Chaffetz announces bid for House speaker

U.S. Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House oversight panel, announced on Sunday he was running to replace John Boehner, who is retiring, as House speaker.

"I've had enough members who have come and said, 'Please, Jason, do this. We don't want to fight internally, but realistically we can't vote to promote the existing leadership," Chaffetz said on Fox News Sunday.

"I can bridge that divide between our more centrist members and some of the more far-right-wing members. That's why I've entered this race," said Utah’s Chaffetz.

Boehner's deputy, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, remains likely winner in secret-ballot elections set for Thursday. But under House rules, that outcome does not guarantee that McCarthy will become speaker. He also has to win a public vote of the full House later in October. That outcome is less certain because of potential opposition to McCarthy from the same 30-plus hard-line conservatives who pushed Boehner out.

Chaffetz, the 48-year-old chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has used that post to launch high-profile investigations of the Secret Service, Planned Parenthood and other issues.

His candidacy, which took most lawmakers by surprise when news began to emerge Friday, underscores chaos in the House little more than a week after Boehner of Ohio, announced he would resign rather than face a possible floor vote to depose him.

In the days immediately following, McCarthy was viewed as the presumptive favorite to replace the outgoing speaker, who quickly endorsed his No. 2.

But that dynamic began to shift, particularly following McCarthy's gaffe last week suggesting that the purpose of a special House committee investigating the deadly attacks in 2012 of the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, was to drive down Hillary Rodham Clinton's poll numbers. Clinton, secretary of state at that time, is now the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016.

McCarthy retracted the comment and said he regrets it, but it's given a potent weapon to Democrats ahead of a high-profile Oct. 22 appearance by Clinton before the committee. The Benghazi attacks killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Wire services