Congressional Leadership Contests Decided

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The last of the votes for the leaders of the 110th Congress are finished and the old guard remains largely in place. In the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) moved up from Minority Leader to House Speaker, Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) moved up from Minority Whip to Majority Leader and Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) moved up from Democratic Caucus Chair to Majority Whip. On the Republican side, Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is stepping down from the leadership in the wake of the Mark Foley page scandal and John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) are staying in their leader and whip positions, respectively, though now they are in the minority rather than the majority.

On the Senate side, Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) stay in place as the leader and whip, respectively, of the now-majority Democratic caucus. Republicans had a few vacancies, with Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) retired and Conference Secretary Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) having lost reelection. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) moved up from the whip to the leader position while Trent Lott (R-Miss.), recently kicked out of the leadership for making nostalgic remarks about the segregationist presidential campaign of Strom Thurmond, is back and now holds the Minority Whip position.

Check out the Congresspedia pages on the House leadership, Senate leadership and 110th Congress for more details.