Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

DeGette decides against seeking a top House post

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 14, 2006 at midnight

Text size  

More Colorado Government

More stories »

WASHINGTON — Rep. Diana DeGette has decided not to challenge a South Carolina lawmaker for the Democratic Majority Whip’s job – the third most powerful job in the U.S. House of Representatives leadership.

DeGette, D-Denver, was seen as a longshot for the position. By bowing out, she clears the way for the leading candidate, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the top-ranked African-American in the House.

"With everything going on with the various leadership races, Congresswoman DeGette did not want to add another divisive race into the mix," spokesman Brandon MacGillis said. "So for the good of the caucus she has decided not to run for Majority Whip."

Leadership elections are later this week.

The whip’s job is to keep party members in line on contentious votes. It’s an important role in both parties' leadership because it involves strategy, head-counting and arm-twisting.

DeGette, who currently serves as a chief deputy minority whip, said senior Democrats asked her to consider running for the position in recent weeks, in anticipation of the party’s majority take-over in the mid-term congressional elections.

DeGette has spent her entire career on the minority side of the aisle, often working in the shadow of her predecessor, retired Denver Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. But her stock rose last year, when she worked with a Republican colleague, Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, on legislation that would have expanded federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.

The DeGette-Castle bill passed both the House and the U.S. Senate, but President Bush blocked it by issuing the first and, so far, only veto of his presidency.

Democrats are deciding various leadership races this week, when newly elected lawmakers are in town for orientation classes.

Democrat Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is expected to be elected House Speaker, and there is a contentious race between current Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., to become House Majority Leader.

Clyburn, currently the House Democratic Caucus chair, has long said he would seek the whip’s position, and he got a boost last week when Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who successfully led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee this year, decided not to challenge him.

But DeGette had said she would consider the job if Emanuel did not run, setting up a potentially divisive race against a past chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.