Ryan to seek speaker position

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Rep. Paul Ryan formally declared his candidacy for speaker of the U.S. House on Thursday, pledging in a letter to GOP colleagues, “We have an opportunity to turn the page.”

“Instead of rising to the occasion, Washington is falling short – including the House of Representatives. We are not solving the country’s problems; we are only adding to them,” he wrote. It is time, he said, “to start with a clean slate, and to rebuild what has been lost.”

Ryan will face elections next week in a closed-door House GOP meeting Wednesday and then on the House floor Thursday. His success is assured.

Awaiting him will be a Nov. 3 deadline to raise the federal borrowing limit or face unprecedented default, and a Dec. 11 deadline to act on must-pass spending legislation or court a government shutdown.