Steve Scalise wins whip race on first ballot
Steve Scalise wins whip race on first ballot
The whip post opened after Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) unexpectedly lost his primary last week, and stepped down as majority leader. Earlier in the afternoon, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy was selected as the new House majority leader.
(Also on POLITICO: McCarthy wins House majority leader race)
Republicans met behind closed doors on Thursday afternoon to choose the winner of the frenzied contest. Capitol police guarded the cavernous House Ways and Means Committee room in the Longworth House Office Building, where a huge crowd of reporters, cameras and congressional aides line the hallways.
The whip race was extraordinarily close, with Scalise, Stutzman and Roskam in an intense battle for the support of their GOP colleagues.
Before the whip race, McCarthy, 49, beat back a challenge from conservative Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador to become majority leader.
Contests of this nature are filled with inside-the-Beltway palace intrigue, but they also have huge implications for governing. The leadership sets the legislative agenda. And with Democrats in control of the White House and Senate, the House GOP majority dictates the tone for the Republican opposition. Whoever snatches the majority whip job immediately is awarded with plum office space, a protective detail and a spot in the national political conversation.
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But the right wing is unlikely to be satisfied no matter who vaults into leadership. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said Speaker John Boehner, McCarthy and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.), the No. 4 House Republican, are from the “liberal half of our conference.” Many conservative Republicans are eyeing the next round of leadership elections in November as a chance to knock off the party’s top lawmakers.
Having got out to an early start, Scalise was the favorite, and his aides predicted they would garner a majority of the conference’s support on the first ballot.
Before the vote, Roskam’s team said he has pulled to within a few votes of Scalise’s first-ballot total, and they believed they could snatch some of Stutzman’s supporters in a second round of voting because of a lingering anti-Scalise sentiment on the right. The second ballot is their focus, Roskam insiders said.
Stutzman said he was in the race to win. He claimed roughly 50 supporters, but his opponents said the total is lower.
The three candidates spent the last 24 hours busily rounding up support, and relaxing with their allies.
Roskam ate Good Stuff Eatery burgers with his supporters Wednesday night, and met with his whip team Thursday morning in the Henry Hyde room, in a nod to his political mentor.
Scalise dined with more than 40 supporters at Acadiana, a Louisiana-flavored K Street haunt, and attended baseball practice Thursday morning..
There was a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes. Roskam worked hard to sway Stutzman’s supporters. Reps. Steve Southerland (Fla.) and Tom Graves (Ga.) — both Stutzman supporters — discussed plans to move the Indianan’s votes to Roskam on a second ballot.
Southerland was a Roskam supporter before he switched to Stutzman — several sources said Southerland has already committed to Roskam on a second ballot. And Graves clashed with Scalise in a 2012 race for chairman of the Republican Study Committee. There were discussions inside this group about trying to move Stutzman’s supporters as a block to Roskam, according to sources. Roskam was not personally involved in this effort, sources said, but was aware of the maneuvering. These moves represent the anti-Scalise element among conservatives. Graves’ office had no comment on the discussions, and Southerland’s office denied he was involved in any discussions.
“We don’t know how many votes [Stutzman] really commands,” said a source close to Roskam. “It’s really up in the air.”
The Roskam camp believed his vote tally was in the “mid-90s” for the first ballot, and still slightly short of the 117 votes he needs on the second ballot, although they feel momentum is on their side.
“Everything we have shows we’re breathing down Scalise’s neck,” said a member who attended the Roskam whip meeting.
But the Scalise camp projected just as much confidence in their own victory, with some supporters saying he will win the House’s No. 3 leadership position on the first ballot.
Scalise gave out bats to the members of his whip team that said, “Bring the wood.” The Louisiana Republican hoped and got a first-ballot win, attending practice for the congressional baseball game on Thursday morning. He met with his whip team in the House Energy and Commerce Committee room shortly before the vote. Then, Scalise and his nearly 50 whips marched en masse to the Longworth House Office Building for the actual proceedings. Roskam and his team marched from the Cannon House Office Building.
There, Rep. Tom Reed (N.Y.) talked on behalf of Stutzman, and Reps. Rob Bishop (Utah) and Trey Gowdy (S.C.) spoke on behalf of Roskam.
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