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The Hill
Members: Boehner will stay on
By Molly K. Hooper
04/08/14

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) will run for Speaker again if Republicans win control of the Senate this fall, according to a survey of GOP lawmakers conducted by The Hill.

But if Democrats retain their Senate majority, all bets are off, the Republican lawmakers said.

Boehner’s future is a hot topic in the nation’s capital. The 64-year-old Speaker and his staffers have repeatedly insisted he isn’t retiring any time soon. They also point out that Boehner has filed to run for another term.

But that hasn’t stopped the chatter.

For this article, The Hill interviewed more than two-dozen GOP members, as well as former legislators who are close to Boehner. Most of them spoke off the record.

The consensus is that Boehner will stay. Twenty-two said Boehner will be Speaker if the GOP wins the Senate. Only four members said they believe Boehner won’t be Speaker in the next Congress.

A freshman GOP lawmaker said, “I’ve had conversations with him about next year and he’s planning to be in the picture ... I don’t see any signal for him that he’s tired or he’s done or he’s fed up.”

“My gut is, I think he will [run for Speaker] if we have the Senate,” a second-term member said.

A senior GOP House member said if Republicans are calling the shots in both chambers, Boehner will stick around: “If we take them both, then hey, it’s fun, and [Boehner] goes for it, but if not, he’s [gone].”

It is clear that Boehner, who has battle scars from his fights with President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), desperately wants to work with an upper chamber that is controlled by the GOP.

Amid the 2011 debt-limit showdown, a frustrated Boehner said, “I didn’t sign up for going mano a mano with the president of the United States.”

Should Boehner run for a third term as Speaker, it’s unclear whether he can get the 218 votes on the House floor on the first ballot, however.

In January of 2013, Boehner fended off a poorly planned coup attempt and secured enough votes on the initial ballot. A dozen Republicans opted not to support Boehner by voting for someone else, voting “present” or abstaining.

A self-described conservative “wacko” told The Hill he is likely to support Boehner for Speaker, but said there are two to three “ad hoc” groups of members meeting to discuss the possibility that Boehner doesn’t receive a majority of votes on the first ballot.

Some have been discussing how to ensure that Boehner falls short of that goal — and game-planning what would happen next. The biggest question is who would take Boehner on.

Names mentioned include House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) and Rep. Tom Price (Ga.).

But most think this will never come to pass, for a variety of reasons.

Lawmakers note that no one has even hinted at challenging Boehner, who is respected and liked by most in the House GOP conference.

Boehner believes his Senate counterparts will win the majority, and he has started planning for the future…

Read the rest of the article at The Hill


 
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