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Chaffetz Will Highlight His Anti-Establishment Roots

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Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s (R-UT) bid to become the next Speaker of the House will highlight his Tea Party roots and anti-establishment credentials, The Hill reports.

>House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) “remains the favorite and has been rounding up support over the last week. But Chaffetz backers sense that House Republicans are yearning for a fresh face who isn’t a senior member of the leadership team. Chaffetz’s pitch to his colleagues will note that he had to defeat the GOP establishment to get to Congress in 2008 — by trouncing then-Rep. Chris Cannon, a six-term incumbent who was backed by then-President George W. Bush.”

Chaffetz Will Run for Speaker

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Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is preparing to launch a campaign for House speaker, multiple sources told Politico.

“The expected bid by the four-term lawmaker comes after Chaffetz called on House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to apologize for his remarks this week that the Benghazi Committee investigation has damaged Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. Though Chaffetz is a respected member of the Republican Conference, McCarthy remains the overwhelming favorite to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).”

House Plans Subpoena Over Clinton Emails

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House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said he “was prepared to subpoena former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to answer questions about her private email accounts,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Chaffetz said his committee “would by Friday formally request answers to a series of questions from the State Department and Mrs. Clinton about the former secretary and presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential candidate’s email. The committee will seek, among other things, access to the electronic versions of Mrs. Clinton’s emails, not merely the printed copies she said she submitted to the State Department.”


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Chaffetz Removes Issa’s Portrait from Hearing Room

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One of Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) first acts since taking over the House Oversight gavel: Removing portraits of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and other past chairmen from the walls of the Oversight hearing room, The Hill reports.

“A Chaffetz spokeswoman said it’s much ado about nothing. But Issa allies see the move as a slap in the face to the last chairman, who tapped Chaffetz in 2011 as chairman of the Oversight subcommittee on national security. Issa’s likeness, they note, had only been hanging in Rayburn 2154 for two months.”

About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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