Tuesday’s aftermath and the future of Senate Leadership.
As I read the big Mercer article where I’m mentioned (they cut that part out in Pierre), I noticed a little tidbit that Bob drops about a few of the Republican founders of the MAINstream Coalition. Specifically, how founders Dave Knudson, Ed Olson, and Tom Dempster and Mac McCracken remain and the question whether they will continue to have influential roles in the senate when re-elected. Most are committee chairs, and Senator Mac McCracken intends to seek the role of Senate President Pro Tem, a position currently held by Lee Schoenbeck. I was having this very conversation with an elected official about the same time this came out, and if what we off-handedly projected would happen in the fall elections, we counted 16 or 17 conservative Republicans who would likely stand together on leadership elections, and 7 or 8 who would fit into that moderate category. What does that mean to the leadership equation? Our thoughts were basically that it’s somewhat unlikely that those MAINstream foun...