When the Dust Settled, Speaker Lost 9 GOP Ayes

WASHINGTON —  Until the very end, the pressure was intense. Everywhere they turned on Tuesday’s opening day of the 105th Congress, the handful of renegades among Republican House members found colleagues insisting that Rep. Newt Gingrich should not be denied another term as speaker. The Georgia congressman himself dragged some of the defectors into the House cloakroom for one last arm-twist.

When all the ballots were counted, enough GOP members had abandoned him to give Gingrich a real scare.

Just four Republicans cast ballots for someone other than Gingrich, six short of the number needed to block his selection. But five other Republicans voted “present,” refusing to give their support to the Republican leader, who is plagued by ethical questions surrounding the financing of a college course he once taught.

“You always have pressure,” said Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.), one of those who abstained after wrestling with the issue for weeks. “But this was especially tough.”

Rep. Scott L. Klug (R-Wis.) belatedly voted “present”; his vote was not initially recorded because, he said, Republicans trying to persuade him to change his mind caused him to miss hearing his name called by the House clerk.

Before he cast his ballot, he explained his reasoning to the speaker: “I told him, ‘Don’t make me come to the conclusion that everything is hunky-dory when I don’t know if it is,’ ” given that the House Ethics Committee has yet to issue its report or recommend a punishment.

The GOP rebels said that they weighed what was best for the party, what was best for the country and what was best for themselves.

Morella said: “To reelect Speaker Gingrich now, before the Ethics Committee has completed its work, is premature and a disservice to the American people.”

The nine who strayed said there were several others among the House’s 227 Republicans who came close to joining them but ultimately accepted the arguments of party leaders that to reject the speaker would play into Democratic hands.

The defectors who voted “present” did not actually hurt Gingrich’s reelection chances. Winning the speakership requires the votes of a majority of those who vote for a named candidate. Those abstaining or voting “present” do not count toward determining the threshold.

In recognition of this parliamentary wrinkle, GOP leaders themselves urged those who believed that they had to dissent to simply vote present. And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said that the Republicans who abstained were doing Gingrich a “half favor.”

But Morella and the others voting present said they took that stance because they wanted to send a message of concern over the ethics inquiry but did not see a clear alternative to Gingrich.

Most of the dissenters came from the GOP’s moderate wing. They are lawmakers who had parted with the party on previous issues and distanced themselves from Gingrich during their reelection campaigns.

Still, they admitted to uneasiness as Democrats applauded their votes Tuesday.

The four Republicans who voted for someone other than Gingrich did not consolidate behind a rival.

Rep. Linda Smith (R-Wash.) voted for retired Rep. Robert S. Walker (R-Pa.) as speaker, while Reps. Tom Campbell of San Jose and Michael P. Forbes of New York supported Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa).

Leach, a veteran who stunned his colleagues by announcing his defection Monday, cast his vote for former House Republican leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois, who retired four years ago but was in the chambers for the vote.

GOP leaders pledged no retaliation against the nine dissenters. That would be counterproductive, they said, and would interfere with the real work the House must accomplish.

Times staff writer Janet Hook and special correspondent Adrienne Schwisow contributed to this story.