Local Republican leaders stood by Rep. Kevin McCarthy after his failure Tuesday to win enough votes to become speaker of the House, and even Kern’s top Democrat predicted Bakersfield’s most powerful politician will eventually claim the gavel, as consensus emerged that the televised balloting laid bare festering division within the GOP.
Fellow Central Valley Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, speaking by phone during Tuesday’s third and final round of inconclusive voting on who should become second in line to the presidency, accused Republican holdouts of “wasting everyone’s time” by continuing to vote for candidates with relatively little support.
Senior Bakersfield Republican strategist Cathy Abernathy said she did not believe it was any reflection on McCarthy that 20 members of his party ultimately voted in favor of his ally, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. She said anyone in McCarthy’s position would have come up short, and that the holdouts’ “crazy behavior” showed they mainly wanted to “gum up the works.”
But Kern County Democratic Party Chairman Christian Romo, noting Democrat Hakeem Jeffries won the most votes Tuesday despite failing to win a House majority, said McCarthy failed, albeit temporarily, because he has demonstrated a willingness to do anything to “climb the political ladder.”
“Realistically, I think (McCarthy) will become speaker. I think he’ll make agreements,” Romo said. “It’s a question of, do they believe him when he makes these promises?”
Comments posted on McCarthy’s Facebook page expressed a full spectrum of views, with some pledging their support and others questioning his conservative credentials while critics to his political left and right mocked his defeat.
“Desperate much?” wrote Spokane, Wash., resident Tina Zellers Dowling.
McCarthy and his staff did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Valadao said the day began hopefully with McCarthy appearing “very strong” in a closed-room meeting of the House Republican caucus. The nine-term congressman received an overwhelmingly strong ovation, Valadao said, after pledging to carry on the fight to win the speakership.
McCarthy at one point posed the question of what, exactly, holdouts wanted of him, which Valadao said seemed to inspire many of his fellow GOP lawmakers.
“The whole room, all the Republicans started to yell, ‘What do you want? Answer the question!’” Valadao said.
Abernathy said she had no doubt McCarthy would continue to “fight for what’s right” rather than step aside, especially because no one else in the chamber is more qualified to lead the House Republican majority.
Her hope was that constituents in the districts whose representatives had opposed McCarthy will soon persuade their congressmen to vote in his support. She seemed to write off the idea of further concessions to holdouts, noting earlier compromises had only been met with new demands.
“You don’t let the troublemakers push aside the good people,” Abernathy said. “That’s the same as how (McCarthy) votes on the floor. He fights for what’s right. He doesn’t capitulate.”
Romo called McCarthy’s leadership bullying and arm-twisting, flip-flopping to consolidate power at all costs. He said he doubts the Bakersfield Republican will succeed in winning over hard-liners, and that the more likely scenario is that relative moderates will eventually fall in line with him for the sake of their careers.
The only other scenario, Romo said, is that Democrats could cross the aisle to vote for him, “which is very unlikely.”
