Rep. Perlmutter, courtesy of his Twitter profile
In a secret ballot this morning, Nancy Pelosi was re-elected by her peers as House Minority Leader, 134 – 63, pushing back a challenge by fellow Democrat Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan.
As we reported last week, Colorado’s Ed Perlmutter went out on a limb to publicly support Ryan’s upstart effort to unseat Pelosi. Now that the votes have been counted, what does this mean for Perlmutter, who, in just a few weeks, will have a decade of service in the U.S. House of Representatives?
If Ryan was able to muster the votes to win, or even make it close, Perlmutter would have been in a great position to wield some significant power in the lower chamber. But now that he came out in a public manner against Pelosi, is this defiance going to make things more difficult in the Democrat caucus?
And if that is the case, would this development make Perlmutter want to trade in his Metro SmartTrip card (as if) for four-wheel drive back in Colorado to run for Governor in 2018?
Sure, he could be laying the groundwork to campaign as a change agent – almost an outsider. The truth of the matter is that he is the consummate insider, serving eight years in the state senate and as John Kerry’s co-chairman for Colorado before moving on to the U.S. House. Nonetheless, we are still hearing rumblings of a Perlmutter run, and will keep an eye on him, as Ken Salazar could throw a wrench into those plans for governor (thanks WikiLeaks).
Lesson here: If you aim at the queen, you best not miss.