Bass Endorses Shadegg as Majority Leader
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 – Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H., yesterday joined Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., in endorsing Rep. John Shadegg, also from Arizona, in his race to become the next House majority leader.
“Senator McCain is Congress’s recognized leader for budget and campaign finance reform and government operations reform,” said Bass at a news conference Wednesday. “I think it’s a great moment for John Shadegg to be able to get Senator McCain’s endorsement.”
McCain said, “I know that John Shadegg, who I have had the honor of knowing for more than 25 years and had a close working relationship with, is committed to reform.”
“We have to fix the way that we do business,” said McCain, referring to the current Washington lobbying scandal and the link between lobbyists and government spending.
Bass echoed McCain’s sentiments and said Shadegg is the leadership candidate who is the most serious about reform.
House Republicans will select a new majority leader in a secret ballot in a closed session Thursday afternoon (TODAY). Shadegg of Arizona and John Boehner of Ohio are challenging Roy Blunt of Missouri, who has been acting majority leader since Tom DeLay stepped down after being indicted in Texas on money laundering charges.
Bass, who was one of the first to call for the House Republicans to elect new leadership, said, “This is really about changing Congress.” Bass circulated a letter last week urging his fellow Republicans to support Shadegg’s bid for majority leader.
A moderate Republican, Bass said the more conservative Shadegg understands that without the moderates, the Republicans would not be the majority. “I think as the next majority leader, John Shadegg would bring moderates in as advisors to talk to him about scheduling and other priorities,” said Bass.
The two men were both elected to Congress in the landmark 1994 election, the so-called Republican revolution, which gave the GOP a majority and control of the House of Representatives for the first time in almost 50 years. Shadegg in his campaign for majority leader has said that the party needs to return to the principles of smaller government and fiscal responsibility that it ran on in 1994. He has also stressed issues of ethics.
A number of political observers have pointed out that Blunt and Boehner both have strong ties to the Washington lobbying community.
Shadegg is the most likely candidate to push a bold ethics reform package, something that would strengthen the Republican Party, Bass said.
“Regardless of who wins this election tomorrow, I plan to work with like-minded members of Congress on the reform agenda,” said Bass in an interview after the press conference. “Regardless of who wins the election, I think the ball is rolling.”
Bass said that he fully expected that Shadegg would at least make it to a second ballot in the House. “In the course of my discussion with moderates,” said Bass, “not one of them has said that I made a dumb decision to endorse John Shadegg, not one of them.”
###
