No doubt there are many happy liberals in Wisconsin tonight.
State Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson is stepping down from his post after the Democrats’ poor showing in last week’s elections.
The Milwaukee leader’s decision to give up his post came as Democrats in the Assembly decided to stick with their leader, Rep. Peter Barca of Kenosha, even though they lost two or three seats, depending on the outcome of the official vote canvass and a possible recount.
In the Senate, Larson faced a challenge from Sen. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) after Democrats lost a seat in the Nov. 4 election, dropping from 15 seats in the 33-member Senate to 14. Democrats in the Senate are scheduled to vote on their leadership team on Wednesday and Larson pointedly declined to say whether he would have won that election, emphasizing instead that he expected and wanted a unanimous vote for Shilling.
Larson, who at 33 has a 2-year-old son and a wife expected to give birth to their second child in four weeks, said that after talking with his spouse he began to see the leadership vote as an opportunity to spend more time in his legislative district and with his family.
“It became apparent that it’s not necessarily a given that I need to run,” Larson said in an interview in his Capitol office.
Larson said that he called Shilling to tell her he would not run and that he didn’t ask for any conditions such as a good committee assignment.
For what it’s worth, I think Chris Larson mishandled the Democratic primary in the 17th Senate district, which is a district Democrats could have (and perhaps should have) won with a strong Democratic candidate. Instead, Democrats had a lackluster candidate who didn’t work hard, and they ended up losing a seat in the Senate. For that reason alone Larson deserved a challenge to his leadership, but he’s still got a bright future in the Democratic Party.
This is a win-win all around. Shilling will be a great Majority Leader, and Larson should peel back and concentrate on building the party into an unstoppable force in Milwaukee. He is clearly popular in his district (he overperformed compared to Dems in the rest of the state), and with some big elections in the Milwaukee area in the next 2 years, this is probably the way to go.
I’m OK with Barca staying, although the discussion of a challenge is good. And DPW leadership still needs a shakeup, but having Larson step away from the lightning rod role of Majority Leader and not handle the statewide strategy is a worthwhile move.
I agree Larson had to go based on the 17th district alone, but he still has a bright future and Shilling with do a great job now. I was hoping for new leadership in the Assembly, the DPW will need new leadership, I just don’t know when and the best way for that to happen.
Not Sure how one can Say Larson Out performed anything?
Plale used to get 63% in a much less Dem Seat.
2010 gerrymandering made larson’s seat very,very Dem.
Sorry Flipper- Larson won in the 7th district last week by a wider margin than Obama did in 2012, and in a much more GOP-leaning year. Yes, some of that is because Red Arnold is an adolescent dingbat, but it’s still over performance. Vinehout also overperformed, by the way, while Bomhack underperformed by about 5%.
Math trumps your spin.