Salt Lake Tribune | 1906-01-02 | Page 1 | Paynter Forces Win Skirmish in Kentucky

1 PAYNTER FORCES WIN ! SKIRMISH IH KENTUCKY Candidate for Speaker Is Chosen Chos-en by a Majority of Nine Votes. FRANK FORT, Ky . Jnn 1 -The first skirmish In the battle for United States Senator J. C. S Blackburn's seat was won by the Payntcr forces, In the caucus of the Democratic members of the House tonight The opening tug of war came on the selection of a chairman of the caucus. Tho caucus was not called to ordi r until shortly after 9 o'clock, over an hour of delay being occasioned by tho tremendous press of people around thei House chamber. Paynter Man Win9. When Louis McQuown, chairman of ' the Democratic State central committee, dually brought the members to order and I called for the election Of a permanent chairman. Representative J. G. Gooch, an adherent of Judge Thomas H. Paynter Payn-ter and an "administration man." was 1 acted over the Blackburn-Haldeman candidate bv t vote of ,1 to 33 The result re-sult of the vote Indicated that the Paynter Payn-ter forces would be able to organize the House by electing the Speaker and other Offll lals and the hopes of his supporters sup-porters accordingly rose higher at tho prospect of the great advantage to be ri tilled from control of the House when the balloting for United States Senator 1 Is taken up. Haven't Given Up Hope. On the other hand, the Blackburn-Hal- ' deman fon es pointed out that Paynler's strength, as Indicated by the vote for caucus chairman, was Insufficient to elect him as Senator, and that, furthermore, further-more, several members who voied for Gooch for chairman would not vote for Paynter for Si nator There was a considerable delay before the caucus took up the question of nominating nomi-nating a Speaker of the House. Oet Speaker Easily. The vote for Speaker of the House demonstrati d that the Paynter foreas were in the ascendant. H. R. Lawrenre, the Paynter candidate, reci ived thirty-nine thirty-nine voles The vote for R. W Miller, who re, elved tho combined vote of the Blackburn-Haldeman forces, amounted to thirty The caucus then proceeded to choose the minor officials of the House. Join Caucus Today. The programme agreed on beforehand only called for tho nomination of House officers, the flrat caucus ballot on the senatorial raco coming tomorrow night, when Senate and House will meet In Joint caucus. Meanwhile the Legislature will meet In regular session tomorrow noon, but, beyond preliminaries of organization, or-ganization, no business will bo transacted trans-acted by either branch. The KenluiWy legislature consists of nlnetv-eight Representatives and thlrtv-elght" thlrtv-elght" Senators Of the total of 136 votes in the two brunches the Democrats control con-trol 105, thus making fifty-three votes necessary lo nominate a Senator In Joint caucus.