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NEWPORT BEACH (CNS) - Speaker Mike Johnson will be the featured attraction at a Newport Beach dinner Wednesday raising funds to attempt to elect more Republicans to the House.
Tickets range from $1,000 -- which admits one person to the 6 p.m. dinner -- to $50,000, which purchasers are designated as event chairs and receive two dinner tickets with head table seating, two tickets to a 5 p.m. VIP reception and the opportunity to take a picture with Johnson, R-Louisiana, according to an invitation obtained by City News Service.
Other ticket packages are priced at $3,300, the individual contribution limit to a candidate for one election, $6,600 and $25,000.
Reps. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, and Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach, are also set to attend, along with former Assemblyman Scott Baugh, who is seeking the 47th District seat which Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, relinquished to unsuccessfully run for the Senate seat formerly held by the late Dianne Feinstein, and small business owner Matt Gunderson, who is challenging Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, which straddles Orange and San Diego counties.
Kim, Steel, Baugh and Gunderson are among the beneficiaries of the fundraiser, along with Johnson, Reps. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, Ken Calvert, R-Corona, John Duarte, R-Modesto, David Valadao, R-Hanford, Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln, who is challenging Rep. Josh Harder, D-Tracy, and the National Republican Congressional Committee, the political arm of the House Republicans.
Johnson was elected speaker Oct. 25 following the unprecedented ouster of Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, filed a motion to vacate the speaker's chair March 22, threatening to oust Speaker Mike Johnson just months after he ascended to the speakership.
"I filed the motion to vacate today, but it's more of a warning and a pink slip," Greene told reporters outside the U.S. Capitol. "I respect our conference. I paid all my dues to my conference. I am a member in good standing and I do not wish to inflict pain on my conference and to throw the House in chaos.
"But this is basically a warning and it's time for us to go through the process, take our time and find a new Speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans and our Republican majority instead of standing with the Democrats."
In an appearance Sunday on the Fox News Channel political talk show, "Sunday Night In America With Trey Gowdy," Johnson said, called the motion a "distraction."
"I think that all of my other Republican colleagues recognize this is a distraction from our mission," Johnson said. "Again, the mission is to save the Republic. And the only way we can do that is if we grow the House majority, win the Senate and win the White House. So we don't need any dissension right now."
The motion was filed on the last day before the House began its Easter recess, which will run through Monday. The motion is not expected to be heard because it was not submitted as "privileged." Johnson said he has been texting with Greene and expects to meet with her early next week when the House returns.
``Marjorie is a friend. She is very frustrated about, for example, the last appropriations bills. Guess what? So am I.
"...With the smallest margin in U.S. history, we're sometimes going to get legislation that we don't like. And the Democrats know that when we don't all stand together, with our razor-thin majority, then they have a better negotiation position, and that's why we've got some of the things we didn't like."