http://thehill.com/homenews/house/255385-signs-of-discontent-in-republican-races By Scott Wong - 09/29/15 07:29 PM EDT
Signs of discontent emerged Tuesday as House Republicans sought to recruit new contenders for the leadership races spurred by Speaker John Boehner’s surprise announcement he is resigning.
Much of the focus centered on Rep. Trey Gowdy, the conservative rising star from South Carolina who leads the House committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya.
Several lawmakers sought to convince Gowdy to enter the race for either Speaker or majority leader, but he rejected the idea, saying he preferred to keep his focus on Benghazi.
Ahead of a GOP conference meeting in which lawmakers were expected to discuss their post-Boehner world at length, Gowdy replied “I’m not” when asked about seeking a leadership position.
Still, the late effort to draft him suggests conservatives aren’t satisfied with their choices. It could also foreshadow challenges the new leadership team will face when it takes over the reins from Boehner, who was constantly hamstrung by dissatisfied members on the right.
The Ohio Republican will step aside as Speaker and resign his House seat at the end of next month.
It would be very late at this stage in a House leadership election for someone to enter the race. Candidates must begin reaching out to potential supporters even before they formally enter the race, and it’s likely that many of the candidates already have some support locked up.
Only one leadership race will be decided on the House floor.
Internal Republican elections will decide most contests, but the full House votes to elect the Speaker. With almost all Democrats expected to back Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), that could leave room for dissatisfied Republicans to cause trouble on the House floor.
In that public vote, nominees for Speaker need to secure 218 votes to win. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is the clear front-runner to succeed Boehner, and so far he faces only Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), a heavy underdog.
McCarthy has done a series of interviews in the last two days saying he will work to heal rifts in the conference, and pledging to be the captain of the Republican team.
Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Tuesday formally announced he was running to succeed McCarthy. His only challenger so far is House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.).
In an interview with The Hill, Price downplayed the Gowdy talk, saying, “I’m not running against anybody at all.
“If we had 248 people in this race, I’d still be running for the position, because I think I have new thinking, new ideas, new creativity, new energy to offer for the table and for the conference.”
Members of the conservative Freedom Caucus, central players in trying to push Boehner out, have yet to coalesce around a candidate. Talk about a Gowdy run first emerged at a Freedom Caucus meeting on Monday night.
“None of the House Freedom Caucus members have made any commitments. We’re gonna meet with all the candidates,” said Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), a co-founder of the group who attended Monday night’s meeting. “But if Trey Gowdy were to run for Speaker, I think he’d win.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who is close to leadership, launched the “Draft Gowdy” campaign during an appearance on Fox News early Tuesday morning, saying Gowdy’s entry into the race would be “heaven sent.”
Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), the first black female Republican in Congress, watched the most recent GOP presidential debate with Gowdy, and she followed Chaffetz’s lead, pitching the idea of a Gowdy run to GOP colleagues Tuesday inside a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, sources told The Hill.
Others joined the effort as well. New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, the only Jewish Republican in Congress, endorsed Gowdy as an “effective leader with tremendous intellect, moral character, charisma, vision and heart.”
Hopes for a Gowdy run died down after Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), who said he would back his good friend Gowdy, later tweeted that he was certain Gowdy would not run.
When asked about a possible leadership bid, Gowdy spokeswoman Amanda Duvall replied that her boss is “focused on the Benghazi Committee and will serve in that capacity so long as the committee exists.”
