John Boehner Re-Elected As Speaker Of The House

Representative John Boehner (R-OH) has been re-elected as the Speaker of the House, though the vote wasn’t without a semblance of drama.

Boehner saw his hold over Republicans diminish slightly when nine of them voted for another candidate instead. Nancy Pelosi also saw re-election as the House Minority Leader when 192 members of her caucus voted for her.

Rumors also swirled around Capitol Hill in the past week, suggesting that Boehner would not be re-elected because of the tough fiscal cliff negotiations, reports ABC News.

There were also rumors that the negotiations had led to Boehner deciding to resign as speaker. In an attempt to end the rumors and speculation, Michael Steel, spokesman for John Boehner, sent out an email on Wednesday that simply stated:

“Rep. Boehner expects to be elected Speaker tomorrow.”

Boehner also set up a meeting with Republicans from the states hardest by Hurricane Sandy after he denied a vote on legislation that would give direct relief to the region. Several of those involve questioned whether they could still support Boehner, but he appeared to have regained their trust following the meeting.

NBC News notes that Boehner received a unanimous vote when he was elected as Speaker two years ago. This time, however, he narrowly avoided the 16 defections that it would have taken to trigger a second ballot of House lawmakers to select a speaker.

The trigger would have been the first time since 1923 that a second ballot was needed and also would have been an embarrassment for John Boehner.

Are you glad that John Boehner was re-elected as the Speaker of the House, or should a different Representative have been chosen?