Boehner wins the majority

House Republicans voted to change course yesterday, electing Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio as their new majority leader in a vote members said put reform at the head of the agenda and a fresh face at the top of the party.

Mr. Boehner defeated acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt of Missouri, who had taken over when Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas stepped down last year. The majority leader sets the House floor schedule and decides what issues Republicans will drive.

Mr. Boehner campaigned on a platform of curtailing pork projects and limiting the role of government.

“We must act swiftly to restore the trust between Congress and the American people,” he said yesterday. “We must take the necessary steps to get the federal budget under control — to cut wasteful spending, reform our entitlement programs, and craft a budget process that encourages fiscal discipline.”

Republicans said they were looking for a fresh face to lead the party away from recent corruption accusations and charges the party has lost its way on issues like spending and limited government.

Mr. Boehner is not strictly an outsider. He was House Republican Conference chairman from 1994 to 1998, before losing a bid for re-election to the post.

Two years later, he emerged as chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee, where panel members say he turned a partisan and sleepy committee into a legislative engine that churned out key bills like No Child Left Behind and last year’s Pension Protection Act.

Mr. Boehner topped Mr. Blunt, 122-109, on a second ballot. He trailed with 79 to Mr. Blunt’s 110 on the first ballot, in which Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona received 40 votes and Rep. Jim Ryun of Kansas, who hadn’t even campaigned, received 2 votes.

Mr. Blunt remains the majority whip, whose job it is to count votes, and he made light of his own claim throughout the past three weeks that he had the votes sewn up to win.

“I know both the speaker and the leader are glad that I can obviously count votes on the floor with quite a bit more precision than I can the 110 votes that we got on the ballot for the leader’s race,” he said.

Also yesterday, Rep. Adam Putnam, Florida Republican, won a race for Policy Committee chairman, succeeding Mr. Shadegg, who had given up the seat to run for leader.

Mr. DeLay announced last month he would not seek to regain his slot, beginning a frantic behind-the-scenes campaign between Mr. Blunt and Mr. Boehner. Mr. Shadegg joined the race five days later, and crystalized the contest as a vote on reform.

Yesterday Mr. Shadegg said the vote was a victory of sorts.

“Today was a victory for reform,” he said, “maybe not as much reform as I would have liked.”

Several Republicans said Mr. Blunt would have won on a first ballot if Mr. Shadegg had not run.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, called Mr. Boehner yesterday to congratulate him and said they will work together as much as possible. But Democrats also said one change at the top of the party won’t erase the “culture of corruption” they say Republicans have led.

Mr. Boehner and Mr. Shadegg turned the race into a public campaign, doing interviews and conference calls to win the support of Web loggers and conservative activists. Both men also courted the conservatives of the Republican Study Committee, answering the group’s extended questionnaire and making good impressions at this week’s RSC retreat.

Mr. Blunt, meanwhile, refused demands for a public debate. Though he did interviews and was available to reporters, he was blasted by bloggers for coming off as stiff and unengaged.

Members said most of Mr. Shadegg’s supporters went for Mr. Boehner on the second ballot but not all, which means Mr. Blunt lost at least several votes the second time around.

Mr. Shadegg’s supporters said they could accept that Mr. Boehner represents reform.

“I’m really excited. I feel good about this,” said Rep. Charles Bass, New Hampshire Republican.

Supporters of Mr. Blunt said the outcome leaves the conference well positioned.

“I think they wanted some new blood in leadership and they got it, and people are united,” said Rep. Jack Kingston, Georgia Republican and the conference vice chairman. “You have kind of the best of both worlds — change with Boehner, a brand new face with Putnam, and yet you still have Roy there as whip, who’s done an amazing job counting votes.”

On the issues, Mr. Boehner gets a strong rating from the National Rifle Association and has been a key figure in school choice, including helping create a voucher program for the District of Columbia. He also has long thrilled taxpayer groups by his refusal of personal “earmarks” or pork barrel projects for his district.

Some Republicans worried about his position on immigration because he voted against last year’s border and interior immigration enforcement bill. Mr. Boehner did vote for an amendment to build nearly 700 miles of fence on the U.S.-Mexico border, but he opposed the overall bill because it was too much of a burden on businesses, and he didn’t have a chance to amend those requirements.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, who supported Mr. Blunt, said he will invite Mr. Boehner to the caucus’s next meeting to explain his position on the issue.

REP. JOHN A. BOEHNER

House majority leader

Born: Nov. 17, 1949, in Cincinnati.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, Xavier University, 1977.

Experience: U.S. House, 1991-present; Ohio legislature, 1984-90; trustee, Union Township, 1982-84.

Family: Mr. Boehner and his wife, Debbie, have two daughters - Lindsay and Tricia.

Quote: “I think what you’re going to see us do is rededicate ourselves to dealing with big issues that the American people expect us to deal with.”

— Associated Press