Following the abrupt resignation of Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) withdrew himself from the race to replace Boehner.

McCarthy’s announcement came at the last minute — ahead of voting on Oct. 7 — and not only postponed the House vote on selecting the next speaker but also showed discord within the Republican Party.

The Daily Orange spoke to Shana Gadarian and Danielle Thomsen, assistant professors of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, about the political turmoil.

The Daily Orange: Were you surprised by John Boehner’s resignation announcement as well as the withdrawal of Kevin McCarthy from the leadership contest?

Shana Gadarian: The resignation of the chair of the majority leader — Speaker of the House — is pretty unprecedented. I think it happened once before. It is a sign of how difficult it is to keep the majority party together right now. And the pulling of Kevin McCarthy’s name is also surprising.

The D.O.: Could you elaborate on what caused and intensified the leadership crisis in the House GOP?

S.G.: The Tea Party Republicans come into the Congress with a very different type of perspective on what government should be doing — which is very little — and a very different kind of mandate that they are sent to the Congress to try and basically stop the legislation being offered by the Democratic Party, particularly President Obama … They have an incentive to basically go against what even the conservatives in the Republican Party want, which is to make the Congress work. These individual members would actually like Congress to not work, and they have enough members now that they are able to stop legislation. And they were pretty angry with John Boehner for being, in some ways, more practical and being willing to work a bit with Democrats and with the president.

The D.O.: How quickly will the leadership crisis be resolved or contained?

S.G.: It’s hard to say because there are so few historical precedents for this kind of thing. I think — what I’ve read — the last time this kind of revolution in Congress lasted several months. The problem is that in the meantime the House has to pass the budget and it has to raise the debt ceiling.

Danielle Thomsen: I mean, this is why McCarthy was so surprising because everybody thought it would just sort of happen like it always happened with McCarthy — succeeding to the speakership. Because that did not happen, I am a bit cautious as to even think of timeline. Everybody thought it would be very fast and very orderly.

The D.O.: Do you believe there is a clear leader in the GOP?

S.G.: The party needs to find someone who is acceptable enough to the House Freedom Caucus that they will trust this particular speaker when he or she says, “We have to work.” … I think the most likely scenario is John Boehner sticking around … I think (Paul Ryan) wants to be president some day and there is only a downside for him to become Speaker of the House because there is only way for him to make enemies. He is also the head of an extremely powerful committee, and that is a better place for him probably to look down the path to become in the Senate or the president someday.

D.T.: I don’t really see another option other than Ryan, but that’s only because nobody has said one yet … If the idea is he would lose support because being a speaker is a contentious issue, this wouldn’t matter for his re-election bid because he is always going to be re-elected as long as he seeks re-election. It would matter if he was trying to move up.

Published on October 19, 2015 at 9:15 pm

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