Tracy Edge, one of several members who has been suggested as the possible new House majority leader, said Tuesday he won't seek the post.

Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, said if he is re-elected in November, he instead will ask to be chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, Human Services and Medicaid.

Majority Leader Rick Quinn, R-Columbia, was defeated in the GOP primary in June, causing party leaders to jockey for his position.

"It's a nice political title, but I would rather be in a position to influence policy and spending," Edge said.

The majority leader is the public voice and face of the party's positions in the House and is responsible for herding the flock to vote as the leadership wants.

Edge, one of two assistant chief whips in the House Republican Caucus, has served four two-year terms. He also serves on the health subcommittee and led most of its meetings in the past legislative session in the absence of Quinn, the panel's chairman.

The leadership will no longer allow the same person to be chairman of a subcommittee as time-consuming as health and also be majority leader, Edge said.

The subcommittee has oversight of the state's eight main health-related agencies including the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, Mental Health Department and Department of Social Services.

In addition, the panel controls Medicaid spending.

Medicaid continues to grow without a definite source of funding, and he would like to work on that problem, he said.

"It would also put me over DHEC, which on their environmental side pertains to beach renourishment, and that has an impact on Horry County," Edge said.

Being a subcommittee chairman would make him part of the Ways and Means leadership, which sets spending priorities, Edge said.

Ways and Means Chairman Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, makes subcommittee appointments with input from Speaker David Wilkins.

The House Republican Caucus is meeting this weekend in Charleston and might discuss electing an interim majority leader, Edge said.