House GOP leadership elections set for Oct. 8

House Republicans will elect their new leaders on Oct. 8, outgoing Speaker John A. Boehner said Wednesday. Boehner said in a statement that “a large majority of our members have made clear they want these elections held next week.” Some members, most of them hard-line conservatives, have pushed to delay the elections toward the end of the month, when Boehner is set to leave the speakers’s chair. The announcement sets the elections for the day before Congress is expected to gavel out for a weeklong recess. Lawmakers will return the week of Oct. 19 for Boehner’s final two weeks as speaker, in which he has pledged to “clean the barn” for his successor.