Post-Abramoff Mood Shaped Vote for DeLay's Successor

Boehner's biggest break came when Shadegg entered the race, promising even broader changes and an outright end to the practice of "earmarking" pork projects for individual congressional districts in spending bills. "We seem to have lost sight of our ideals," Shadegg told his colleagues in his announcement letter. Boehner's numerical tracking system, which logged votes on a sliding scale of 1 to 5, showed Blunt with a small, but clear, lead when Shadegg jumped in a week after DeLay stepped down.

It takes a majority of the vote to win, so Boehner knew he would probably need to force a second round and win over the Shadegg faction to prevail.

Shadegg, also 56, regards himself as a conservative purist; his father was an adviser to the patron saint of the modern conservative movement, the late Sen. Barry M. Goldwater (R-Ariz.).

If Republicans really wanted change, Shadegg offered it. He was a reliable advocate of cutting taxes and spending and bucked the president and party leaders by opposing the No Child Left Behind education law and the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, two big government programs that economic conservatives deplore. Boehner and Blunt voted for both. The Wall Street Journal, National Review and several conservative talk radio hosts heartily endorsed him.

Rep. Mark Edward Souder (R-Ind.), who nominated Shadegg yesterday, told the Republican Conference that "the public believes we abused our power" and would accept nothing less than wholesale change.

Yet Shadegg committed a cardinal sin of leadership races -- he hesitated. He gave Blunt and Boehner a week's head start and his campaign never gained traction. Boehner, knowing he needed his votes plus Shadegg's, did everything but publicly embrace the Arizonan. If Shadegg issued a statement, Boehner endorsed it. If lawmakers pledged their support to Shadegg, Boehner praised them for opting for change.

One key part of their joint strategy was to pressure Blunt to step down as House majority whip, the third-ranking leadership job, to run for the number two position. Several members told Boehner and Shadegg they were afraid to endorse them publicly because they might pay a price later if Blunt remained in leadership.

"There is always a concern if you bet on the wrong horse in leadership races you will be out of favor with leadership for a while and there will be some retribution," said Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.).

Boehner and Shadegg spoke privately the day before Shadegg entered the race and secretly plotted a strategy together two weeks later to pressure Blunt into a joint appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." They sat side by side at the State of the Union address.

By the beginning of this week, Shadegg sounded annoyed by the tactic. "If someone gets into the race and he is attracting votes, you want to hug him close," he told reporters at a Monday meeting of 60 conservative lawmakers. "I am not hugging John Boehner."

That meeting proved to be a turning point. Blunt showed up dressed for the office in a navy-blue suit and red tie, and he responded sympathetically to the group's calls for legislative changes to cut spending and curtail lobbyist influence. He didn't hurt himself, participants said, but he didn't set the room ablaze, either.

Boehner, in a red sweater and navy slacks, went immediately on the offense with his own detailed agenda for change. He talked about his conservative Roman Catholic working-class upbringing as one of 12 children. Lawmakers who attended said they were dazzled. "It made a very big difference for him," said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who attended the meeting and seconded Shadegg's nomination but backed Boehner on the second ballot.

As Boehner walked into the Cannon House Office Building yesterday morning, some of his closest friends were telling him momentum was behind Blunt. Boehner survived the first round, but only barely, as Blunt won 110 votes, Boehner 79 and Shadegg 40.

"In the last couple of days, the conservative movement started to weigh in and encouraged significant reforms of the Republican direction," Feeney said. Most members kept their promises on the first round, "but obviously a lot of Shadegg and some of Blunt's supporters ended up going with Boehner."

Gathering his staff in his office after his defeat, Blunt told them not to spend any time trying to figure out the 15 or so members who betrayed him. Then he cited an old Hebrew song about how life is a narrow bridge and you can't be afraid to fall off.