There have been rumors for weeks now that some House Democrats were extremely unhappy with the leadership of House Minority Leader Pat Bauer and were attempting to remove him from his post. The disgruntled members of the caucus are apparently concerned about the party's prospects for House Democratic candidates in this year's election and don't believe Bauer is doing all he can to help the candidates. A meeting called yesterday for the purpose of removing Bauer, however, apparently failed to draw a quorum of the Democrats' 40 caucus members. The
report by the Star's Mary Beth Schneider doesn't indicate how many members showed for the meeting.
Frustration at being in the minority and at Bauer's handling of their election campaigns prompted a near-coup Friday.
It didn't happen, after an attempt to get the 40 Democrats behind closed doors for what amounted to a no-confidence vote and a leadership change fizzled . . .
Friday, Bauer didn't dispute the unrest in his caucus.
"I would hope that for the sake of success we can stay together. We do fight like cats and dogs, but we have both cats and dogs in our caucus," he said, laughing.
Bauer has represented a South Bend district in the House for 42 years and has twice served as Speaker when the Democrats were in a majority. I guess I don't understand guys like Bauer and Richard Lugar clinging to power long past the normal retirement age. You would think they would prefer a more graceful exit. I thought for sure Bauer would not seek re-election this year after Republicans won such a big majority in 2010 and were able to redraw legislative boundaries to their favor.
2 comments:
Now the question is, have the voters in his district wised up?
Probably not.
I understand that as the result of redistricting Pat ended up in one district and his hairpiece ended up in another. Another major residency issue on the horizon?
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