With House GOP Leadership elections just around the corner I'm surprised there hasn't been much talk on RightMichigan about the race.  

There are currently five Representatives that have done at least some campaigning for the position.  They are Kevin Elsenheimer, John Proos, Arlan Meekhof, Brian Calley, and Kevin Green.

From what I can tell there is no clear favorite at this point in time which is uncommon this close to the election.

Rep. Elsenheimer was the clear favorite a year ago, but his decision to run for Court of Appeals and his subsequent change of heart seems to have removed his favorite status.  But as the current Assistant Leader he is certainly a strong candidate.  He seems to have strong support from many of the Northern Michigan Representatives.

Rep. Proos has held an influential position in the caucus this term and is generally seen as someone with a bright future ahead of him in Michigan politics.  There are unconfirmed reports that Proos may have decided to withdrawal his name from consideration from the post.  He has a tough campaign for the Senate ahead of him and it seems that some of his colleagues may have convinced him that he could not be both an effective Minority Leader and an effective Senate candidate.

Rep. Meekhof is an interesting candidate.  He is relatively new on the leadership scene.  He is currently in his first term and wasn't elected to leadership until late last year.  He is well respected in the caucus and has a good conservative voting record.  His support seems to lie in Oakland County, where it seems he has commitments from many of the Representatives there even though his district is on the West Side.  The only criticism that I have heard about Meekhof is that he is new on the leadership scene and is not well known state wide.

Rep. Calley is currently the chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee.  Most of his colleagues believe that Calley did a pretty good job with limited resources in the face of overwhelming opposition during his tenure at HRCC.  The criticism is that he has aligned himself heavily with Chuck Yob who is seen by many in Lansing as a divisive figure.  There are also some grumblings about Calley taking donations from someone connected to Stryker, but I don't know much about that.

Rep. Green may or may not still be a candidate.  He put in many hours of work turning himself into one of the favorites for this job, but much of that changed when he was arrested for DUI in late October.  He has been heavily criticized for not revealing his arrest until after the election.   It remains to be seen if Green's supporters are encouraging him to stay in the race or if they are backing someone new.

The candidates give their speeches to the caucus on Wednesday night and the vote is after session on Tuesday.