Senate democrats kiss and make up
Will the assignment of new committee chairmen affect family legislation?
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, Nov, 1997

It seems to be an iron rule of politics that, come what may, party loyalties eventually reassert themselves. That maxim was underscored in October, when Senate Democrats made their peace with Senate President Larry Saunders and regained powerful committee chairmanships they refused to take earlier this year.

After the political coup in the state Senate earlier this year in which renegade eastern Kentucky Democrats joined with Republicans in replacing John “Eck” Rose (D-Winchester) with Saunders (D-Louisville) as Senate President, angry old-line Democrats who had supported Rose refused to take committee chairmanships offered to them by Saunders.

In the aftermath of the coup last January, with Democrats not wanting to play along, the chairmanships fell to committee co-chairs who were Republicans. It resulted in an unprecedented ascendancy of conservatives in key posts.

Tim Philpot, a fiery orator who had lobbed rhetorical firebombs at longtime judiciary committee chairman Kelsey Friend for bottling up pro-life legislation in his committee, suddenly found himself acting chairman of the same committee. Other conservative Republicans manned key posts. Julie Rose (R-Louisville) became acting chair of health and welfare. Lindy Casebier chaired education.

But the October announcement changes much of that. Saunders, a staunch conservative himself, still runs the Senate. But the conservative Philpot has had to yield his chair on judiciary to Ernesto Scorsone, perhaps the Senate’s most activist liberal. Julie Rose has been replaced as health and welfare chair by the more liberal Gerald Neal.

Under an agreement made after Saunder’s takeover, the education committee membership was split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, with a Republican and Democrat sharing leadership of the committee in the form of co-chairmanships. Lindy Casebier is the Republican co-chair and Tim Shaughnessy is the Democrat.

The awarding of the chairmanships to Democrats was only a matter of time; only the actual assignments were uncertain.

The biggest question now is how the changes will affect pro-family legislation in the 1998 session. Pro-life bills, for example, have been handled by the judiciary committee. Same-sex marriage legislation would likely end up in the same committee. Both bills are opposed by Scorsone. Saunders has vowed, however, that any bill with 20 votes or more cannot be bottled up in committee.

Pro-family legislation is always faced with an obstacle course. The obstacles this year will be just a little different.
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst