Steny Hoyer

Sources: Hoyer's Official Bid For Whip Indicates He Has The Votes To Win

Brian Beutler | November 8, 2010, 5:16PM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Current House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) today made official his bid to take the position of Minority Whip in the 112th Congress, a strong indication that he and his supporters think he can win. A source close to Hoyer told TPMDC that they were, in fact, confident they now had the votes to win. Rep. Jim Clyburn (SC) is currently the Whip and indicated last week that he wants to keep his position in the next Congress.

Hoyer spent much of the weekend lining up support from moderate and progressive Dems alike, picking up Reps.Peter Welch (VT) early on and Betty Sutton (OH) and Niki Tsongas (MA) today, among others.

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Health Care

Counting The Days: Will Kennedy's Quick Seating In 1962 Repeat Itself?

Brian Beutler and Eric Kleefeld | January 19, 2010, 2:56PM

MA Senate Candidate Scott Brown (R), the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and State AG and Senate Candidate Martha Coakley (D)

In preparation for what they expect to be Republican Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate special election tonight, conservatives and Republicans have unearthed a novel and ironic precedent, which they're using to argue that, if he wins, Brown should be seated right away as the 41st vote against health care reform.

Senate rules require that all newly-elected Senators be certified as winners by their home states before they can be sworn in. But on November 6, 1962, none other than Ted Kennedy himself won a special election to fill his own brother's Senate seat in Massachusetts, and was sworn in the very next day--two full weeks before his victory was certified, and three weeks before that certification arrived in Washington.

1962 is a long way back, and according to Senate historian Don Ritchie, the relevant rule has been in place since well before then.

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