GOP Win Could Mean Battle for Whip Post
The Hill reports:
A big night for House Republicans on Tuesday could be followed up with a contested race for the No. 3 post in the leadership hierarchy.
Most nonpartisan experts believe Republicans will win control of the House, setting the stage for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) to become Speaker and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to assume the majority-leader post.
But who would vie for majority whip?
House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) is expected to run for president or governor and not seek a leadership position in 2011.
Some say National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas) would be in line for the whip position. Rewarding Sessions with the high-profile post would make sense after he’d helped Republicans climb out of their minority status, according to political observers.
But others say Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who heads the NRCC’s recruitment efforts, is also eyeing the job and would pose a significant challenge to Sessions.
A historic outcome on Tuesday could present Boehner with a difficult choice.
Sessions is a longtime Boehner ally who rallied for the Ohio Republican when he faced off against Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) for House majority leader in 2006.
McCarthy is Cantor’s deputy, and some say that could pose a problem for Boehner if the Ohio lawmaker and Cantor have disagreements in 2011.
But McCarthy is very close with former Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), whom he replaced in 2007. Thomas delivered the closing argument for Boehner to the House GOP conference in the 2006 majority-leader race. Moreover, Boehner tapped McCarthy to take a leading role in crafting the House GOP “Pledge to America.”
While the House Democratic leader appoints the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), House Republicans vote on the chairman of the NRCC. However, Boehner’s endorsement — should he make one — would carry enormous sway.
A well-connected House GOP insider told The Hill that Sessions’s intention to run for whip has been “widely discussed, but it would set up a collision course with McCarthy.”
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