State House Republicans Tuesday made some last-minute leadership changes in the wake of the death of House Minority Leader Hugh McKean and resignation of Assistant Minority Leader Tim Geitner.

Rep. Rod Pelton, a Cheyenne Wells Republican who served as the minority whip and was third in leadership, was elected minority leader. He will hold that post until Jan. 9.

Rep. Mike Lynch of Wellington, who will step into the minority leader position when the 74th General Assembly convenes on Jan. 9, was elected assistant minority leader.

Rep. Marc Catlin of Montrose will take over Pelton’s post as whip.

While it might seem that electing leaders who will serve for only seven weeks is a trivial maneuver, Monday’s meeting of the Legislative Audit Committee proved why those decisions matter.

The audit committee is the only truly equally-divided committee between Democrats and Republicans, four on each side. 

That means when the committee votes, at least one member must cross party lines to form a five-vote majority.

Monday’s meeting lacked one of two members from the House GOP. The missing member, Rep. Rod Bockenfeld of Watkins was chosen last week to represent his caucus on the Joint Budget Committee, which began its work Monday on the state budget.

Rep. Matt Soper of Delta said the cuacus should have had a member at that meeting. A temporary appointment could have been made by a minority leader, but the House GOP didn’t have one.

“It just illustrates why it’s so important not to have a gap in leadership,” Soper said. 

Rep. Kim Ransom of Littleton also raised the need for a whip, with Pelton now serving as minority leader. Were the governor to call a special session between now and Jan. 9 – albeit unlikely – the House Republicans would need to have a whip in place, she said. 

Tuesday’s results will not be official until later in the day, a delay to give absent members an opportunity to vote. However, each nominee was elected by acclamation, so the results won’t change.