What is Next for the House Caucus

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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11 responses to “What is Next for the House Caucus”

  1. Stuckey Stop Avatar

    McKillip’s switch is even more bizarre given that he just sent out a fundraising letter with his letterhead listing him as Chair of the House Democratic Caucus. The letter arrived for many folks on Tuesday — same day as his switch!!

  2. JMPrince Avatar

    Sorry, Still does not compute. Much better & funnier? The US of Autocomplete via Google:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/google-instant-map-shows-_n_793407.html

    Do note how many of these results are schools/Universities too. JMP

  3. Steve Golden Avatar

    I’ve been hearing from some unnamed sources (I only say that to make myself feel both important and self-righteous) that McKillip was not approached by anyone from the GOP, and that this was just a decision he made all by his demented self.

  4. Drew Avatar
    Drew

    If the Democratic caucus can’t even keep it’s chair in line, it’s so weak that these right wing democrats will do as the Republican Party demands whether they become Republicans or not. There will be no consequences if they break with the Democratic Party; there will be if they do. The Republicans should save themselves time and money and let the dupes in the Democratic Party continue to spend their time and money to support the nominally Democratic allies of the Republican Party.

  5. David Avatar

    This is NOT “can’t beat e’m join em”.

    Also, I don’t they should remain GOP in April 2012 of qualifying. They should qualify as Democrats in 2012.

  6. JMPrince Avatar

    It’s a profoundly defeatist & silly idea in general David. If there’s no more Dem caucus then why have a Dem Party? There’s really no need for it, right? There’s no effective ID, and we’re ‘fighting some hidden twilight guerrilla war’ from the inside? In what comic book version of history does this work out well? Capitulating unilaterally to create even more of the one party rule we (and most thinking Constitutionalists & conservatives) deplore is not advancing either the cause of liberty, good governance, or very likely the causes, issues, needs & desires of our constituents. It’s like a crippled one wing eagle trying to fly. Confused & confusing, yes. But not very effective or flight worthy! Just wrong anyway you slice it. And if you want to know why? Ask a Whig too. Geez. Gotta go now. JMP

  7. David Avatar

    Delicate Flower,
    The party caucuses are a much bigger deal than any caucuses that are created, so I don’t think they could exclude people that way. Also, imagine the House or Senate leaders trying to keep out the “fake” GOP’er, most of whom would be black they would look horrible and thus couldn’t do it.
    Also, “liberal this and liberal that” they do that now, so what’s the risk.

  8. Gunner Avatar
    Gunner

    @Ed I think you are right that every conservative Democrat house member will be getting a phone call from Speaker Ralston. I am sure that they already have. While it will be difficult to turn some liberal members Doug’s defection shows that it can be done. I don’t think that we have seen the last of the defections. In fact I am almost positive there will be at least one more. Also look for the turncoat legislators to be sitting in on some of those phone calls urging more party switchers.

  9. Delicate Flower Avatar
    Delicate Flower

    How? The GOP would just create a separate caucus and exclude the others from joining. Plus they still could just say the “liberal this” or the “liberal that” and be off easy.

  10. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    This idea is so crazy it just might work.

  11. David Avatar

    What if the house consisted of 180 GOP House members and 56 GOP Senators? There would be no Democrats to “screw” in redistricting. There would be no Democratic ideas to appose and GOP ideas to blindly support.

    Rep. Fludd’s bill would just be a bill not a Democratic one. Any House or Senate member opposing Deal’s guns in church bill would be members of his own party opposing him, not the powerless minority. With that some current GOP members including recent switchers could feel save taking the moderate position.

    I say every House and Senate member should switch to the GOP and work to destroy the GA GOP from within.

    It would be a drastic measure like when TX Democrats flew to OK, but much more in your face and gutsy.

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