The behind the scenes drama goes on over who will be the speaker of the House in the new General Assembly in January, as there appears to be a stalemate over when Republican representatives will vote.
Typically, each caucus holds informal leadership votes before the new session starts. Democrats did last week.
The dean of the Republican caucus, Jim Butler, supports former Speaker Larry Householder to take back that job. But because some candidates he supported didn’t win their elections, it seems unlikely he’d have the votes to take the gavel from Speaker Ryan Smith, who has called for Butler to hold the informal vote now. “It’s a tradition to have it early. It’s kind of getting embarrassing that we’re in this spot but we are where we are,” Smith said.
Smith has said he’s confident he has the votes to continue to be speaker.
