WASHINGTON – The upset victory by Rep. John Boehner’s of Ohio over the acting majority leader, Roy Blunt, puts a fresh face on a party tainted by the scandal over lobbyist Jack Abramoff, but will provide minimal help to the GOP in 2006 electoral battles, analysts said yesterday.

Some of New York’s congressmen, meanwhile, praised the election as a boon to the state and its Republican delegation.

In a dramatic day of balloting on Capitol Hill, Mr. Boehner, 56, emerged as the Republicans’ new majority leader after two vote counts – a victory described by members of Congress yesterday as a protest vote against the scandal-plagued current leadership.

That includes Mr. Blunt, 55, a Missourian who was long considered the favorite in the race. For weeks, Mr. Blunt’s camp maintained he had at least 117 private and public supporters among the House’s 232 Republicans – enough to put him over the top on a first vote.

In a closed-door session in the Cannon House Building, Republican congressmen awarded in the first balloting round a plurality of votes to Mr. Blunt, who received 110 ballots to Mr. Boehner’s 79. A third candidate for the post and a favorite of reform minded House conservatives, John Shadegg, of Arizona, received 40 votes. A last-minute write-in candidate, James Ryun, of Kansas, received two votes.

The count was deemed valid despite confusion when the number of votes cast exceeded the number of Republicans thought to be present. Vote-counters had forgotten about the Puerto Rican delegate, who is not allowed to vote on the House floor but who does receive a vote in conference.

“We were pleased to learn we’re not corrupt, just stupid,” one congressman said after the caucusing.

In advance of the second vote, Mr. Shadegg dropped out of the race, and Mr. Boehner triumphed over Mr. Blunt, 122-109.

“Boehner looked shocked,” Arizona’s Rep. Jeff Flake told reporters, adding that the new majority leader was “choked up” as he gave a “great speech” to his new flock, calling Messrs. Blunt and Shadegg to the podium with him. Mr. Shadegg said after the vote that the GOP conference had given Mr. Blunt a standing ovation after his loss.

Mr. Blunt, Mr. Flake said, did not “show much emotion,” and was “very magnanimous.”

At a press conference after the meeting, Messrs. Blunt, Boehner, and Shadegg stood together smiling and professed their mutual friendship, acceptance of the race’s outcome, and commitment to work together on changing the rules governing lobbying.

Mr. Blunt had been considered the natural successor to a former majority leader, Thomas DeLay, who vacated his post in September after he was indicted for campaign-finance violations in his native Texas. Mr. Blunt, who was Mr. DeLay’s majority whip, was the first to declare his candidacy to replace the embattled Texan.

Mr. Blunt retained his position as majority whip yesterday. His decision not to resign the post while campaigning for majority leader had irked members of Congress who wanted votes on all leadership positions. An effort by Reps. John Sweeney, of New York, and Dan Lungren, of California, to force across-the-board elections was defeated Wednesday.

Mr. Boehner, first elected to Congress in 1990, was seen as less connected to the Abramoff scandals because of his opposition to Mr. DeLay in past leadership battles. He wasn’t involved in the earmarking process, an asset Mr. Flake said was “huge.”Yet by being in the center of the GOP conference, Mr. Boehner raised concerns among conservatives who preferred Mr. Shadegg’s record on cutting taxes, slashing spending, and promoting limited government.

Yesterday, Mr. Flake – a Shadegg supporter who has been one of the most vocal members of the conference about the need to end earmarking and adhere to fiscal restraint and free-market policies – said he felt comfortable with Mr. Boehner’s ability to restore the GOP to conservative principles. “Shadegg was in the best position to do that, but Boehner’s certainly in a better position than Blunt,” Mr. Flake said.

“John is a true conservative Republican,” New York’s Rep. Peter King, of Long Island, told The New York Sun after the balloting yesterday. Mr. Boehner’s victory, he said, was good for New York because Mr. Boehner, in representing Ohio, understands states that address big cities’ needs alongside rural concerns. Mr. Boehner, Mr. King said, also understood that Republicans encompass several styles and degrees of conservatism, and that Republicans from the northeast face a different political climate than their colleagues from more right-leaning regions.

Staten Island’s Rep. Vito Fossella, too, said he thought Mr. Boehner’s election boded well for New York. “I think he’s sensitive to New York … and he makes it a point to come to New York whenever he can,” the congressman told the Sun in a phone interview after the vote. Mr. Fossella said Mr. Boehner had entered politics from the private sector, and understood the need “for getting back at the fundamental principles of economic growth.” From his work as chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, Mr. Fossella added, Mr. Boehner was experienced on the matters of pension and education reform – issues of particular importance to New York.

Analysts yesterday said that Mr. Boehner and House Republicans will need to establish their credibility on these issues – education and pensions, but also the Iraq war, health care, and the economy – if they are to keep Democrats at bay in November.

“If the Republicans think that by creating a new House leader that Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff are going to go away, they’re wrong,” an upstate New York-based national pollster, John Zogby, said. “They’re going to have to have a clear legislative agenda, and another contract with America, and one that really addresses issues.” Yet Democrats, Mr. Zogby said, would receive little traction from the scandals because they had yet to present a compelling platform of their own.

A congressional analyst at the Brookings Institution, Thomas Mann, too, said it was unlikely that the Boehner election would give Republicans a significant boost. “The election itself doesn’t get much notice outside Washington,” Mr. Mann said of the majority leader race. “It’s what happens afterwards” that will determine electoral outcomes in 2006, he added.

In addition to Mr. Boehner’s election, House Republicans also selected the second youngest member of Congress, Florida’s Adam Putnam, 31, to replace Mr. Shadegg as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee. Mr. Shadegg had resigned his post in order to seek the majority leader spot.