Chaffetz launches House speaker bid
His entrance muddies GOP leadership race
WASHINGTON — An up-andcoming House committee chairman announced his long-shot candidacy Sunday for speaker of the House, adding a new dose of turmoil for reeling House Republicans.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, RUtah, presented himself as a new face who can unite the House in the wake of Speaker John Boehner’s sudden resignation last month. Boehner’s deputy, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, remains the favorite.
House Republicans will vote by secret ballot Thursday, followed by a floor vote in the full House later in the month. “I can bridge that divide between our more centrist members and some of the more far-right-wing members. That’s why I’ve entered this race,” Chaffetz told “Fox News Sunday.”
“The American public wants to see a change. They want a fresh start,” Chaffetz said. “There’s a reason why we see this phenomenon across the country, and you don’t just give an automatic promotion to the existing leadership team. That doesn’t signal change.”
Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has used that post to launch high-profile investigations of the Secret Service and Planned Parenthood. His candidacy underscores the chaos in the House after Boehner, R-Ohio, said he would resign rather than face a possible floor vote to depose him pushed by hard-line conservatives.
In the days immediately after Boehner’s announcement, McCarthy was viewed as the presumptive favorite to replace the outgoing speaker, who quickly endorsed his No. 2.
But that dynamic began to shift, particularly following McCarthy’s gaffe last week suggesting that the purpose of a special House committee investigating the deadly attacks in 2012 of the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, was to drive down Hillary Rodham Clinton’s poll numbers. Clinton, secretary of state at that time, is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016.
McCarthy retracted the comment and said he regrets it, but it’s given a potent weapon to Democrats ahead of a high-profile Oct. 22 appearance by Clinton before the committee.
Chaffetz acknowledged that McCarthy has the support of a majority of House Republicans, making Boehner’s deputy the likely winner in Thursday’s secret-ballot elections.
But McCarthy also has to win a public vote of the full House later in October. That outcome is less certain because of potential opposition to McCarthy from the same 30-plus hard-line conservatives who pushed Boehner out.