Where The House Bal­ance Of Pow­er Stands After Dem Sud­den­ly Dies And Anoth­er GOP Mem­ber Resigns

This week, the sud­den death of Rep. Don­ald Payne Jr. (D‑NJ) and the res­ig­na­tion of Rep. Mike Gal­lagher (R‑WI) once again changed the par­ty break­down of the GOP-led cham­ber that has to con­tend with a Demo­c­rat-con­trolled Sen­ate and White House.
Repub­li­cans num­bered 217 while Democ­rats had 212 mem­bers as of Thurs­day. That means, with the cur­rent set-up, the GOP can only afford two defec­tors in par­ty-line votes with full atten­dance. Yet that will not be the case for long.
In less than one week, on April 30, New York will hold a spe­cial elec­tion for the Buf­fa­lo-area seat once held by Bri­an Hig­gins, a Demo­c­rat who stepped down in Feb­ru­ary to become pres­i­dent and CEO of Shea’s Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter.
New York State Sen. Tim­o­thy Kennedy (D) is fac­ing off against West Seneca Town Super­vi­sor Gary Dick­son ® in …