Brewer talks with MPBN about House Speaker John Boehner’s resignation
Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, spoke with the Maine Public Broadcasting Network for a report about reactions from Maine’s Congressional District in response to House Speaker John Boehner’s resignation announcement. U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said while there had been talk about Boehner being challenged by members of his caucus and rumors that that he might not run for re-election next year, everybody was surprised at his announcement, according to the report. She said she expects Congress will pass a clean continuing resolution (CR) to keep the federal government operating while budget talks continue. “In terms of getting a clean CR passed, I think this increases the chance of that,” Brewer said. “This means that speaker Boehner is — I don’t want to say completely unfettered — but relatively unfettered moving forward.” However, Brewer and Pingree said a shutdown is still possible, with only a few days to get a short-term funding bill approved once Congress returns to Washington on Monday, the article states. The Bangor Daily News also carried the MPBN report.