GOP Employs Phone Persuasion to Push Gingrich Vote

With a critical leadership vote looming, top Republican leaders made a final pitch by conference call Friday to sway GOP fence-sitters to grant Newt Gingrich a second term as House speaker despite reservations about his unresolved ethics case.

The morning call by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour and others marked a final push to quell the discontent that has surfaced since Gingrich’s admission last month that he violated House ethics rules.

The advocacy seemed to be making inroads. A dozen members who had been considered undecided signed a joint letter Friday saying that they intend to back Gingrich when the 105th Congress convenes Tuesday. Those signing the letter included Rep. Steve Horn (R-Long Beach).

The letter was orchestrated by Rep. Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.), who heads the House GOP campaign committee.

In the half-hour private conference call with dozens of members, Gingrich’s lieutenants downplayed the speaker’s ethical lapses and painted the bid to deny him the speaker’s job as nothing more than Democratic partisanship, sources said.

Gingrich also has made one-on-one calls to many GOP house members in recent days and plans a face-to-face pitch to the Republican House caucus Monday night.

But some rank-and-file Republicans remain reluctant to declare unequivocal support before the House Ethics Committee can decide on Gingrich’s punishment. And that panel’s judgment will not come until later in the month.

Rep. Tom Campbell (R-San Jose) spoke to Gingrich for an hour Thursday night--a call Campbell initiated to gather more information on the case. Afterward, he continued to mull over whether Gingrich ought to remain the speaker.

“I have not been leaned on heavily by the party,” said Campbell, a former Stanford University law professor who has spent the last two days evaluating documents associated with the case. “The party is leaving me to my own judgment . . . probably because they know I am going through the documents like a law professor.”

The full-court press by the GOP boils down to numbers: If just 10 Republicans bolt from their party, Gingrich could lose the speakership. The party breakdown in the new Congress is 227 Republicans, 207 Democrats and one independent who usually votes with the Democrats. While Gingrich clearly has locked up the support of the vast majority of Republicans, some have withheld their support, much to the consternation of GOP leaders.

With some members scattered across the country on vacation and others just not talking, nobody knows for sure just how many undecideds remain.

Only one, Rep. Michael P. Forbes (R-N.Y.) has announced that he will vote against Gingrich. Another, Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), suggested Gingrich might consider temporarily stepping down until the ethics flap is resolved.

Rep.-elect John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who had been withholding support for Gingrich, said Friday that he now believes the speaker’s ethics violations were unintentional.

“It has not been easy,” Shimkus says of his decision to vote for Gingrich as speaker. “I know I’m going to be held accountable either way. In my heart I want to do the right thing.”

A spokesman for Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said pressure is mounting for undecided members to declare their support for the embattled speaker.

“We’re getting calls [from constituents], lots of calls and they’re very mixed,” said Jon Brandt, a Hoekstra aide. “I can’t tell whether they’re coming from within the district or from outside, but a lot of people are paying attention. It is something that [Hoekstra] is taking into account as he makes up his mind.”

For Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), the decision mixes politics with the personal.

Hostettler, one of a handful of GOP legislators mentioned in recent media reports as wavering in his support for Gingrich, has crossed swords with the speaker in the past and suffered from it. During last session’s tense budget negotiations, Hostettler voted against a Gingrich-led compromise to reopen the federal government and was punished by the speaker, who refused to attend a scheduled fund-raiser in Indiana for him.

Michael Jahar, Hostettler’s press secretary, said any lingering bitterness over the budget fight has passed but that the congressman has yet to declare unshakable support for Gingrich.

Hostettler “puts an awful lot of weight on integrity and being a man of your word,” Jahar said. “The speaker has said the leader of the House has to be held to a higher standard than most other public officials. [Hostettler is] weighing what the speaker has said. It all boils down to what is right.”

Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-San Diego) is out of the country at an undisclosed location with his wife. When he flies back to Washington on Monday, aides say he will be faced with a pile of constituent mail and a stack of phone messages--half backing Gingrich, half urging Bilbray to give him the boot.

In Bilbray’s fickle San Diego district--registration is closely divided between the two major parties--the issue is not solely partisan.

A couple of major Republican donors and some GOP loyalists--people who like Gingrich--are urging Bilbray to vote against him for the greater good of the party.

“Brian is in a pickle,” said chief of staff John Woodard.

“We know our district, we know Newt is not exactly popular. Brian has to decide what is best for the Congress, what will further the agenda he supports. Newt has been a key to that agenda, but now is he a detriment?”

Times staff writer Faye Fiore contributed to this story.