Challenger for Minority Leader
Posted by brvanlanen on November 14, 2008
There will be a challenger for the top GOP post in the House after all.
A conservative lawmaker on Friday challenged House Republican leader John Boehner for his job after the party lost at least 20 seats in the elections this month.
In entering the race, California Rep. Dan Lungren said Republicans in the House couldn’t go back to business as usual by rubber-stamping Boehner for another two-year term as leader. Lungren said the election for leader next week would say volumes about how House Republicans are reacting to the American people’s verdict on election day.
“The selection of our leadership will reflect the initial reaction of House Republicans to the recent verdict of the American people,” Lungren said. “It is neither in the interest of our party or the advancement of our conservative principles to simply affirm the status quo by acclamation in light of what happened on November 4th.”
In reaction, Boehner said that “Dan Lungren is a respected member of our conference and a man deeply committed to the principles that have defined our party since the beginning.”
Lungren has served 14 years in the House over two stretches, including both of Ronald Reagan’s terms in the White House.
He has been a reliable conservative vote on most issues, although unlike many conservatives, he voted for the $700 billion financial industry bailout last month.
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan has been touted in newspaper columns and has been courted by some of his GOP colleagues to try for the minority leader post, but Ryan has said he is not running.
Boehner remains a big favorite to retain the job, even though the second- and third-ranking members of the GOP leadership team have stepped aside to make way for conservative challengers.
In fact, Lungren suggests in a letter to his GOP colleagues that the reason for his candidacy is to force debate about the future of the party during a closed-door meeting next week, in which Republicans are to choose their leaders. The letter doesn’t make any case as to why he would be an improvement over Boehner.
Boehner is the only major GOP leader in the House likely to survive a shake-up in which Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and Conference Chairman Adam Putnam of Florida have stepped aside. Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor is unopposed to replace Blunt as the No. 2 House Republican; Indiana Rep. Mike Pence is poised to replace Putnam.
Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, who runs the House GOP’s campaign arm, is facing a challenge from Texas Rep. Pete Sessions.
After losing 50+ seats over two elections this is good to see. Congressman Boehner deserves to be challenged as the status quo only means more failure. Hopefully there will be a change in leadership as a result.
