By the close of business, state representatives were supposed to respond to the acting speaker’s request for them to choose between two options to deal with an impasse over who will be the next Republican leader of the House. Some lawmakers report it’s likely many Democrats are not responding.
The 65 Republicans have been unable to get 50 votes for one candidate. So Acting Speaker Kirk Schuring is asking all House members to tell him whether they want to let whoever gets the most votes in a session Wednesday serve as speaker through the end of this year, or whether to allow him to lead full voting sessions.
Democrat Brigid Kelly says she didn’t respond and she doesn’t think many of her 32 other caucus colleagues did either.
“I mean that’s a pretty unorthodox way of running the House through a straw poll. We want to make sure everything that’s done is done in a fully transparent way where everybody knows what is going on,” she said.
Most Democrats say they’re unlikely to support any Republican candidate for speaker right now.
