Nathan Deal did Democrats a big favor by deciding to resign early from his seat in the U.S. House to concentrate on running for governor (Deal did himself an even bigger favor, because his early resignation will squelch an embarrassing move by the House Ethics Committee to resolve an ethics complaint related to Deal’s lucrative business deal with the state involving an auto salvage firm he owns).
By leaving the House on March 8, as he announced Monday, Deal will make it slightly easier for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership to assemble a majority vote for healthcare reform.
How does this come to pass? First of all, Gov. Sonny Perdue is required to set a date for a special election to fill Deal’s vacant House seat. He must issue an order called a “writ of election” setting the date of that special election “within ten days after the occurrence of such vacancy,” which means the writ of election must be signed and sent to the secretary of state by March 18. The law further requires that the date for the special election cannot be “less than 30 days after its issuance.”
The law thus requires that at least 30 days must pass between the time Perdue issues the writ of election and the day when the special election is held. The law does not set any requirements beyond that. That would presumably allow Perdue to schedule the special election to coincide with the primary election in July or the general election in November, if he chose to do that.
Regardless of when the special election is held, it appears that Deal’s House seat will be vacant for at least the next month or two, which could be a crucial time for healthcare reform legislation in Congress.
One scenario now being discussed by the Democratic leadership involves the House voting to agree with the healthcare reform bill that passed the Senate with 60 votes on the day before Christmas. (The Senate would also approve some House-requested changes in that bill through the reconciliation procedure that does not require 60 votes for passage.)
Because the House is not hobbled by the antiquated filibuster rules that obstruct votes in the Senate, a simple majority vote in the House could pass the Senate version of the healthcare reform bill and send it to President Barack Obama.
Normally, a House majority would be 218 votes because the full membership of the chamber is 435. But with the resignation of Deal and three other current vacancies, the House membership will be reduced to 431 and Pelosi will need only 216 votes for a majority.
In addition, Deal’s resignation deprives Republicans of a certain “no” vote against passage, which also makes it slightly easier for Pelosi and the Democratic leadership to achieve a majority vote for healthcare reform legislation.
Thus the irony that Deal, who adamantly opposes healthcare reform, makes it easier for Democrats to pass healthcare reform by resigning early from Congress.
Deal’s decision to resign before his term ends came only two days after the staggering announcement by Rep. John Linder, a Gwinnett County Republican, that he will not run for another House term.
There has been a lot of comment on the number of Democrats who have decided to retire from the House, but there has actually been a larger number of GOP members who won’t be coming back.
Linder’s retirement, according to the National Journal, brings the number of Republican House members who are stepping down to 20 — which is more than 10 percent of the total GOP membership. By contrast, there have been 15 House Democrats who have said they won’t run for another term — which is less than 6 percent of Democratic membership.
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