Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri says he has firm commitments from enough House Republicans to be elected majority leader, replacing Tom DeLay in an internal party election Feb. 2.Blunt's rivals, Representatives John Boehner of Ohio and John Shadegg of Arizona, were not ready to concede.
"This will be a long campaign, leading up to a secret ballot election," Boehner said. He called on Blunt to give up his whip's position formally, a post he could retain under current rules if he lost the majority leader's race.
Shadegg, a conservative who entered the race on Friday, said he had already cut into Blunt's support.
"We already have defections from the Blunt list and we expect more," he said. "Vote counts in this sort of race are notoriously inaccurate. I am in this race to the finish."
With the current House Republican membership at 231, with one vacancy, 116 would constitute a majority. Blunt said he had commitments from more than 117 lawmakers.
Blunt has come under criticism for his links to Washington's lobbyists in a party fight that has been dominated by talk of reforms and ethics related to the lobbying scandal surrounding the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, once a close associate of DeLay.
