WASHINGTON

Arch-conservative caucus riles speaker's race

Ledyard King
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A tight-knit band of about 40 hard-line conservatives has turned the race for House speaker into a free-for-all.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, left, followed by Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, and other members of the House Freedom Caucus leave a hearing room on Capitol Hill on Oct. 8, 2015.

By holding firm to its anti-establishment principles, the House Freedom Caucus helped prompt Thursday's stunning announcement by Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California that he would bow out of the race to replace House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

Boehner announced recently he would leave Congress at the end of the month, and he had backed McCarthy as his successor.

By conceding that a "fresh face" is needed to lead the GOP, McCarthy effectively acknowledged the power of a caucus that's less than a year old.

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So just how did the Freedom Caucus come to wield such power?

The group, which has never published an official list of its members, is led by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a small-government crusader who often voted against leadership when he chaired the Republican Study Committee in the previous Congress.

Much of the caucus' known roster includes new members such as Rep. Curt Clawson of Florida, a former corporate executive who ran as an outsider to win his Southwest Florida seat, and Paul Gosar, a third-term member from Arizona who boycotted Pope Francis' speech to Congress because he anticipated the pontiff would tout "socialist talking points" in addressing climate change.

The caucus also includes veteran lawmakers, such as seven-term member Scott Garrett of New Jersey, a fiscal hawk, and Florida's Bill Posey, a former NASA contractor first elected to Congress in 2008 after 16 years in the Florida legislature.

The Freedom Caucus' choice for House speaker is Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida, who isn't even a caucus member. Webster has been a state and federal lawmaker since 1980 and served a stint as speaker of the Florida House.

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Caucus members say a lawmaker's potential to serve as speaker has nothing to do with tenure in Congress. It's more, they say, about respecting all points of view, particularly those from  "constitutional conservatives" who feel they've been ignored by Boehner and his lieutenants in the rush to compromise with Democrats and President Obama over spending, immigration and other hot-button issues.

"We believe that the House needs the principled leadership of a Speaker who will empower the institution, its members, and the American people," the caucus said in a statement. "We must ensure that the processes in the House and in the Republican Conference are fair for all members. The next Speaker needs to yield back power to the membership for the sake of both the institution and the country.”

Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla. speaks to reporters as he leaves a nomination vote meeting on Capitol Hill on Oct. 8, 2015, after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the race to replace House Speaker John Boehner.

From that standpoint, Webster seems like a good fit.

"I have a problem with the way the House is run," he told Fox News on Thursday. "I believe that a few people at the top of the pyramid of power have controlled this place for a long time. I want to push down the pyramid of power like I did in Florida, spread out the base so every member has a chance to be effective, take up the most important bills first — not last — and empower the members to pass their own bills."

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The Freedom Caucus' power is more limited than it might appear at first. Rounding up about 30 votes to stop someone from being elected speaker is much easier than finding 218 votes to elect someone else.

Republicans currently hold 247 seats in the 435-member House. McCarthy dropped out of the Speaker's race after it became clear that more than 29 lawmakers —all Freedom Caucus members — would oppose him and support Webster.

Now it's Webster's turn to build consensus. But moderate Republicans like Rep. Peter King of New York don't sound interested in backing him.

King said the hard-line conservatives are "blackmailing the (GOP) caucus" and "hijacking the Congress."

"These guys are off on their own and we can't allow this to go on," he said on CNN. "It's bad enough they brought down a speaker. It's even worse they brought down the person who's the choice for speaker. We have to get this behind us."