The Marietta Daily Journal - U S Rep Loudermilk Backlash intensity unexpected
Loudermilk denied flip-flopping on a campaign promise to elect new leadership, saying he voted against Boehner last November during a vote to determine the Republican nominee for speaker.
“Nobody stood up to challenge John Boehner (in November),” Loudermilk said. “Even without a challenge I cast a ‘no’ vote because I thought we needed something different. There’s no cameras there, so I had nothing to gain. It was not a grandstand. It was truly a principled vote that I thought we needed new leadership. (Tuesday) was not the time to have that fight — that was back in November.”
Loudermilk was one of the 216 votes that saw Boehner re-elected speaker on Tuesday. Twenty-five Republicans voted for other candidates or voted present. Runner-up Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) received 164 votes.
During his campaign, Loudermilk said he signed a pledge that he “would vote against the speaker at the earliest opportunity or the first opportunity to do so” — and he said he did.
“We did what we said we were going to do, not because it was a campaign promise, but because I was seeking new leadership, and I did it back in the time when it should have been done. (Tuesday) there was no chance of defeating Speaker Boehner,” Loudermilk said.
That pledge wasn’t a “core principle” of his campaign, but it was mentioned, and many of his constituents have misconceptions about his Tuesday vote for Boehner, Loudermilk said Wednesday. Loudermilk said he had no other choice but to vote for Boehner.
“Some of the candidates (running against Boehner) even said they had no intention of being speaker. They just wanted to have a floor fight,” Loudermilk said. “I’m not throwing any colleagues under the bus. They had their reasons to do it, but the majority of the people that voted against John Boehner (Tuesday) did not vote against him back in November. They either voted for him, or just remained silent. So, the right time to do this was back in November when we had a real chance of change in leadership. Yesterday there was no chance of changing that.”
Loudermilk said his staff has been reading comments from posters on Facebook and answering phones about the vote all day, and he understands why some are blasting him for allegedly going back on his word.
“I truly understand why they’re upset. I’m upset that that’s the choice that I had to make yesterday,” Loudermilk said.
Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University, said the Loudermilk camp shouldn’t worry about the negative comments swarming this week; it will blow over soon.
“I think they did the only thing they could do under the circumstances, so I don’t think it will hurt him or any Republican at all down the line,” Swint said.
The reason Loudermilk didn’t vote with the renegade Republicans who said no to Boehner, either voting for other candidates or voting present, was because their efforts to rally against the speaker were too last minute, he said.
“This was something that was thrown together at the last minute, so there was no reason to talk about it. We weren’t even sure how serious these folks were until we got on the floor and started seeing who was being put out there did we really even know. As you can see, there was no organized effort,” Loudermilk said.
Swint agreed with Loudermilk, saying the opposition wasn’t well-organized.
“It’s not like there was a great electable alternative to Boehner. There wasn’t, so they faced the prospect of they could either vote to support the speaker or they could really go out on a limb — a very shaky limb — and vote against him. And, of course, we’ve seen since that vote what has happened to some of the leaders of that shaky opposition,” Swint said.
Loudermilk said he was “absolutely not” threatened by Boehner before the vote. But, Boehner made his opinion of the dissenting voters clear Wednesday when he removed Reps. Daniel Webster and Richard Nugent, both Florida Republicans, from their posts on the House Rules Committee. Webster received 12 votes in the speaker’s election on Tuesday, the most of any Republican opponents of Boehner, according to the Associated Press.
However, Loudermilk said he may have even felt the heat from Boehner for his November vote against him.
“I was probably punished for voting against him in conference because I didn’t get certain committee assignments we thought we may get. But, I have had no conversations with the speaker since that time. I didn’t even talk to him at all yesterday until we had the ceremonial swearing-in where he came and shook my hand and said ‘congratulations,’” Loudermilk said. “We’re on the Homeland Security and Science and Technology (committees), but there were others that we were seeking that there were spots available that — I don’t know — but I guess you can assess since some freshmen got on certain committees that others didn’t that it was probably because I would assume that those who voted for the speaker got on those committees.”
When the ruckus dies down, Swint said those who criticize Loudermilk for his vote now will likely change their minds.
“I would say that kind of criticism just isn’t realistic. A congressman can either be a robot or he can be a U.S. congressman. He’s got to use his own judgment. I just think that’s the only option he really had,” Swint said.
—The Associated Press contributed to this report
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