Why is Democrat State Senator Joe Haynes challenging Democrat State Senator John Wilder for the position of Lieutenant Governor/Speaker of the Senate?
Wilder, 85, has served as Lt. Governor/Speaker since 1971, and there has been no Democrat challenge to Wilder's leadership for the past two decades.
Yesterday's post on Haynes ' decision to challenge Wilder for Lt. Gov. in 2007 mentions the fact that Wilder is linked to a land deal involving a fellow member of Wilder's Senate family -- Democrat Senator Jerry Cooper.
The Wilder-Cooper connection is also mentioned in a recent News-Sentinel editorial.
Could it be that Haynes' sudden challenge has been sparked by concern that Wilder might give damaging testimony or be indicted later on in the Cooper land deal?
If that occurred and Wilder resigned or was removed from office, it might be hard for Democrats, who are already the minority party in the Senate, to cobble together 17 votes for another Democrat while in the midst of a scandal.
Is Haynes running to head off this possible scenario? Probably only Haynes knows for sure right now.
Haynes' sudden challenge to Wilder took a lot of people by surprise.
But it's not so surprising if Haynes and other Democrats are thinking that there could be problems on down the road for Wilder and for Democrats in holding on to the Speakership/Lt. Governorship.
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