lot of it is exaggerated. You've just got to get used to that if you're in public life. — Rudy Giuliani

I propose a Constitutional Amendment providing that, if any public official, elected or appointed, at any level of government, is caught lying to any member of the public for any reason, the punishment shall be death by public hanging. — L. Neil Smith

Whether the challenge is getting a raise or a promotion, doing our job in a certain way, pushing an elected official to vote for a bill we favor, planning a vacation with a spouse, or getting a child to eat right, we are always, consciously or not, gauging our power: assessing our capacity to get others to behave as we want. We bridle at the power of others and its irritating and inconveniencing effects: how our boss, the government, the police, the bank, or our telephone or cable provider induces us to behave in a certain way, to do certain things, or to quit doing others. And yet we often seek power, sometimes in very self-conscious ways. — Moises Naim

You see, to me, it doesn't really matter if an elected official has a D or an R behind her name, or his name. I honestly don't give a damn about who belongs to either political party. — Richard Trumka

The King was stretched unconscious on the floor, an overturned chair beside him. Horace was shaking his right hand, nursing his obviously bruised knuckles. "Horace Altman," Halt said, "what on earth have you done?" Horace gestured to the wardrobe full of official garments. "I've just elected you King," he said. "Start getting dressed. — John Flanagan

It's seriously unfortunate when an elected official of the federal government says she's [Michelle Bachmann] going to deliberately break the law. I don't know what kind of signal she thinks that sends, but if she believes that's a good signal, I'm sad for the country. I think that it's deeply, deeply, unfortunate that a member of Congress would, in effect, invite other people who feel that way to say, "Well, I don't have to do it either." — Kenneth Prewitt

Don Siegelman should be a star in the Democratic Party. Instead, he's a former elected official sentenced to prison by a right-wing judge in Alabama. — Mimi Kennedy

If a woman were elected president, would our nation expect her husband to be the official White House host? — Venita Ellick

Every time a pundit or elected official is on any TV news program, it should be a polite formality to mention that GE has made such and such billions off the war in Iraq by selling arms or that Murdoch is a right-wing activist with a clear stake in who wins and who taxes his profits the least. — Adam McKay

The way I approach stardom and the show, I'm like a politician. I'm an elected late-night official to do your work. — Arsenio Hall

Since 2001, I've done what every elected official should be doing in government right now. My staff and I took a look at the books, thought outside the box and proposed reforms. — Mike Quigley

I as an elected official would never recommend anybody to boycott any city or state. — Jan Brewer

The only solution to the violence problem in America is a return to traditional parental involvement. This should be encouraged by every elected official. Also, the abandonment and neglect of children by their parents should have civil consequences. — Bill O'Reilly

You know, I was a community activist, so I'm used to standing out in front of an elected official's office and protesting. — Karen Bass

I didn't have a perfect model, but I wanted to try to blend my own personal reflections and experiences with this broader canvas to see how a lot of the narratives we have about economy and foreign policy got stuck. Because we have these categories of liberal, conservative, free marketer, open government - all these stereotypes about our politics and the categories we try to put things in are inadequate to this sort of complex, ambiguous, sometimes contradictory experience we have as ordinary people and that I have as an elected official. — Barack Obama

It's clear the CIA was trying to play 'keep away' with documents relevant to an investigation by their overseers in Congress, and that's a serious constitutional concern. But it's equally if not more concerning that we're seeing another 'Merkel Effect,' where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it's a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them. — Edward Snowden

John Kasich is the most popular elected official in Ohio because he got things done. — Rob Portman

It always blows me away when I see people freak out because I've changed my mind on something. I'm not an elected official, folks. I didn't get my job by promising a bunch of things. I'm a businessman and a creator. If I don't have the ability to change my mind, if I don't have the ability to be open to different points of view, then I can't do this job properly. — Joe Quesada

When the size of the group supporting your cause reaches a critical mass, any legislator or elected official has to pay attention. — Mark Shields

If your life is bad because of an elected official, then you don't have a life. — Dave Ramsey

There is only one thing more harmful to society than an elected official forgetting the promises he made in order to get elected; that's when he doesn't forget them. — John McCarthy

I was reminded that it is my obligation not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society, but also as a Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided. — Barack Obama

The First Lady is such a fascinating office to hold. You're not elected, but it's very much official. You can see the latitude of power of that office. — Bellamy Young

Somehow, someway, for some people there's an automatic assumption that a mayor who is African-American or some other elected official has to support another African-American. — Michael Nutter

I really didn't have any bad hitchhiking experiences. The only bad experiences were standing by the road for 10 hours. I never thought I'd get a ride with a ministers wife or a coalminer or a Republican elected official. It was all pleasant surprises. The only drag was the waiting. — John Waters

Al is, and always has been, the person who has been the candidate - the elected official. And he is the one who makes policy. As his wife, I have the wonderful opportunity to advocate for causes that I am passionate about, and I'm thankful for that. — Tipper Gore

[A politician is] a person skilled in the art of compromise. Usually an elected official who has compromised to get nominated, compromised to get elected, and compromised repeatedly to stay in office. — Dick Gregory

California had organized itself, not accidentally, into highly partisan legislative districts. It elected highly partisan people to office and then required these people to reach a two-thirds majority to enact any new tax or meddle with big spending decisions. On the off chance that they found some common ground, it could be pulled out from under them by voters through the initiative process. Throw in term limits - no elected official now serves in California government long enough to fully understand it - and you have a recipe for generating maximum contempt for elected officials. Politicians are elected to get things done and are prevented by the system from doing it, leading the people to grow even more disgusted with them. "The vicious cycle of contempt," as Mark Paul calls it. California state government was designed mainly to maximize the likelihood that voters will continue to despise the people they elect. — Michael Lewis

It turns out that the governor of California has more authority to name appointees than any elected official in America except the president of the United States and the mayor of Chicago. The — Arnold Schwarzenegger