Coordinates: 54°08′17″N 1°31′25″W / 54.13796°N 1.52365°W / 54.13796; -1.52365

City of Ripon
Fountains Abbey at Ripon
Arms of Ripon City Council
City of Ripon  City of Ripon shown within North Yorkshire
Population	15,922 (2001 census)[1]
OS grid reference	SE312714
- London	223 miles (359 km)
Civil parish	Ripon
District	Harrogate
Shire county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	RIPON
Postcode district	HG4
Dialling code	01765
Police	North Yorkshire
Fire	North Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
EU Parliament	Yorkshire and the Humber
UK Parliament	Skipton & Ripon
Website	http://www.ripon.org/
List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire

Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally significant, as well as the Ripon Racecourse and other features such as its market. The city itself is just over 1,300 years old.

The city was originally known as Inhrypum and was founded by Saint Wilfrid during the time of Angle kingdom Northumbria, a period during which it enjoyed prominence in terms of religious importance in Great Britain. After a period of Viking control, it passed to the Cerdic dynasty who unified England and then the Normans who destroyed much of the city. After a brief period of building projects under the Plantagenets, the city emerged with a prominent wool and cloth industry. Ripon became well known for its production of spurs during the 16th and 17th century, but would later remain largely unaffected by the Industrial Revolution.

Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ripon is the fourth smallest city in England. According to the 2001 United Kingdom Census it had a population of 15,922.^[1] It is located 11 miles (18 km) south-west of Thirsk, 16 miles (26 km) south of Northallerton and 12 miles (19 km) north of Harrogate. As well as its racecourse and cathedral, Ripon is a tourist destination due to its close proximity to the UNESCO World Heritage Site the Studley Royal Park and Fountains Abbey. It also contains the theme park Lightwater Valley.

History[link]

Northumbrian and Viking period[link]

During its pre-history, the area which later became Ripon was under the control of Brythonic tribe the Brigantes, three miles (5 km) north of Ripon at Hutton Moor there is a large circular earthwork created by them.^[2] The Romans did not settle Ripon either, but they had a military outpost around five miles (8 km) away at North Stainley.^[2] Solid evidence for the origins of Ripon can be traced back to the time of the Anglian kingdom Northumbria in the 7th century.^[2] The first structure built in the area, which at the time was known as Inhrypum, was a Christian church dedicated to St. Peter, with the settlement originating in the year 658.^[2] This was founded by a man who later became the Bishop of York, a Northumbrian nobleman known as Wilfrid; he was granted the land by king Alhfrith.^[2] Wilfrid religiously directed the Angle kingdoms of the north from Insular Christianity calculations of Easter, to Catholic Church standards; he was later venerated as a saint.^[2]

The earliest settlers were stonemasons, glaziers and plasterers that Wilfrid had brought over to help construct the Ripon monastery, from Lyon in Francia and Rome which was then under Byzantine rule.^[3][4] The years just following on from the death of Wilfrid are obscure in Ripon's history. After the invasion of the so-called Great Heathen Army of Norse vikings in Northumbria Danelaw was inserted, and the Kingdom of Jórvík was founded in the Yorkshire area.^[2] When King of England at the time Athelstan came to Northumbria to try to force out the Danelaw, he was said to have granted privileges to Ripon, Beverley and York.^[2] One of his successors was less favourable; after the Northumbrians rebelled against English rule in 948, king Edred had the buildings at Ripon burned.^[2] Prosperity was restored by the end of the 10th century as the body of saint Cuthbert was moved to Ripon for a while, due to the threat of Danish raids.^[2]

Normans and the Middle Ages[link]

Ripon Cathedral

After the Norman conquest of England, much of the north rebelled in 1069, even trying to bring back Danish rule; the suppression that followed was the Harrying of the North.^[2] Ripon is thought to have shrunk to a small community around the church after it, after 1/3 of the North of England had been killed.^[2] The lands of the church were transferred to St. Peter's Church at York as the Liberty of Ripon and it was during this time that the Ripon Cathedral was built on top of the ruins of Wilfrid's building. Eventually developing in the Gothic architecture style, the project owed much to the work of Roger de Pont L'Evêque and Walter de Gray, two Archbishop of York during the Plantagenet period of rule.^[2] During the 12th century Ripon built upon a booming wool trade, attracting Italian trade merchants, especially Florentines who bought large quantities.^[2]

Ripon's proximity to Fountains Abbey where the Cistercians had a long tradition of sheep farming and had vast grazing land for the animals, was of a considerable advantage.^[2] After English people were forbidden from wearing foreign cloth in 1326, Ripon also developed a cloth industry; after York and Halifax, Ripon was the chief Yorkshire producer of cloth.^[2] Due to conflict with Scotland political emphasis was on the North during the time of Edward I and Edward II, as Scottish invaders attacked numerous northern English towns.^[2] Ripon had a wakeman to make sure the residents were safely home by curfew and law and order was retained, yet Ripon was forced to pay 1,000 marks to the Scots to prevent them from burning down the town on one occasion.^[2]

Reformation and Tudor times[link]

Fountains Abbey

Ripon, which relied heavily on its religious institutions, was hit hard by the English Reformation under Tudor king Henry VIII.^[2] The abbot of Fountains, William Thirske, was expelled by Henry and replaced; he went on to become one of the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace.^[2] Northern England was quite traditionalist and people were unhappy about Henry's intention to break with Rome; the Pilgrimage of Grace popular rising was the manifestation of this sentiment.^[2] The revolt failed and Henry followed through with the break from Rome and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which hit Fountains Abbey.^[2]

After Mary, Queen of Scots, fled Scotland to the North of England, she stayed at Ripon on her way.^[2] The Catholic-oriented North supported her and there was another popular rising in the form of the Rising of the North; this began six miles (10 km) away at Topcliffe and was led by the Earl of Northumberland and the Earl of Westmorland.^[2] The rebels stayed at Ripon on 18 November 1569 but the rising eventually failed; 600 were executed in total, 300 of whom were hanged at Gallows Hill in Ripon during January 1570.^[2] Plans were drawn up to make Ripon a centre of education, a University of the North to rival Oxford and Cambridge. Although chief adviser Lord Burghley and Archbishop Sandys supported the idea Elizabeth I did not follow it through.^[2]

Civil War and Restoration[link]

The house where Stuart king James I stayed during 1617

Ripon replaced their old textiles industry with one in the creation of spurs starting in the 16th century.^[2] They were so widely known that it gave rise to the proverb "as true steel as Ripon Rowels".^[5] At the time spurs did not just serve as functional riding gear, but were also fashionable; an expensive pair was made for king James I when he stayed at Ripon during 1617.^[2] It was James who granted Ripon a Royal Charter in 1604 and created the first mayor of Ripon.^[6] After the Bishops' Wars in Scotland, a treaty was signed at Ripon in 1640 to stop the conflict between Charles I and the Scottish Covenanters.^[2] Although it wasn't in the main line of fighting to the east, Ripon remained loyal and royalist during the English Civil War.^[2] There was an incident in 1643 when parliamentarian forces under Thomas Mauleverer entered Ripon and damaged the Minster, but John Mallory and the royalist forces soon settled the matter after a skirmish in the Market Place.^[2] The royalists were defeated in the Civil War and Charles I spent two nights as a prisoner in Ripon.^[2] Oliver Cromwell visited the city twice on his way to battle; first on the way to Preston and then on the way to Worcester.^[2]

Studley Royal Park

By the time of the English Restoration several strains of non-conformist Christian practises had appeared, though they were scarce in Ripon; after the majority Anglicanism there remained a Catholic minority.^[2] After the Revolution of 1688 which overthrew James II there were Jacobite risings in the British Isles; some Riponmen were put in jail during February 1764 upon "suspicion of corresponding with Prince Charles Edward Stuart".^[2] Founder of Methodism, John Wesley preached in Ripon and a minority community of followers built up.^[2] During the Georgian era Ripon, unlike several other cities was not significantly effected by the Industrial Revolution despite the existence of various guilds. Although more widely known for his activities outside of Ripon, John Aislabie during his time as Member of Parliament for Ripon created the Studley Royal Park, its water garden and erected the obelisk (designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor^[7]).^[6] Newby Hall was also created during this period by Christopher Wren.^[6]

Contemporary Ripon[link]

Communications were improved with the opening of the Ripon railway station during May 1848.^[2] At the time of the First World War a large military training camp was built in Ripon, the local community provided hospitality for the soldiers wives and also the Flemish refugees became part of Ripon's community.^[2] It had a similar, though less large scale role during Second World War and in recognition of this the Royal Engineers were presented with the Freedom of the City in 1947.^[2] Since the war, Ripon has gone through some remodeling and has grown in size, it attracts thousands of tourists each year who come to view the religious buildings, nearby Studley Park, the Ripon Racecourse and in recent times the theme park Lightwater Valley.^[2]

Governance[link]

Sir George Cockburn was MP for Ripon from 1841 until 1847

During the Middle Ages, Ripon was governed by one wakeman and aldermen known as the twelve keepers, they oversaw the general running of the town and the maintaining of law and order.^[8] The title of wakeman was changed to mayor in 1604, and twenty-four common councilmen were appointed to assist the aldermen in the running of Ripon.^[8] The borough corporation was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 and formed a municipal borough of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974.^[9] In 1974, following the Local Government Act 1972, the former area of Ripon borough was merged with Harrogate borough and several rural districts of the West Riding to form an enlarged Harrogate borough in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.^[10] Although it is now governed by Harrogate Borough Council, Ripon also became a successor parish, with a parish council of its own called Ripon City Council.^[11]

Ripon was represented in the Houses of Parliament with its own Member of Parliament as far back as the Model Parliament of 1295.^[12] Although Ripon also sent representatives in 1307 and 1337, it did not have permanent representation. Instead it was represented by the Member of Parliament of Yorkshire until Ripon had its own parliamentary borough recreated on a permanent basis in 1553.^[12] Ripon was able to elect two MPs to represent its parliamentary borough; the right of election was vested not in the population as a whole, but in the burgesses until the Great Reform Act of 1832.^[12] The next Reform Act, which came into force at the 1868 election, reduced Ripon's representation from two MPs to one. Some of the more notable MPs of Ripon were John Aislabie, Frederick John Robinson and George Cockburn.^[12] The Reform Act of 1885 abolished the borough of Ripon, but the county constituency in which the town was placed as a result was named Ripon, and this continued as a single member constituency, though with some boundary changes, until it was abolished before the 1983 general election.^[12] Since 1983 Ripon has been part of the Skipton and Ripon constituency, a Conservative Party stronghold.^[13] The city council itself has 15 members, all of whom are currently independents.^[14]

Education[link]

Buildings of the former College of Ripon and York St John facilities

Ripon is home to Ripon Grammar School which is a selective intake, state secondary school.^[15] The school claims to take roots from the school which was attached to the Collegiate Church, founded during the time of the Angle kingdom of Northumbria by Saint Wilfrid.^[16] The refoundation date for the school was during the reign of queen Mary I in 1555.^[16] The school has several notable alumni, known as Old Riponians, including theologian Bishop Beilby Porteus, historian Bishop William Stubbs, fashion designer Bruce Oldfield and television presenter Richard Hammond.^[16] In the modern day the school hosts around 800 students, gaining engineering status in 2006,^[17] it receives favourable reports from the Ofsted falling between "outstanding" and "good".^[18] There are also other good schools in Ripon; this includes the non-exclusive Outwood Academy Ripon (formerly Ripon College, a secondary comprehensive school, which was also known as Ripon City School until 1999. It has around 470 students and is just below the national average based on the results of GCSE test performances, but steadily improving each year.^[19]

On the site of the Old Ripon Racecourse in Whitcliffe Lane, there is also an independent co-ed preparatory school founded in 1960, called the Cathedral Choir School. It existed prior to 1960 as St Olave's Preparatory School^[20] Ripon previously had higher education facilities in the form of the College of Ripon and York St John until 1999.^[21] This college had its roots in two Anglican teacher training colleges, which were founded in York in 1841 for men and 1846 for women.^[21] The women's college moved to Ripon in 1862. Over the next century, the colleges gradually diversified their education programmes. The colleges merged in 1974 to form the College of Ripon and York St John.^[21] The combined institution became a college of the University of Leeds in 1990, before all activities were transferred back to York in 1999.^[21] For higher education today, people from Ripon go to York, such as York St John University, York College and University of York or attend further afield institutions.

Religion[link]

Inside St Mary's at Studley Royal

Christianity is the largest religious affiliation in Ripon; 79.3% of the people in the area polled as part of the United Kingdom Census 2001 professed the Christian faith, around 8% above the national average.^[13] Ripon Cathedral is the main religious building in the city and contains a tomb said to contain the bones of Saint Wilfrid who founded a monastery here and with it the town. The Venerable William Gibson is another noted local figure, a Catholic martyr who was one of the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales.^[22] A local recusant woman Mary Ward in 1609 founded the Catholic teaching order the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as the Loreto Sisters it has provinces around the world.

The Church of England are in the majority with two parishes; the ancient Ripon Cathedral and Holy Trinity Church‎.^[23] Ripon is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds represented by the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, created in 1836 with just Ripon in its title but adapted to include Leeds in 2000.^[23] During the time of the kingdom of Northumbria there was a short lived Diocese of Ripon, with Eadhedus as the only bishop. There is a Roman Catholic parish in Ripon called St. Wilfrid's Church, it is covered by the Diocese of Leeds in the Harrogate deanery and it is an architecturally significant building.^[24][25] There are also around two places of worship for Methodism in Ripon.^[26]

Culture[link]

View over the market place of Ripon

The Ripon Hornblower

As a market town, the market day is central to culture in Ripon; market day is held on a Thursday, there are around 120 stalls in total.^[27] In celebration of the cities founder the Wilfrid Procession is held every year; it originated in the year 1108 when king Henry I granted the privilege of holding a fair for him.^[28] At the procession there are various decorated floats which make their way through the city with locals in costume.^[29] Part of the tradition represents the return of Wilfrid to Ripon, a decorated dummy (sometimes a man in costume instead) dressed as Wilfrid is sat on a horse, accompanied by two musicians with another man carrying St Wilfrid's hat around.^[30] Ripon also has dancing traditions such as the Long Sword dance and Morris dance.^[28]

The tradition of the Ripon Hornblower has endured for centuries and continues on to this day.^[31] It originates with the wakeman of Ripon, whose job in the Middle Ages was similar of that to a mayor although he had more responsibilities in the keeping of law and order. Every day at 9:00pm the horn is blown at the four corners of the obelisk in Ripon Market.^[32] The horn has become the symbol of the city and represents Ripon on the Harrogate borough coat of arms. There are three museums in Ripon collectively known as the Yorkshire Law and Order Museums; it includes the Courthouse, the Prison and Police and the Workhouse Museums.^[33]

In terms of sport, the most noted field of participation is horse racing with the Ripon Racecourse. The sport has a long history in Ripon, with the first recorded meeting on Bondgate Green in 1664, while its current location has been used as a racetrack since 1900.^[34] Ripon staged Britain's first race for female riders in 1723.^[34] The Great St. Wilfrid Stakes is perhaps the best known race at the course. The town is represented in football by Ripon City Magnets who currently play in the local West Yorkshire League while Ripon Rugby have represented the city in rugby union since 1886. Several local cricket clubs draw on the denizens of Ripon for their membership, these include Newby Hall Cricket Club, Ripon Cricket Club and Studley Royal Cricket Club.^[35][36] There is also a golf course in the north of Ripon, represented by the Ripon City Golf Club since 1908.^[37]

Transport[link]

The Ripon Canal continues to be used by barges in the modern day

The city was previously served by Ripon railway station on the Leeds-Northallerton line that ran, as the name suggests, between Leeds and Northallerton.^[38] It was once part of the North Eastern Railway and then LNER. The Ripon line was closed in September 1969 as part of the wider Beeching Axe, despite a vigorous campaign by local campaigners, including the city's MP.^[38] The issue remains a significant one in local politics and there are movements wanting to restore the line.^[38] Reports suggest the reopening of a line between Ripon and Harrogate railway station would be economically viable, costing £40 million and could initially attract 1,200 passengers a day, rising to 2,700.^[38][39][40]

By road Ripon is well connected; it is accessible from the north and south via the A1 road which connects to Ripon by the B6265.^[41] Ripon is accessible from the east and west via the A61 which is the main road running through the city.^[41] The lack of a railway means that the city has a frequent high-quality bus services ran by various operators; there are regular bus routes to Leeds, Boroughbridge, York, Thirsk, Northallerton, Leyburn, Richmond and others.^[42] The Ripon Canal was proposed by John Smeaton in 1766, to connect the city centre to part of the River Ure; it was used for the transportation of coal from the Durham coalfields into the city.^[43] Although abandoned in 1956, a conservationist campaign saw it reopened in 1996; today its purpose is mostly of a aesthetic nature with barges travelling down it and local fishermen using it.^[43][44]

Town twinning[link]

• Foix in France 1957.^[45]

See also[link]

• Marquess of Ripon

References[link]

This article cites its sources but does not provide page references. You can help to improve it by introducing citations that are more precise.

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ripon

• Official Ripon City Partnership "Visit Ripon" site
• Ripon Tourist, Community and Business Information
• Ripon Tourist Information and Business Directory
• The Ripon Gazette
• Review Ripon
• Development in Ripon British Geological Survey
• Ripon subsidence problems and Alice in Wonderland British Geological Survey

John Boehner
61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office January 5, 2011
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Nancy Pelosi
House Minority Leader
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2011
Deputy	Roy Blunt (2007–2009) Eric Cantor (2009–2011)
Preceded by	Nancy Pelosi
Succeeded by	Nancy Pelosi
House Majority Leader
In office February 2, 2006 – January 3, 2007
Deputy	Roy Blunt
Preceded by	Roy Blunt (Acting)
Succeeded by	Steny Hoyer
Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce
In office January 3, 2001 – January 3, 2006
Preceded by	William Goodling
Succeeded by	Howard McKeon
Chairman of the House Republican Conference
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1999
Preceded by	Dick Armey
Succeeded by	J.C. Watts
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 8th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1991
Preceded by	Buz Lukens
Member of the Ohio House of Representatives from the 57th district
In office January 3, 1985 – December 31, 1990
Preceded by	Bill Donham
Succeeded by	Scott Nein
Personal details
Born	John Andrew Boehner (1949-11-17) November 17, 1949 (age 62) Reading, Ohio, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Deborah Gunlack (1973–present)
Children	Lindsay Boehner Tricia Boehner
Residence	West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio
Alma mater	Xavier University
Profession	Business consultant
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature
Website	Speaker of the House Friends of John Boehner Fighting for Freedom. Making a Difference. John Boehner – 8th District of Ohio
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1968 (8 weeks)

John Andrew Boehner ( /ˈbeɪnər/ BAY-nər;^{[notes 1]} born November 17, 1949) is the 61st^[1] and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, he is the U.S. Representative from Ohio's 8th congressional district, serving since 1991. The district includes several rural and suburban areas near Cincinnati and Dayton, and a small portion of Dayton itself.

Boehner previously served as the House Minority Leader from 2007 until 2011, and House Majority Leader from 2006 until 2007. As Speaker of the House, Boehner is second in line to the presidency of the United States following the Vice President in accordance with the Presidential Succession Act.

Early life, education and career[link]

Boehner was born in Reading, Ohio, the son of Mary Anne (née Hall) and Earl Henry Boehner, the second of twelve children. His father was of German descent and his mother had German and Irish ancestry.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} He grew up in modest circumstances, having shared one bathroom with his eleven siblings in a two-bedroom house in Cincinnati. His parents slept on a pull-out couch.^[7] He started working at his family's bar at age 8, a business founded by their grandfather Andy Boehner in 1938.^[7] He has lived in Southwest Ohio his entire life. All but two of his siblings still live within a few miles of each other; two are unemployed and most of the others have blue-collar jobs.^[8]

Boehner attended Cincinnati's Moeller High School and was a linebacker on the school's football team, where he was coached by future Notre Dame coach Gerry Faust.^[9] Graduating from Moeller in 1968, when U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was at its peak, Boehner enlisted in the United States Navy but was honorably discharged after eight weeks because of a bad back.^[10] He earned his B.A. in business administration from Xavier University in 1977, becoming the first person in his family to attend college, taking seven years as he held several jobs to pay for his education.^[7]

Shortly after his graduation in 1977, Boehner accepted a position with Nucite Sales, a small sales business in the packaging and plastics industry. He was steadily promoted and eventually became president of the firm, resigning in 1990 when he was elected to Congress.^[4]

Early political career[link]

From 1982 to 1984, Boehner served on the board of trustees of Union Township, Butler County, Ohio. He then served as an Ohio state representative from 1985 to 1990.^{[citation needed]}

U.S. House of Representatives[link]

In 1990, Boehner ran against incumbent congressman Buz Lukens, who was under fire for having a sexual relationship with a minor. He trounced Lukens in the primary, taking 49 percent of the vote. This was tantamount to election in the heavily Republican 8th District. He has been reelected 10 times with no substantial opposition, and even ran unopposed in 1994.

Gang of Seven[link]

During his freshman year, Boehner and fellow members of the Gang of Seven took on the House establishment, Republicans and Democrats alike, and successfully closed the House Bank (House banking scandal), uncovered "dine-and-dash" practices at the House Restaurant, and exposed drug sales and illegal cash-for-stamps deals at the House Post Office.^[11]

[edit] Contract with America

Boehner, along with Newt Gingrich and several other Republican lawmakers, was one of the engineers of the Contract with America in 1994 that helped catapult Republicans into the majority in Congress for the first time in four decades.

Legislative accomplishments[link]

From 1995 to 1999, Boehner served as House Republican Conference Chairman which is the party caucus for Republicans in the United States House of Representatives. In this post, he was the fourth-ranking House Republican, behind Gingrich, Majority Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay. There he championed the Freedom to Farm Act that, among other provisions, revises and simplifies direct payment programs for crops and eliminates milk price supports through direct government purchases.

Following the election of President George W. Bush, Boehner was elected as chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee from 2001 until 2006. There he authored several reforms including the Pension Protection Act and a successful school choice voucher program for low-income children in Washington, DC.^[12] He was also a major force in the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, saying it was his “proudest achievement” in two decades of public service.^[13]

Leadership challenge[link]

In the summer of 1997 several House Republicans, who saw Speaker Newt Gingrich's public image as a liability, attempted to replace him as Speaker. The attempted "coup" began July 9 with a meeting between Republican conference chairman Boehner and Republican leadership chairman Bill Paxon of New York. According to their plan, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, Boehner and Paxon were to present Gingrich with an ultimatum: resign, or be voted out. However, Armey balked at the proposal to make Paxon the new Speaker, and told his chief of staff to warn Gingrich about the coup.^[14]

On July 11, Gingrich met with senior Republican leadership to assess the situation. He explained that under no circumstance would he step down. If he was voted out, there would be a new election for Speaker, which would allow for the possibility that Democrats—along with dissenting Republicans—would vote in Dick Gephardt as Speaker. On July 16, Paxon offered to resign his post, feeling that he had not handled the situation correctly. Paxon was the only unelected member of the leadership group, having been appointed to his position by Gingrich.^[15]

Congressional leadership[link]

Boehner, as House Minority Leader, campaigns for fellow Ohio Congressman Steve Stivers (left) during the 2010 midterm elections

In 1998, Boehner was ousted as the chairman of the House Republican Conference, after his party lost five congressional seats.^[16]

In an upset, Boehner was elected by his colleagues to serve as House Majority Leader on February 2, 2006. The election followed Tom DeLay's resignation from the post after being indicted on criminal charges.

Boehner campaigned as a reform candidate who wanted to reform the so-called "earmark" process and rein in government spending. He defeated Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri and Representative John Shadegg of Arizona, even though he was considered an underdog candidate to Blunt. In the second round of voting by the House Republican Conference, Boehner defeated Blunt with 122 to 109 votes. Blunt kept his previous position as Majority Whip, the No. 3 leadership position in the House. (There was some confusion on the first ballot for Majority Leader as the first count showed one more vote cast than Republicans present,^[17] due to a misunderstanding as to whether the rules allowed Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño of Puerto Rico to vote or not).^[18]

After the Republicans lost control of the House in the 2006 elections, the House Republican Conference chose Boehner as Minority Leader. While as Majority Leader he was second-in-command behind Speaker Dennis Hastert, as Minority Leader he was the leader of the House Republicans. As such, he was the Republican nominee for Speaker in 2006 and 2008, losing both times to Pelosi. While the Speaker is nominally elected by the full House, in practice he or she is almost always chosen by the majority party.

According to the 2008 Congress.org Power Ranking, Boehner was the 6th most powerful congressman (preceded by Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander M. Levin, Dean of the House John Dingell, and Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, all Democrats) and the most powerful Republican.^[19] As Minority Leader, Boehner served as an ex officio member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Speaker of the House[link]

Boehner is greeted as the House Speaker by U.S. President Barack Obama, before the 2011 State of the Union Address.

On November 17, 2010, Boehner was unanimously chosen by the House Republicans as their nominee for Speaker,^[20][21] all but assuring his formal election to the post when the new Congress convened with a Republican majority in January 2011. He is the first Speaker from Ohio since fellow Republicans Nicholas Longworth (1925 to 1931) and J. Warren Keifer (1881 to 1883). He is also the first Speaker who has served both as majority and minority floor leader for his party since Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn.

As Speaker, Boehner is still the leader of the House Republicans. However, by tradition, he normally does not take part in debate (though he has the right to do so) and almost never votes from the floor. He is also not a member of any House committees.

Controversies[link]

Connections to lobbyists[link]

In June 1995, Boehner distributed campaign contributions from tobacco industry lobbyists on the House floor as House members were weighing how to vote on tobacco subsidies.^[22] In a 1996 documentary by PBS called The People and the Power Game, Boehner said "They asked me to give out a half dozen checks quickly before we got to the end of the month and I complied. And I did it on the House floor, which I regret. I should not have done. It's not a violation of the House rules, but it's a practice that‘s gone on here for a long time that we're trying to stop and I know I'll never do it again."^[23] Boehner eventually led the effort to change House rules and prohibit campaign contributions from being distributed on the House floor.^[24]

A September 2010 New York Times story said Boehner was "Tightly Bound to Lobbyists" and "He maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses, including Goldman Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R.J. Reynolds, MillerCoors and UPS.".^[25]

Smithsonian[link]

In November 2010, Boehner, along with Minority Whip Eric Cantor, called for the cancellation of an exhibit in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery after he learned that it featured a video by David Wojnarowicz, A Fire in My Belly, that contained an image of a crucifix with ants crawling on it. Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said, "Smithsonian officials should either acknowledge the mistake and correct it, or be prepared to face tough scrutiny beginning in January when the new majority in the House moves [in]."^[26]

Political positions[link]

Boehner introducing then-president George W. Bush in Troy, Ohio in 2003.

A profile in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said, "On both sides of the aisle, Boehner earns praise for candor and an ability to listen."^[27] The Plain Dealer says Boehner "has perfected the art of disagreeing without being disagreeable."^[28]

Boehner has been classified as a "hard-core conservative" by OnTheIssues.^[29] Although Boehner does have a conservative voting record, when he was running for House leadership, religious conservatives in the GOP expressed that they were not satisfied with his positions. According to the Washington Post: "From illegal immigration to sanctions on China to an overhaul of the pension system, Boehner, as chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, took ardently pro-business positions that were contrary to those of many in his party. Religious conservatives – examining his voting record – see him as a policymaker driven by small-government economic concerns, not theirs."^[30]

Boehner has received a "0" rating from the Human Rights Campaign in the last three congressional sessions, voting against the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, the Early Treatment for HIV Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Boehner voted for a Federal Marriage Amendment. In a letter to the Rights Campaign, Boehner stated, "I oppose any legislation that would provide special rights for homosexuals... Please be assured that I will continue to work to protect the idea of the traditional family as one of the fundamental tenets of western civilization."^[31][32]

On May 25, 2006, Boehner issued a statement defending his agenda and attacking his "Democrat friends" such as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Boehner said regarding national security that voters "have a choice between a Republican Party that understands the stakes and is dedicated to victory, and a Democrat Party with a non-existent national security policy that sheepishly dismisses the challenges of a post-9/11 world and is all too willing to concede defeat on the battlefield in Iraq."

Boehner is a signer of Americans for Tax Reform’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge.^[33]

Military spending[link]

Boehner has called on the President to justify spending for military operations against terrorists.^[34]

Financial crisis[link]

On September 18, 2008, Congressman Boehner attended a closed meeting with congressional leaders, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and was urged to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. That same day (trade effective the next day), Congressman Boehner cashed out of an equity mutual fund.^[35]

On October 3, 2008 Boehner voted in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP),^[36] believing that the enumerated powers grant Congress the authority to "purchase assets and equity from financial institutions in order to strengthen its financial sector."

Speaker Boehner meets with President Obama at the White House during the 2011 debt ceiling increase negotiations

Boehner has been highly critical of several initiatives by the Democratic Congress and President Barack Obama, including the "cap and trade" plan that Boehner says would hurt job growth in his congressional district and elsewhere. He opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and said that, if Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections, they would do whatever it takes to stop the act. One option would be to defund the administrative aspect of the Act, not paying "one dime" to pay the salaries of the workers who would administer the plan.^[37] He also led an opposition to the 2009 stimulus and to Obama's first budget proposal, promoting instead an alternative economic recovery plan^[38] and a Republican budget (authored by Ranking Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI).^[39] He has advocated for an across-the-board spending freeze, including entitlement programs. Boehner favors making changes in Social Security, such as by raising the retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, as well as tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation, and limiting payments to those who need them.^[37]

In 2011 Boehner called the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act “one of our highest legislative priorities.”^[40][41]

Political campaigns[link]

2006[link]

In the November 2006 election, Boehner defeated the Democratic Party candidate, U.S. Air Force veteran Mort Meier, 64% to 36%.^[42]

2008[link]

In the November 2008 election, Boehner defeated Nicholas Von Stein, 68% to 32%.^[43]

2010[link]

Boehner was opposed by Democratic nominee Justin Coussoule, Constitution Party nominee Jim Condit, and Libertarian nominee David Harlow; but won the 2010 election.^[44]

As Republican House Leader, Boehner is a Democratic target for criticism of Republican views and political positions. In July 2010, President Barack Obama began singling out Boehner for criticism during his speeches.^[45] In one speech, Obama mentioned Boehner's name nine times^[46] and accused him of believing that police, firefighters, and teachers were jobs "not worth saving."^[47]

Electoral history[link]