With the Republican Majority at 246 in this new Congress, Boehner only needs 218 votes to secure another term as Speaker. That means 30 Republicans will have to vote for someone else in order to oust Boehner and there are already murmurings some are planning to try and do just that:
DAILY CALLER – While the vote is usually just a formality, these conservative lawmakers are planning to vote for someone other than the Ohio Republican who has been speaker since 2011.
“Right now, I’ve been meeting with a small group, and we — about 16, 18 — and we’re hoping to have a name of a sitting member of Congress that we can call out their name,” North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones said in a local radio interview before Christmas, which was first reported by BuzzFeed.
Though ousting Boehner is seen as a long shot endeavor, the hope of the anti-Boehner bloc is for enough Republicans to deny Boehner a majority of the vote, which would cause him to drop out of the race.
These potential defectors are mostly keeping quiet about it in public, but in a posting on Twitter over the weekend, Kentucky Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky hinted he would oppose Boehner. He posted a photo of a sign that reads: “Next Speaker Please.”
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To win the speaker’s race, Boehner needs the support of a majority of people present. If everyone in the House votes, that would be 218. The new Republican majority in the House will be 247.
If 30 Republicans vote for someone other than Boehner, under that scenario, the Ohio Republican will not have a majority and the body will have to vote again until someone reaches that threshold.
I’m not sure that conservatives can pull off an upset and oust Boehner, but even if they did I’m betting that Boehner will have wheeled and dealed a few Democratic votes in his back pocket in a ‘just in case’ scenario. And what he’ll promise them for their votes…well I’m sure it will be something juicy like Amnesty spending.