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Elections News
Hoyer Defeats Murtha for U.S. House Majority Leader
Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- House Democrats elected Steny Hoyer to the No. 2 post in their caucus for the next session of Congress, handing a defeat to their own leader, Nancy Pelosi, who campaigned against him.
Hoyer won by a vote of 149-86 over Representative John Murtha (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, who is best known for calling last year for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Hoyer, of Maryland, is currently Democratic whip, the second-highest leadership job.
Pelosi won a separate victory when Democratic lawmakers backed her uncontested bid for House speaker. The choice must be ratified by the full House in January, a formality because Democrats will hold a majority of the seats. She would become the first woman to hold the speakership.
The race for majority leader demonstrates a split within the party as Democrats prepare for a new session of Congress in which they will have their first House majority in a dozen years. Democrats picked up at least 28 House seats in the Nov. 7 election.
Pelosi said Hoyer won a ``stunning victory'' and she ``respects'' the decision of the caucus.
``We've had our debates, we've had our disagreements. And now, that is over,'' she said. ``We are a unified caucus as we go forward.''
Effective Team
Hoyer said that he and Pelosi would continue to make an effective team.
``I intend to do everything in my power, as I said in the caucus, to make Nancy Pelosi the most successful speaker in the history of the House of Representatives,'' Hoyer said.
Hoyer, 67, campaigned for majority leader by promoting his leadership experience and work in support of Democratic candidates leading up to the election, including traveling to 33 states and attending 315 events in 100 days on the road.
Pelosi, 66, and Hoyer were rivals in a 2001 race for Democratic whip that Pelosi won with Murtha as her campaign manager. When she moved up to minority leader a year later on the retirement of Representative Dick Gephardt, Hoyer won the No. 2 job.
The political rivalry ``will have no negative effect'' on Pelosi, said Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank. ``She has had this irritation toward Steny, but over the last couple of years, it hasn't stopped us from having the most unified Democratic caucus in anyone's memory.''
100 Hours
The Democrats said they would devote the first 100 legislative hours of the next Congress to priorities including passing legislation to limit the influence of lobbyists, increase the minimum wage, revamp energy policies and restore expired tax deductions for college students.
Pelosi also said she was committed to ending the Iraq war.
``It is a grotesque mistake'' that is costing lives, limbs, and more than a trillion dollars, she said.
In a letter endorsing Murtha's campaign, Pelosi said his call for troop withdrawal last year ``changed the national debate'' and made Iraq a central issue in the elections.
Murtha, 74, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, is the top- ranking Democrat on the House appropriations subcommittee that funds defense programs.
Pelosi urged support for Murtha in phone calls and in conversations with Democrats on the House floor, said Representative Al Wynn of Maryland.
Pelosi made the nominating speech for Murtha before the vote today, according to Andrew Koneschusky, a spokesman for Murtha.
Ethics
His campaign for majority leader may have been hurt by government watchdog groups that said he had ethical problems that made him unfit for the majority leader's post.
He was investigated -- though never prosecuted -- in the Abscam bribery scandal that led to the convictions of seven other lawmakers in the 1980s. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Tom Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said Pelosi was ``better off in the long run'' with Hoyer as majority leader because he has fewer ethical troubles than Murtha and is perceived as more moderate politically.
The Democratic caucus also voted to elevate Representative James Clyburn (news, bio, voting record) of South Carolina, now the chairman of the House Democratic caucus and the highest-ranking black in Congress, to the No. 3 majority whip job.
Representative Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois, who led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was elected caucus chairman and John Larson of Connecticut was chosen to be vice chairman. All three were unopposed.
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Democrat won't seek recount in Wyoming
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - A Democratic challenger said Thursday he would not seek a recount in his narrow loss to Republican Rep. Barbara Cubin (news, bio, voting record) in Wyoming's closest House race in 36 years.
"It is time to put this election to rest and look to the future," Gary Trauner said in a statement. "Wyoming is counting on Mrs. Cubin to provide first-rate representation for all the people of the state, and I trust she will do so."
Cubin beat Trauner by 1,012 votes out of 193,369 cast. The State Canvassing Board certified the election results Wednesday.
The margin was too great to mandate an automatic recount. Trauner had until Friday to request a recount, but he would have had to pay for it.
Because state law does not allow for hand counting of ballots, Trauner said he didn't think a recount would change the result.
The election was Wyoming's closest U.S. House election since 1970, when Democrat Teno Roncalio beat Republican Harry Roberts by 608 votes.
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Race for New Mexico House seat close
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Democrat Patricia Madrid has chiseled away at Republican Rep. Heather Wilson (news, bio, voting record)'s lead in the race for the 1st Congressional District now that Bernalillo County election workers have finished tallying hundreds of ballots.
It might be good news for Madrid, but it's also good news for Wilson's campaign.
County workers have been busy reviewing more than 3,700 provisional and in-lieu-of ballots, those given to voters who requested absentee ballots but showed up at polls to vote anyway on Election Day. Workers disqualified more than one-fifth of them Wednesday, leaving Madrid with fewer ballots to overtake Wilson.
"These numbers mean that Congresswoman Wilson's victory is more certain today than it was when she declared victory last Thursday," spokesman Enrique Carlos Knell said, noting that the percentage of votes by which Wilson leads is greater than that of congressional candidates in Virginia and other states where opponents have already conceded.
But Madrid's campaign refuses to back down.
"We had no expectations whatsoever that the in-lieu-of ballots would come in so strong for Patricia. It doesn't win the game but it keeps it moving forward," spokeswoman Heather Brewer said.
County Clerk Mary Herrera said 616 of the in-lieu-of ballots counted late Wednesday went to Madrid and 293 to Wilson, shrinking the incumbent's lead to 1,164 votes.
Election workers were tallying 1,494 provisional ballots by hand, and another 71 in-lieu-of ballots also need to be hand counted.
Herrera hoped to be done with the county's canvass by Friday afternoon. "There are processes we have to follow and it's time consuming," she said.
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House GOP Hopes To Regroup With Friday's Leadership Votes
Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (news, bio, voting record), R-Md., thought the No Child Left Behind Act was such a bad idea that he not only voted against it, but also campaigned against it.
Yet when the law's chief House sponsor, Rep. John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, became majority leader, he never held a grudge. He even intervened on Gilchrest's behalf on some internal House matters, winning over his one-time adversary.
"I'm backing Boehner," Gilchrest now says. "I know I can work with this guy."
The power that incumbency gives to engage in that kind of retail politicking may enable Boehner to retain his leadership post despite the thumpin', as President Bush put it, that voters gave the Republican Party last week. But other races for House GOP leadership posts remain anybody's guess.
The Minority's Majority
The diminished GOP caucus meets Friday on Capitol Hill to vote on its new leaders. Despite the lowered stakes, the races are hotly contested. Many Hill denizens predict Boehner will beat challenger Mike Pence of Indiana.
All contenders have portrayed the selections as the first step toward recovery from the party's newfound minority status. They have all stressed a return to small-government principles. Friday's voting may mark the end of ex-House leader Tom DeLay's team. GOP Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri, one of the few remaining from those days, could be out. Voting is done by secret ballot, and contenders have been guarded about their support. Hill offices buzz with gossip and conspiracy theories.
Late Wednesday, Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, bowed out of the top race and threw his support behind Boehner. That suggests that Barton, after doing a head count, assumed Boehner had the lead.
Though he's the incumbent, Boehner has held the post only since Feb. 6, when DeLay quit. Many GOP members still see him as "the new guy," one House staffer said.
Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who is stepping down, is taking most of the blame. "People don't view (Boehner) as responsible for the election," the staffer said. That and good reviews from rank-and-file members for Boehner's work are thought to give him the edge.
The True Conservative?
Pence, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Group, can't be counted out. Many view him as the more authentic conservative, and he's won the endorsement of outside groups such as the Club for Growth and the Family Research Council. Their opinion matters to many GOP lawmakers.
Pence may face resistance from GOP critics of illegal immigration. He floated a compromise this year that angered some hard-liners. He later backed away from that idea, and now has the backing of Tom Tancredo of Colorado, the House's top immigration critic.
Blunt, meanwhile, faces a tougher race against John Shadegg of Arizona to keep the No. 2 post of Republican whip, say some Hill staffers. Like Pence, Shadegg is viewed by many as an outsider and a truer conservative.
Blunt was a member of DeLay's team, and some view him as an unnecessary holdover. He got bad reviews for a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation in which he defended budget earmarking.
A public letter by Blunt made only a single oblique reference to being majority whip.
"We have a great team and accomplished great things as a majority, but we can and will do better," he wrote in the Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.
One GOP staffer said that if members retain Boehner, they may want to back change elsewhere. That's bad news for Blunt.
Then again, some on Capitol Hill think incumbency will protect Blunt. A Blunt spokeswoman says the departure of DeLay and Hastert may be enough for the caucus.
Further down the ticket is the race for GOP conference chairman, the No. 3 post. Contenders include Jack Kingston of Georgia, Dan Lungren of California, Adam Putnam of Florida and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
Meanwhile, House Democrats on Thursday unanimously named California's Nancy Pelosi speaker. But they picked Maryland's Steny Hoyer to be majority leader. Pelosi had backed Pennsylvania's John Murtha, a fierce anti-war critic.
Copyright 2006 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
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Senate takes major step on India nuclear deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved long-stalled legislation that moves toward opening the door to U.S.-India nuclear cooperation for the first time in three decades.
The vote was 85 to 12 after the Republican-controlled Senate defeated a handful of amendments India said would kill the deal. Several more critical approvals are needed before the agreement can take effect but the Senate action moved India a major step closer to being able to purchase U.S. nuclear fuel, reactors and related technology
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