Roskam New GOP Chief Deputy Whip
Politico reports:
Incoming Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy will announce Monday that Rep. Peter Roskam will serve as his chief deputy whip – a position that has been a traditional stepping stone for higher spots in GOP leadership.
Other lawmakers who have been given this deputy whip post have gone on to higher jobs, including McCarthy, incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor, former Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.), and former Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).
It also completes the House Republican leadership team: John Boehner (Ohio) as speaker, Cantor (Va.) as majority leader, McCarthy (Calif.) as whip, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Texas) as conference chairman, Greg Walden (Ore.) as chair of the leadership and Pete Sessions (Texas) as National Republican Congressional Committee chairman.
The chief deputy whip is a workhorse of leadership, often serving as a top vote wrangler – a particularly difficult job in the majority. Lawmakers often come to the chief deputy whip with legislative and other concerns.
“It needs to be someone you really trust, someone who understands legislation, understands members, willing to listen and willing to solve problem,” McCarthy told POLITICO Monday morning.
But this isn’t Roskam’s first foray into leadership politics. He had a leading role in America Speaking Out, the online grass roots initiative that helped Republicans develop the Pledge to America, the GOP’s agenda document.
McCarthy and Roskam are particularly close, both having been elected in 2006 – the smallest incoming class of Republicans since 1914.
“The uniqueness is when you sit around the leadership table we never were in majority,” McCarthy said of he and Roskam. “When we ran in ‘06 it was running against Republicans and Democrats at the same time. That mindset is helpful when we’re in majority, knowing what went wrong before.”
Republicans will try to position Roskam as a go-between, of sorts, with President Barack Obama. The two served together in the Illinois Senate, and Roskam has sought to remind Washington that the president legislated with Republicans as young legislator in Springfield – the two worked together on death penalty reform.
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