Influential conservative endorses Shadegg for majority leader

The State

WASHINGTON - Arizona Rep. John Shadegg's longshot bid to become the No. 2 GOP leader in the House got a boost Thursday when he was endorsed by the leader of a group of more than 100 conservative lawmakers.

"We need leadership with the energy and vision to steer this Congress back to our roots of fiscal discipline, limited government and traditional values," said Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the Republican Study Committee.
More than one-half of the 110-member committee had endorsed a candidate in the race to succeed Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, as majority leader.

About 40 had endorsed the acting majority leader, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the front-runner. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who claims more than 40 public supporters, counts about 15 members of the study committee in his camp.

The election is set for Feb. 2. It takes 117 votes to win the job.
Pence's move was hardly unexpected; Shadegg is a former study committee chairman. But it shakes up a race that Blunt claims to dominate with more than 80 public supporters.

Pence had said he would stay on the sidelines pending appearances by the candidates before a study committee retreat at the end of the month.

But Pence reversed course, saying it was appropriate to endorse "given the addition of a prominent RSC member to the field and given that many members have already expressed a preference."

Shadegg hopes to win support from the bulk of the remaining undecided conservative lawmakers and hopes to peel away RSC members who have declared for Blunt and Boehner.
DeLay, who stepped aside as majority leader last fall when he was indicted in Texas on charges of laundering campaign funds, announced this month that he would not try to regain the post. Fellow Republicans were concerned about DeLay's ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Pence's committee has become influential in internal House GOP politics and Republican leaders take pains not to cross the group. Last fall, the group successfully pressed GOP leaders to insist on a 1 percent across-the-board cut from appropriations bills to save about $8 billion from agency budgets as a partial offset for spending on hurricane relief.

Meanwhile, Shadegg and Boehner attacked Blunt for turning down invitations from two Sunday morning news programs to debate the issues facing House Republicans.
"At a time when House Republicans are having a serious conversation about our future, the candidate who claims to be the front-runner has so far refused to engage in a debate about how we will reform the House and change the status quo," Boehner and Shadegg said in a statement.

Blunt spokeswoman Burson Taylor said Blunt preferred to discuss the issues privately with House members and "not in front of TV cameras."

Taylor said Blunt's supporters "like what they hear and are not at all bothered that he has taken his ideas directly to them and not Sunday talk show hosts."
The majority leader sets the House floor schedule and drives much of the day-to-day agenda. Whoever wins the race could be well positioned to be the next speaker.