Democrats Prepare For Special Session Amid Internal Bickering

The special legislative session that starts next Monday will be the first gathering of Senate Democrats since some disappointed members suggested a change in caucus leadership. Liberal and conservative – rural versus urban. The Senate Democrat caucus split 7-6 last fall in picking Senator Ken Jacob of Columbia as the Senate Minority Leader. The six votes went to Senator Harold Caskey of Butler, who is one of the two senior Democrats to leave the caucus in the last weeks of the regular session. The other is Senator Jim Mathewson of Sedalia who says his conservative rural constituency has trouble with the more urban liberal position taken by Jacob. Jacob does not think it’s a problem. He says most of the issues of the Democrat caucus match. Caskey moved to keep Jacob and other Democrats from continuing to debate one of his bills this year – the first time in a decade that’s been done in the Senate. Jacob says he serves at the pleasure of the caucus. And, as far as he knows, the majority of the caucus is still happy with his leadership.