House Republicans will have to do some “soul-searching” in the wake of Thursday’s leadership election, as party leaders acknowledged publicly they face difficult re-election battles.
“We’ve had a tough year and the members on the Republican side are looking at their own re-elections and the environment right now is not real good,” said new House Majority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.
In the race to become majority leader, Mr. Boehner’s surprise victory over Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri has shaken the GOP and left other party leaders saying the entire House Republican Conference must re-evaluate its position next week during the annual retreat in Maryland.
“I think we’re just going to do more soul-searching,” conference chairwoman Deborah Pryce, the Ohio Republican in charge of organizing next week’s retreat, said. “This election was very informative for all of us.”
Mr. Boehner topped Mr. Blunt and Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona, who dropped out after the first ballot. Mr. Boehner trailed Mr. Blunt after the first ballot, but won the second ballot 122-109.
The party’s election prospects in November and its overall direction played a major role in the closed-door discussion.
In his nominating speech for Mr. Shadegg, Rep. Mark Souder, Indiana Republican, said the party faced a dire situation and had to respond.
“If these elections come back with the same top leadership, we will be telling the American people that we have not changed — that the rest of the world has shifted but we have not,” he said.
He pointed to a poll taken by the Club for Growth in Republican-held swing congressional districts that showed voters associated Republicans with corruption and were more likely to vote for a Democrat in November’s elections.
Mr. Blunt, though, said he lost because of a handful of members who stoked press reports about the need for change.
“The five or six people that will talk to the media about what bad shape we’re in are not reflective of 225 of their colleagues,” he told the Associated Press.
“The members read … lots of things, all of which took one view of this race, and that view was never to the advantage of someone like me who knows how to get the work done.”
Heading the list of topics at next week’s retreat will be the package of ethics, lobbying and congressional process reforms.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier of California, were putting together a package of proposals but must now incorporate Mr. Boehner’s ideas.
Mr. Boehner said yesterday the speaker’s package was “a very good start,” but said it must have more transparency built in so voters “can see what this relationship looks like between members of Congress and those who lobby us.”
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