The Speakership has been rumored to be a lock for Valerie Longhurst for months now. Paul Baumbach is regarded as a possible alternative but a long shot. Anyway, Pete is almost certainly out.
I don’t know much about the mechanics of it, so I’ll leave that to El Som.
Leftist podcaster and journalist RE Vanilla had an interesting and possibly revealing take on how a Speakership vote for Longhurst could come about with the progressive changes in the Dem caucus.
Val is a politician. What if her potential ascent to Speaker depended upon, say, a new influx of progressive women Reps? And hypothetically Val knew her ability to lead the House and leapfrog Pete in leadership was orchestrated by a coalition that she’ll need to maintain that power? She could be expected to have a different agenda than she’s had, for example.
