Two-thirds of Americans Want House to Elect Speaker ASAP, Poll Shows: ‘Do your job’; Speaker Field Narrows to Eight — But No Clear front-Runner After House GOP Candidate Forum – UPDATES!

An overwhelming majority of Americans are sick and tired of the battle over the next speaker of the House and just want one elected as soon as possible, a new poll shows.

The USA Today/Suffolk University survey found that 67% of registered voters are fed up with the Republican gridlock in the House and expect the caucus to resolve the speakership crisis — as infighting over the issue continues to dominate the lower chamber nearly three weeks since the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

“How often do you see Democrats, Republicans, and independents agree on anything in DC?” said David Paleologos, director of the Boston university’s Political Research Center, to USA Today.

“Look at every demographic: gender, geography, age, race, education level, income, political philosophy, even those who trust CNN vs. Fox News,” he said.

“They are all speaking the same seven words in unison: ‘Elect a speaker, and do your job.’ ”

According to the poll, 57% of Republicans, 86% of Democrats and 59% of independents all agree on the need for a House speaker to be elected quickly to restore order.

Still, a quarter of those polled said it’s no big deal either way — because after all, what does Congress ever really achieve?

“It’s not like they do anything anyways,” said Dustin Gibbons, 34, a Republican and home warranty manager from Queen Creek, Ariz., to the outlet. “I don’t think that a speaker in the House is going to do anything other than, you know, just keep kicking that ball along.”

The eight GOP hardliners who joined every House Democrat in ousting McCarthy on Oct. 3 said the speaker had broken one of his pledges to the conference in choosing to pass a continuing resolution on a bipartisan basis last month that funds the government until Nov. 17, avoiding a shutdown. —>READ MORE HERE

Speaker field narrows to eight — but no clear front-runner after House GOP candidate forum:

House Republicans huddled behind closed doors Monday night as nine of their lawmakers pitched to the GOP conference on why they should be the next speaker.

The nearly three-hour-long meeting ended with one lawmaker, Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.), dropping out of the race, but no clear front-runner emerging.

“We had some other great candidates. This is just about making the speaker’s office be as effective as possible,” Meuser said afterward.

“I said, ‘We’ve got to have a fresh start, and we got to have respect for each other now,’” he said of the speech he gave to the conference, adding of his bid, “We came in late.”

The conference’s latest candidate forum comes 20 days after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster and in the wake of the doomed speakership nominations of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Both Scalise and Jordan dropped out of contention for speaker earlier this month after failing to garner enough Republican support to replace McCarthy (R-California).

Walking into Monday’s confab, Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) was bullish on having someone elected to the top spot before Halloween, telling reporters he believes someone will secure the 217 votes necessary by the end of the week.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who was among the dozens of Republicans who refused to back Jordan’s speakership bid, indicated that he was confident a new speaker will be elected by Tuesday night.

“I feel optimistic by tomorrow night we’ll have a speaker,” Bacon said.

Asked about his votes against Jordan, the Nebraska Republican added, “I felt like there had to be accountability. That’s why I stood up and did what I did. We had a minority of the majority kick out McCarthy.”

Several GOP lawmakers expressed that time is of the essence, with a continuing resolution that is currently keeping the government open set to expire Nov. 17, Russia’s war against Ukraine raging and Israel poised for a ground offensive against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. —>READ MORE HERE