Speaker’s Pact with Minority Cinches Gavel
Members of the Speaker’s party decided it was time for him to give up control. He didn’t agree; and became the longest-serving legislative leader in US history.
Members of the Speaker’s party decided it was time for him to give up control. He didn’t agree.
That does not refer to US House Speaker John Boehner and the recent move by Congressman Mark Meadows to oust him. Nor does it refer to reports from March 2015 that Democrats might support the Speaker if he were to be challenged from the right.
It refers to another legislative leader who, when faced with pressure from his own party, made a deal with the minority to retain his position. In exchange for the votes, he appointed members of both parties to committee chairmanships, brought bills from both parties to a vote, and became the longest-serving state legislative leader in US history.
John Shelton Wilder: the longest-serving state legislative leader in US history
“Politics is the art of the possible,” said Otto von Bismarck, and by that measure, Tennessee state senator John Wilder was quite the artist. A Democrat from Fayette County, Wilder served as Speaker of the Tennessee State Senate with only token opposition from 1971 until 1986. In 1987, Democratic party leaders decided it was someone else’s turn, but Wilder was not ready to give up his powerful position without a fight. (The Speaker of the Tennessee Senate also holds the title of Lieutenant Governor and is first in the line of succession.)
When he heard of the ouster plan, “Governor” Wilder presented the Republicans, who had been in the minority since the Civil War, with an offer they could not refuse: he would give them half the committee chairs and consideration of their bills, if they would nominate and vote for him in the leadership election.
Republicans took the deal.
With the Republican minority and a few loyal Democrats, Wilder retained the gavel and remained Liutenant Governor for the next twenty years.
Until 2005, [Wilder] continued to be reelected “unanimously” and to award chairmanships to his supporters in both parties, making the Tennessee Senate one of the few legislative bodies in the world to be elected on a partisan basis, but organized on a more-or-less nonpartisan one. — Wikipedia
Leadership Elections: Legislative Prisoner’s Dilemmas
Legislative Leadership elections often present Prisoner’s Dilemma scenarios, in which people acting in their own perceived self-interest end up in a worse position then if they had cooperated on a less-than-optimal solution together.
The Wilder Pact, though increasingly rare in politics, was arguably a perfect deal for all participants. Votes of minority members in a leadership contest are worthless to the minority party — they usually can’t win, but they continue to vote for someone from their own party anyway, instead of aligning with a more agreeable candidate across the aisle. Those votes are precious to an endangered leader. In Wilder’s case, the minority Republicans exchanged something of no cost to them for something significant (more legislative input and committee chairmanships) and the leader kept his gavel.
“Motion to Vacate the Chair” filed in Congress
On July 28, 2015, Congressman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) filed a “motion to vacate the chair,” an attempt to force a new election for the Speaker’s position.
The resolution to “vacate the chair,” as its known, was filed as a non-priveleged resolution, which means it will be referred to the Rules Committee rather than triggering an immediate vote on the House floor. — National Journal
Republicans hold one of the largest majorities of the past forty years, but are divided within the party between moderates and the newly-formed “Freedom Caucus.” In the most recent Leadership election, Speaker John Boehner won with 200 votes despite 25 defections from his own party, which the Washington Post called “the biggest defection in at least 100 years.”
Will the motion get a vote? It’s not clear.
House Rules panel Chairman Pete Sessions told reporters Tuesday afternoon that he would look at the resolution before determining the next course of action, and it’s possible Meadows’ measure will never actually get a floor vote.
If the resolution does come to the Floor, Speaker Boehner will find himself facing very similar dynamics to Liutenant Governor John Wilder in 1987: a challenge from his own party and a minority with very little to lose in cutting a deal.
Kumbaya on the Horizon?
Recent actions by House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi seem to indicate that an alliance would not be completely out of the question. Democrats joined moderate Republicans to pass a “clean” Department of Homeland Security bill on March 3, after several unsuccessful attempts by the House GOP to get their caucus to approve a temporary measure to allow more time for negotiation in the Senate.
On March 19, Boehner and Pelosi announced the bipartisan permanent “doc fix” bill to repeal Medicare’s sustainable growth-rate formula and extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program for two years. That bill subsequently passed the Senate and was signed into law on April 16. More recent bipartisan efforts include the 21st Century Cures Act, which passed the House on July 13, 2015.
2016
Theoretically, such a deal might benefit both parties going into the 2016 Presidential election cycle. For Democrats and Republicans alike, it could create a chance to enter 2016 with a track record of compromise. And for conservative House Members, they can say they took the fight to the Speaker.
Impossible scenario? Probably. But “Wilder” things have happened!
Marci Harris is a Tennessee native, former Congressional staffer, and co-founder and CEO of POPVOX.com, a neutral, nonpartisan platform for civic engagement and legislative information.
