Kevin McCarthy may lead the House — to the dismay of California Democrats

WASHINGTON — Few California lawmakers cause more headaches for Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrats who dominate the state Legislature than Kevin McCarthy, the House Majority Leader from Bakersfield.

But McCarthy is widely expected to be elevated to the most powerful job in Congress following House Speaker John Boehner's surprise announcement to colleagues Friday that he will resign at the end of next month.

Unlike Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who held the Speaker's job until 2011 and was aligned with leaders in Sacramento, McCarthy's political agenda runs counter to much of what the Brown administration is trying to achieve, and he has not been shy about using his power in Washington to try to roll back some of the state's landmark liberal policies.

McCarthy opposes California's aggressive climate change rules. He wants to jettison the high-speed rail project. He is pushing to divert more of the state's scarce water to parched growers, despite loud protest from the Brown administration that such a move could irreparably damage the fragile ecosystems that are the backbone of California's water system.

He wants to unravel Obamacare at the same time California is trying to implement the law as aggressively as possible. McCarthy is a scourge of gun control advocates, whose campaigns are popular in California.

While McCarthy does share some priorities with the Democrats who rule Sacramento — he has pushed, for example, for federal help fighting Valley Fever and he has taken up the cause of some notable California innovators, including Elon Musk — they are limited.

Despite politics that are decidedly to the right of voters in the state, McCarthy's rise is a classic California success story. Through a lot of grit and charm, the son of a firefighter quickly rose from modest means to a position of considerable power.

Unlike past party leaders, whose elevation was built on grand political visions, savvy deal-making or a talent for strong-arming colleagues into submission, McCarthy climbed to power using his prowess for recruiting candidates and raising money for them.

The strategy was so successful that it propelled him into the No. 2 post in the House before he had spent four full terms in Congress. He was the most junior person to reach a top leadership post since the early 19th century.

The political alliances that got him there remain strong, and they are the reason McCarthy is the odds-on favorite to succeed Boehner.

McCarthy's formula for staying one of the most popular members of the Republican caucus is built on a lot of care and feeding of colleagues. It involves group bike rides, movie nights, fancy steak dinners and considerable ego stroking.

It also involves sidestepping the party's intramural battles over ideology whenever possible. McCarthy pursues the conservative policies with which almost all the caucus agrees, while avoiding drawing the kinds of rigid lines in the sand on social issues and spending priorities that are the hallmark of more combative politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

The lack of a rigid ideology has served him well in the corridors of the Capitol, and on the campaign trail, where the boyish former deli owner has built close relationships with moderates and tea party die-hards alike.

Many are indebted to him for the work he did on their campaigns. In several cases, he is the reason they thought to run for Congress at all; McCarthy is known for recruiting in all corners of the country, where he sits with potential prospects and urges them to run.

McCarthy now faces a new challenge, the same one that was arguably the undoing of Boehner. He is going to need to choose sides at a time when bitter ideological divisions within his own party threaten to paralyze Congress.

In a statement released after Boehner stunned the Capitol by disclosing his plans to resign, McCarthy gave no hint of his plans.

'Now is the time for our conference to focus on healing and unifying to face the challenges ahead and always do what is best for the American people,' McCarthy's statement said.