Rep. Cox Enters Political Fray for Speaker

WASHINGTON —  When the window finally opened, it opened wide and without warning. Rep. Christopher Cox, the conservative Orange County lawmaker, for years had been quietly eyeing the House speaker’s chair--deliberately rising through the ranks of the Republican leadership, passing up chances to run for the Senate, surveying the lay of the political land.

Then on Friday, Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) abruptly quit. Cox walked into his own office, shut the door and got on the phone.

Hours later, the Newport Beach Republican was on “Larry King Live,” throwing his hat in the ring.

“Last October we had--not for the first time--a year-end budget mess,” Cox said in an interview before publicly announcing his candidacy. “The budget is not done on time. The appropriations bills are not done on time . . . and by year-end we had a multi-hundred-page bill almost no one could read. It’s time to run the Congress as we should.”

It is the moment of glory Cox has waited for. The 46-year-old Harvard Law School graduate has been seen as a rising star ever since the Republicans captured the House four years ago.

He is fluent in Russian, telegenic, a former Reagan White House lawyer who seemingly could walk through a wind tunnel and emerge with not a single hair out of place.

He had the money and charisma to run for the Senate, but didn’t. Bob Dole considered making Cox his presidential running mate in 1996, but didn’t.

Now Cox is laying it on the line, bursting into a chaotic competition, he says, with three-quarters of California’s 24 GOP congressional members behind him. Whether he has a prayer of pulling off a successful run for the speakership is a matter of discussion.

“He is principled and judicious,” said Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), who called Cox on Friday and encouraged him to take the leap. “He’s a reformer. He knows how to motivate people.”

“He doesn’t have a chance,” countered a senior California Republican aide upon hearing of Cox’s decision. “He’s not well-liked by his colleagues, and he’s not a team player.”

The disparate views of Cox’s ambitions may say as much about the maniacal horse race that is about to unfold as it does about the man himself. As one Republican put it, “There seems to be a new candidate every half-hour,” so not all lawmakers are sure who’s running, much less who they would support.

But Cox brings to the game some impressive credentials as the fifth-ranking Republican in the House leadership and the author of recent legislation to protect companies from lawsuits by investors--the only bill to pass this session over a presidential veto.

He is head of the investigation into the administration’s export of space technology to China. And he makes a noble stab at bipartisanship, even if he is rather staunchly conservative, summoning members of both parties to weekend retreats to take the edge off.

Some see him as someone who could offer badly needed new blood to a Republican Party in crisis. Rep. Bob Barr, the ultraconservative from Georgia, called Cox a “formidable candidate.”

But others say he is starting too late, years behind Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana, who has been avidly raising money and courting members in preparation for the day Gingrich stepped down.

Whatever the outcome, the Republican delegation from California will play a major role in the decision--offering a significant chunk of votes, larger than any other single state.

Many of them spent Friday on the phone from their homes in California, discussing how they can turn Gingrich’s departure to their advantage.

“We’re looking to put together a California package,” said Rep. Brian P. Bilbray of San Diego. “The Californians are sort of positioned to move into more powerful leadership positions.

“From a California point of view, we’ve had a lot of indirect influence in the past, but it looks like there’s now an opportunity to move into more of a position of influence in many areas,” Bilbray said.

Fiore reported from Washington and Schrader from Los Angeles.