President Obama is at it again. He has tapped the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), to be his Secretary of the Army. McHugh represents New York’s 23rd District, which stretches from Lake Ontario in the West to the border of Vermont in the East. It’s effectively a New England seat. It’s unclear if the Republicans will be able to win a special election there to fill this vacancy. McHugh has been winning the district with over sixty-percent of the vote, but Obama took 50.33% of the vote in the November election.
If they cannot hold the 23rd District, the Republicans will have only one two members (Rep. Peter King, from Long Island and Rep. Chris Lee of Batavia) left in New York State. They currently have no House members from New England. They have lost seats in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. After Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) retires, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Chris Lee, and Peter King could be the only federally-elected Republicans between Canada and the New Jersey border.
Predicting committee succession is tricky in the House, but Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD-Appalachia) is probably set up to replace McHugh as the ranking member on the Armed Services committee. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) could then take over the gavel of the Subcommittee on Air & Land Forces.
This move by Obama has to be driving the Republicans nuts.