Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) will officially join the rebellion against John Boehner’s re-election as Speaker of the House on Monday morning, Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) announced in a statement late Sunday evening.
Stutzman, Bridenstine said, will issue a statement early Monday announcing his public opposition to Boehner’s re-election. That brings the total number of members who are public in their opposition to nine, as Bridenstine and Reps. Steve King (R-IA), Dave Brat (R-VA), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Walter Jones (R-NC), and Thomas Massie (R-KY) issued public statements saying they are opposing Boehner. Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Ted Yoho (R-FL) both announced their own candidacies against Boehner, and many incoming freshman representatives made campaign promises to either definitely vote against Boehner or that they’d consider doing so.
“I am pleased to see so many Members of Congress responding to the voices of their constituents in supporting new leadership,” Bridenstine said in his Sunday night statement. “Rep. Louie Gohmert added his name to Rep. Ted Yoho as willing to stand for election as Speaker of the House. Reps. Paul Gosar, Steve King and Dave Brat made public statements of their commitments to vote for new leadership. Rep. Marlin Stutzman also gave me permission to announce that his statement would be forthcoming Monday morning. Rep. Walter Jones, Thomas Massie and I had issued our statements previously.”
The conservative grassroots community stands with the effort to oppose Boehner as well, with FreedomWorks coming out in public against him in a statement this weekend and Tea Party Patriots leader Jenny Beth Martin urging members to oppose Boehner in an interview on Breitbart News Sunday. The Conservative Review’s staff is working overtime to get information about the matter out in public, and polling data from Pat Caddell is indicative of widespread national GOP voter opposition to his re-election as Speaker. More grassroots organizations, both local and national, are expected to come out in opposition to Boehner and urge their supporters to pressure members to oppose him, soon.
Bridenstine added that the group of nine members publicly opposing Boehner should be called the “Gang of Nine.” He also said that forthcoming statements will put the effort into double digits on Monday.
“If this vote fit the Progressive agenda, the media would be calling us a ‘Gang of Nine.’ Monday, we will be in double digits,” Bridenstine said. “The Congress is hearing the people.”
Stutzman ran as a previous candidate for Majority Whip against Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL). Scalise is facing a major scandal right now and refuses to answer questions about his associations with the top political hand to former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. Both nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin—as well as various political consultants for the GOP—are demanding Scalise answer those questions. Some have demanded his resignation. Some sources tell Breitbart News, too, that Boehner may have asked Scalise to whip votes for the speakership vote—a sign the speaker is worried about where things stand. But with Scalise focused on saving himself from the scandal, he may be distracted enough for conservatives to succeed—especially since Scalise has had major problems with getting whip counts straight in his short time in the job.
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