Backing Dark Horse Boehner May Mean Big Payoff for a Few

By Chris Cillizza
Sunday, February 5, 2006

After last week's House Republican leadership elections, the main winner was obvious: Rep. John A. Boehner (Ohio) was the new majority leader after a surprising come-from-behind victory over Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.), who will have to stay content in his current job as majority whip.

The top-of-the-ticket contest also produced some less public victories and defeats for rank-and-file members, however.

Among the House members who saw a big run-up in their political stock:

Rep. Pat Tiberi (Ohio) : Tiberi was described by one well-connected party strategist as the "worker bee" of the Boehner operation. A junior member of the GOP caucus, expect Tiberi to be rewarded with a plum post or two in the coming months.

Rep. Jim McCrery (La.) : McCrery took a major gamble by supporting Boehner, as backing the wrong horse probably would have cost him the Ways and Means Committee chairmanship when Rep. Bill Thomas (Calif.) is term-limited out of the post after this Congress. Boehner's victory strengthens McCrery's status as the front-runner for the powerful chairmanship come 2007, assuming the GOP keeps its majority this fall.

Rep. Tom Latham (Iowa) : Latham is Boehner's closest friend in the House and one of his three closest friends in Congress, along with Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.).

Rep. Pete Sessions (Tex.) : Like McCrery, Sessions staked his ambition to be the next chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee on his support for Boehner. Sessions is widely regarded as the favorite for the campaign job in the 2008 cycle.

Other Republicans were left to lick their wounds with Blunt.

Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (Fla.) : He gambled and lost. He had been, with McCrery, one of two front-runners for the Ways and Means gavel in 2007. There now seems little doubt who will get it if Republicans stay in control.

Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.) : See Shaw. Cole, who is competing with Sessions and Pennsylvania Rep. Phil English to chair the NRCC, was a public Blunt supporter.

Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest (Md.) : After initially supporting Boehner, Gilchrest jumped to Blunt at the eleventh hour in exchange for a committee chairmanship. He may be waiting for a while.

Rep. Joe Barton (Tex.) : Barton was entrusted with delivering the massive Texas delegation to Blunt. Whether or not he did it (the vote was by secret ballot), his candidate came up short, and his allegiance to Blunt may well linger in Boehner's mind.

Vilsack, Allen Root for Same Side

If Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D) run into each other today at the Super Bowl in Detroit, they'll have more to talk about than you might think.

First, both men are weighing presidential bids in 2008, beginning the long process of assembling the staff and fundraising apparatus necessary to make a national race.

More important than their desire to be commander in chief, however, is that both men will be rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers -- albeit for quite different reasons.

For Vilsack, a Pittsburgh native, his relationship with the Black and Yellow borders on the obsessive.

Last week, Vilsack said he was concerned about his team's prospects because his prized Steelers hat had fallen from its perch, on the corner of a photo in his office, immediately after Pittsburgh's win over the Denver Broncos. Those fears were somewhat mollified by the fact his Terrible Towel remained in its "special" place throughout the two-week run-up to the big game, however. "We're going to find out which is the stronger," Vilsack said.

Allen is less of a Steelers fanatic but is rooting for the team, nonetheless.

His prime motivator is Chris LaCivita, one of Allen's longtime political lieutenants, who "bleeds black and gold," in the senator's words. "He has been wearing the same jersey for weeks without washing it, and I don't want him to be all depressed," Allen said.

The Virginia senator also is friendly with Steelers great John Stallworth, who was part of the same Pro Football Hall of Fame induction class as Allen's father, George Sr. -- the successful coach of the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins.

Backing Pittsburgh has some residual financial benefits for Allen, as well. Tim Rooney, a member of the family that has long owned the Steelers, appeared on the host committee for an Allen fundraiser during Super Bowl weekend; the cash-collecting event was for Allen's 2006 reelection effort, but given the financial heavy hitters in attendance (Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and real estate developer Dwight Schar to name two), it could well be the fundraising foundation for a presidential campaign.

GOP Loses Big Name in N.Y.

The decision by billionaire businessman Tom Golisano last week not to run for the open New York gubernatorial seat leaves GOPers without the man some considered the most formidable candidate to challenge the ubiquitous state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (D) for the state's top job come November.

Golisano, of Rochester, was seen as a potential savior by some Republicans, who coveted his considerable name identification and even more considerable bank account.

With Golisano out, Republicans are left with a mishmash of largely unknown candidates -- a problem illustrated in a Marist College poll released just before Golisano's decision.

In it, Golisano led the Republican primary field with 33 percent. Former Massachusetts governor William F. Weld placed a distant second with 8 percent while former state assembly minority leader John Faso took 4 percent.

Cillizza is a staff writer for washingtonpost.com. His online politics column, The Fix, appears daily at www.washingtonpost.com/thefix.