Leadership race updates
Senate Dems yesterday promoted Chuck Schumer to a newly created position: chairman of the Senate Democratic fundraising committee (sounds an awful lot like the much bemoaned K Street Project, but I digress). The promotion was an award for Schumer who cleaned his Republican counterparts clock in fundraising this election cycle. Schumer is now the third ranking Democrat in Senate leadership behind Harry Reid and Dick Durbin.
Meanwhile, the race for Democratic House leadership is heating up.
Roll Call reports:
The race for House Majority Leader between Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer (Md.) and John Murtha (Pa.) got nasty on Tuesday, as Murtha accused Hoyer’s allies of spreading allegations that he was corrupt while Murtha tried to tie Hoyer to President Bush’s policy on Iraq.
The back-and-forth between the two senior Democrats came as Hoyer released the names of another 35 supporters, bringing the total number of Members who have backed him for the second-highest position in the House to roughly 80. Murtha has released the names of 22 of his his supporters, meaning approximately 130 Democrats have not openly stated their preference at this point. Murtha would have to capture the vast majority of those undeclared Members to claim victory in the leadership campaign.
Murtha avowed Tuesday that he was a victim of “swift-boating” by Hoyer and his allies via news stories linking him to the Abscam scandal of the early 1980s, as well as more recent reports that he did legislative favors for clients of his brother’s lobbying firm and another firm where a former top aide worked.
Tomorrow, House Dems will cast their votes for leader. Regardless of who is elected, I agree with Mike Pence’s comments yesterday, “it will be a target rich environment.”
Today, Senate Republicans vote for their leadership. A late campaign by some conservatives on the internet to persuade Jeff Sessions to run for the RPC chair seems to have failed. As such, Kay Bailey Hutchison looks safe to assume the seat. Mitch McConnell will, of course, lead. John Cornyn and John Ensign will slide in to leadership positions thus upping the conservative ratio in Senate GOP leadership. The real race here is for the Whip position. Both Trent Lott and Lamar Alexander are talking tough. Both camps say they have the votes for the Whip position — a position which is responsible for counting votes. So it is safe to say, whoever wins is the best man for the job as they will have correctly counted their first vote while the loser miscounted!
Finally, the race that I think means the most for Republicans and the future of the conservative movement, is the competition for GOP House leadership. House Republicans vote on Friday. Correspondents for The Hill think John Boehner has the votes to beat Mike Pence:
As much as last week’s momentous loss ushered in a new era for Republicans in the House, the GOP is on the brink of returning some familiar faces to the leadership.
With Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) all but assured of retaining the title of leader when Republicans assume the minority next year, suspense hangs on the race for whip between Reps. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the current occupant, and John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), a darling of the conservative media.
While I wholeheartedly agree that the Whip race is hot, I think it would be a mistake to say the race for leader is over. If it was over, why has Boehner not announced that? Yesterday Pence said that the addition of Joe Barton to the leadership race has created a “dynamic environment” that he believes helps his campaign. If Team Pence can secure enough second ballot commitments from Barton supporters, there is a possibility that Boehner will have a real race on his hands.
The fat lady has not yet sung. Stay tuned. Friday will be fun to watch.
UPDATE: Quin Hillyer is tabulating endorsements for Mike Pence.
November 15th, 2006 at 11:52 am
It sounds like Nancy Pelosi is trying to force the remaining Dems to vote her way or else. We’ll see if she has enough power to pull off a Tom Delay-like approach.