With the announcement that President Obama has tapped Republican Congressman John McHugh of New York, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, to be the new Secretary of the Army, this opens up the top GOP spot on this key House Committee.
If you were to go strictly on seniority, longtime Maryland Representative Roscoe Bartlett would assume the Ranking Member position. But these days, it is no longer an automatic assumption that the most senior member takes over.
California Republican Howard P. “Buck” McKeon has the next highest level of seniority and the FlashReport has heard rumors that he is looking at a run.
Perhaps, politically, he saw the recent battle for the Ranking Member slot on the House Ways & Means Committee, where fellow Californian Wally Herger, who was next in line in terms of seniority was beat out for that committee’s top spot by Michigan’s Dave Camp – who was just below Herger in time-served — a parallel of McKeon’s standing on the Armed Services Committee.
As of now, we haven’t heard for sure that Bartlett is interested in the top spot. We hear that Mac Thornberry of Texas, who is just below McKeon in seniority, may make a run.
We’ll see how this develops. Needless to say, we here at the FlashReport are big fans of McKeon, so we think his pursuing this spot is a great idea!
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Fascinating Factoid: When Republicans were in the majority, the last GOP Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee was California conservative Duncan Hunter. His son, Duncan L. Hunter, is now a junior member of the committee, the only California Republican besides McKeon.