BABIN REGISTERS RESERVATIONS ABOUT SPEAKER

WASHINGTON — For people that like a Representative in the House that is fearless, I present to you Brian Babin, representing southeast Texas. As Freshman Rep. Brian Babin of Woodville prepared for his first vote as a U.S. Congressman by taking a detour towards where timid people would never travel on the House floor. He looked up Speaker John Boehner. He wasn’t searching the Speaker out for advice on the vote; he was informing the Speaker that his district’s vote would be cast to indicate the voters in the district were not “for” him having another term as Speaker.  Like Representative Babin’s predecessor Steve Stockman two years earlier, Babin said he wanted to register unhappiness with current management. But unlike his predecessor, he also delivered that message in person.


Babin, a dentist and military veteran, said he didn’t talk to Stockman before casting his vote. He said he voted “present” to reflect constituents’ dissatisfaction with party leadership in the wake of the “Cromnibus” bill, a $1.1 trillion government funding measure. The bill’s eleventh-hour passage in December averted a government shutdown, but some of its provisions rankled Republicans and Democrats alike.

“Since the pass of this last omnibus bill, our district and constituency believes that we need to start seriously looking at possibly getting some new leadership. And I heard them. I heard that call. That’s the reason I did what I did,” Babin said Thursday.

Babin was one of four Texas Republicans and 0ne of only twenty-five Republicans in the House not to vote for Speaker John Boehner in his bid for a third term leading the House. The race brought intraparty tensions to bear.

Babin said he voted present rather than casting his ballot for one of Boehner’s challengers because he would have preferred to see Boehner denied reelection on the first ballot, forcing a closed-door GOP caucus meeting at which a replacement might emerge. Two challengers had almost no support and Babin was unfamiliar with the third.

For those wondering where our Representative goes from here after being seen as a challenger to the lost powerful man in the House, we must hope his assignments to committees is not effected by this first vote. Babin has always put forth the idea that what we have needed in a Congressman is one that builds coalitions and picks battles that actually make a difference, not a statement. He is there to help build a more conservative House.

When Babin says, “I definitely can work with this leadership.  I could work with anyone that they had up there.” He is talking about having a seat at the table to represent a district in southeast Texas that is conservative.