With McKillip’s defection, the office of caucus chairman remains vacant. Rashad Taylor is the vice chair but I’ve been told that he will not run for chair. A member of the caucus said elections would be held “soon”. Apparently there is a caucus retreat Sunday so it may be then I would guess.
As for who would run for chair…that’s a little murky. Brian Thomas ran against Mckillip so there’s reason to believe he wants to be chairman. Virgil Fludd’s name was suggested to me, and I was just told Stephanie Stuckey-Benfield “is 100 percent NOT running.” Another name floated was Debbie Buckner’s. If I have time I’ll call them today.
The member I spoke with said they didn’t expect any more switchers but they also said they thought the hemorrhaging was done a while ago. Right now they’re “praying” there are no more. One thing to keep in mind is there are still a half dozen conservative Democrats left in the caucus, with a few coming from rural districts. Only six switchers are needed for a supermajority. You’d have to imagine the Republicans will be offering them the stars and the moon to get them to switch.
As to the Mckillip switch… the representative I spoke with said they agreed with me that it had to have been a very sudden decision as running for chair then switching is just…well, odd.
So that’s that.
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