Monday, 28 July 2008
Stumbo's Opportunity
While Beshear has been traveling around the state looking for a vision, it looks like Comrade Richards may be looking at a fight to maintain his position as speaker of the house.
If recent rhetoric is any indication, a leadership battle indeed is brewing between House Speaker Jody Richards and the man who helped install him in that post nearly 14 years ago.
State Rep. Greg Stumbo, the Prestonsburg Democrat who returned to the House this spring after a four-year stint as attorney general, has gradually ramped up his pointed criticism of the House leadership and, specifically, Richards.
“I think the membership feels that the session was pretty much a disaster. And the truth is, when your company goes bad or something happens, the guy in charge gets the blame. Rightly or wrongly, I hear more people complain about Speaker Richards than any of the other members of leadership,” Stumbo said.
The problem for Richards is huge. Beshear's lack of leadership left a huge power vacuum in the Democratic party. Instead of stepping up and filling that void during the legislative session, Richards got caught up in the minutia of legislation and the petty politics that always sneak into the session.
I am sure that Stumbo sees this as a golden opportunity. He can turn Beshear disastrous leadership on its head and blame Richards for not helping Beshear enough during the session. This strategy has two effects. It wins friends with Beshear by placing the blame somewhere else. Since the session was a bomb, It also creates a wedge issue which can be used in his campaign against Richards. Stumbo sees this not only as an opportunity to seize power in the house, but it would allow him to step in and fill the leadership vacuum in the Democratic party. He will become in effect the "shadow governor".
At this point, the only way Stumbo doesn't run for the speakership is if his support in the house collapses. I imagine he already has substantial support otherwise he wouldn't be making noise now. I think Stumbo's quest for power will be too great a temptation for him not to run in which will likely be a very close race.
Ironically, Richards ran last year for governor because he believed he could provide leadership to the commonwealth. He had a chance to provide that leadership during this session and be the de facto governor. Instead he failed to seize upon the opportunity. Now he may pay for his mistake by losing his position in the house leadership.
