Democratic Senators Help Fund 2008 Williams Mailer Blitz
Posted on July 11, 2008 at 11:56 amPost Politics has learned that there are some very generous Democratic Senators up at Legislative Plaza these days.
In November of each year, each Senator is allotted $6,832.00 dollars to be used for constituent mail and postage. Any balance not used can be carried over for use for the next year or those unused dollars can be transfered to a Senate colleague.
Director of the Legislature’s Office of Administration Connie Fredrick confirms to Post Politics that Democratic Senators John Wilder, Jim Kyle and Doug Jackson have transferred $6000, $7,000 and $5, 000 respectively to the account of Senator Mike Williams.
Mike Williams, a former Republican, is the Senate’s lone independent member and locked in an epic reelection struggle against Republican Mike Faulk.
Much like the Democrats in the General Assembly made it a priority to defeat the party switching Don McLeary in 2006, Republicans have similarly placed the defeat of Williams amongst their top action items.
While these funds cannot be used for “political purposes” records do show that the Senator only made one such mailing in all of 2006 and 2007 while four mail pieces have gone out under his name since this past February.
The Senate is currently divided at 16-16-1. In order to have any hope at electing a Democratic speaker the party must hold the open seats of Senators Wilder and Kilby and keep Faulk from securing the Williams seat as a strong pro-Ramsey vote.
There would still be the issue of Senator Kurita, whose renegade Democratic vote gave Republican Ron Ramsey the Speaker’s chair. If the Republicans have 17 members, they don’t need Kurita’s vote and she can feel free to vote with her party and start the process of mending some fences.
However, if the Democrats hold the line and Williams stays, the situation with be identical to January ‘07 and Rosalind Kurita would be faced with the necessity of voting against her party yet again to keep Ramsey in power.
And this time, not against the aging and competency-questionable John Wilder, but some other Democrat, likely Jim Kyle .
Comments
3 Responses to “Democratic Senators Help Fund 2008 Williams Mailer Blitz”
Do you think Kurita’s Jan 07 vote was to put Ramsey on top, or to prevent Wilder? If Wilder is out of the picture, don’t you think she’d be much more likely to vote for the Democrat for Speaker?
Joe,
Jackson Baker reported about a month ago that she complained that the Senate Democratic Caucus wasn’t helping her, so they had a meeting where she was asked point-blank if she would commit to voting for a Democrat for Speaker. She refused to make that commitment, so it’s not a surprise to see other Democrats openly supporting Tim Barnes.
[...] 14, 2008 by demarcationville Kleinheider reported a few days ago: Director of the Legislature’s Office of Administration Connie Fredrick confirms [...]