Rivals For DeLay Post Falling Short

Reps. Boehner, Blunt Lack Numbers To Lock Up GOP Leadership Job

(AP)  Reps. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Charles Bass, R-N.H., are urging colleagues not to rush to judgment. They said they want to hear the candidates' views on issues such as stuffing hometown projects into appropriations bills and the highway bill that passed last year with almost 6,500 such earmarks. Flake and Bass put together a letter last week calling for fresh leadership elections to replace DeLay.

"Thus far, no candidate has appropriately addressed these and other much-needed operational issues of the House," Flake and Bass said in their latest letter.

Blunt was elected to the party's No. 3 House post in 2002. He has been doing both that job and DeLay's.

"Our confidence is growing because our list of supporters is growing," said Blunt spokeswoman Jessica Boulanger.

Blunt's roster of supporters includes stout conservatives such as Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Sue Myrick, R-N.C., but also prominent moderates like Connecticut Reps. Christopher Shays and Nancy Johnson and Iowa Rep. Jim Leach.

Boehner's list included Reps. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., and Anne Northup, R-Ky., but he also received praise, though not an endorsement, from New York Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, chairman of the House Science Committee.

"We're pretty energized right now," said Boehner spokesman Don Seymour.

Neither camp was willing to predict victory, and given the unique dynamics of congressional leadership elections — which are dominated by private conversations among lawmakers — it is difficult to gauge independently a candidate's support.

Some Republicans have grumbled that both Blunt and Boehner are too close to Washington's lobbying community and that neither represents the fresh face that the GOP needs in the wake of DeLay's problems and the Abramoff scandal.

Meanwhile, Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., officially joined the potential race for GOP whip. That race would occur only if Blunt defeats Boehner. Reps. Eric Cantor, R-Va., Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., and Mike Rogers, R-Mich., are also in the field.

House GOP aides say pressure is mounting on Blunt to vacate the whip post regardless of whether he becomes the majority leader.

"Our mantra should be 'policy before politics' and we should stick to our guns with the faith that the American people will stay with us as we stand our ground," Wamp said in a letter declaring his candidacy.