How a hat gets thrown into the ring
When I reached Rep. Peggy Gibson early yesterday evening at home, she had just walked in the door after being out of state for a funeral since the election.
I asked if she was going to run for leadership, and if so what position. Gibson didn't know. She'd been so focused on family issues she hadn't given Friday's Democratic leadership elections any thought.
But my questions apparently got her thinking. Halfway through out brief interview, she said she would "certainly give it some consideration," then speculated that as the only Democratic leader returning to the Legislature aside from Minority Leader Bernie Hunhoff, she would "be the most likely person to maybe throw my hat in the ring."
About 30 seconds later, Gibson said she would "probably" run for assistant minority leader, then firmed that up to definitely running for assistant leader, unless she changed her mind.
It's always fun when you can follow a source's thought process as over the course of an interview.
If Gibson follows through, she'll have competition. Newly elected Rep. Julie Bartling told me just a few minutes ago she's also planning on running for the assistant leader job.
