Marlin Stutzman, the Indiana Republican who accused House leaders of tricking him into saving the December government-funding bill during the lame-duck session at the end of 2014, is joining the group of lawmakers who oppose John Boehner’s continuing as speaker of the House.
Stutzman didn’t announce it himself, though. “Representative Marlin Stutzman also gave me permission to announce that his statement would be forthcoming Monday morning,” said Representative Jim Bridenstine (R., Okla.), one of the ringleaders of the rebellion, in a Sunday-evening statement listing the nine members currently pledged to oppose Boehner. (Update: Here is Stutzman’s statement.)
The two Republicans are joined by Representative Ted Yoho (R., Fla.), who is most recently famous for authoring a symbolic rebuke of President Obama’s immigration orders — a bill that Boehner and company had hoped would make it easier to pass the $1.1 trillion cromnibus. North Carolina’s Walter Jones, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, Virginia’s Dave Brat, Texas’s Louie Gohmert, Iowa’s Steve King, Arizona’s Paul Gosar, and Gary Palmer of Alabama have also announced their opposition to Boehner.
Gohmert and Yoho have offered themselves as alternatives to Boehner, but the group of ten would need at least 19 more members to force Boehner out of the speaker’s office.
Boehner’s critics tried to oust him in 2013, but failed — a defeat they say happened because some members who had promised to vote against Boehner backed out at the last minute.
The memory of that defeat sets up a prisoner’s dilemma this time around that could help Boehner, as members who might be inclined to back another candidate might hesitate for fear that they’ll end up being abandoned, spending the next two years being punished for taking part in a failed rebellion.