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House Republicans face a divided caucus less than two months into session

gophouse.gov

There’s a lot of turmoil among Republicans in the state House right now. That’s after the GOP leadership took a get-tough approach on Republicans who refused to support an income tax rollback.

After a little over 12 hours of trying to wrestle enough “yes” votes, House Republicans still came up short. About a dozen Republicans voted against the legislation.

   But it wasn’t just the long hours that left members frustrated. State House Speaker Tom Leonard accused one of his colleagues of lying and stripped him of his committee chairmanship.

   Republican Representative Dave Pagel  says he has a lot of questions.

“I felt pressure. I think all of us felt a lot of pressure to change our votes.” 

   He wants house leadership to answer those questions and come up with a more inclusive way of handling controversies.