Simonaire's Leadership Stint Ends as We Expected It To

Bryan Simonaire had to go. He should have never been there in the first place.

Two years ago, when Republican Senate Leaders J.B. Jennings and Steve Hershey left Senate leadership, State Senator Bryan Simonaire was the only candidate to step forward to lead the Senate Republican Caucus. At the time, I wrote this:

Bryan Simonaire is exactly the kind of Republican leader Democratic Senators want to see; a career politician obsessed with retaining the trappings of his office who never pushes conservative issues and legislation to the forefront and is more concerned about getting positive press coverage than he is about being a leader.

Why would Republicans want somebody like that being their leader in the State Senate?

Now, Simonaire has been turfed for a returning Steve Hershey. And there is good reason for that.

Here is Simonaire's record of accomplishments as the Senate Minority Leader.

He pushed no serious conservative legislation. He organized no serious opposition to far-left legislation pushed by the Democrats. Legislatively, Simonaire was the type of career politician that Democrats love in the General Assembly; a speed bump to be ignored.

Electorally, it was not much better. The Senate Republican Caucus shrunk from 15 Senators to 13. Seats were lost in Districts 33 and 34. Winnable seats in Districts 9 and 30. While some of these reasons were caused by outside factors, Simonaire did not put the work into raising the money or recruiting the candidates to put the Senate caucus in a position to succeed. I mean seriously, who thinks Reid Novotny, the hand-picked choice of a liberal former Delegate, was a credible candidate?

Simonaire had to go. He should have never been there in the first place.

Realistically though? Bryan Simonaire is probably happy today. Simonaire can return to being the do-nothing career politician he has morphed into. After all, Simonaire the guy who pledged to serve only two terms was just re-elected to his fifth term. He'll have twenty years of creditable service in the State Pension system. He'll get what he wants out of this.

Simonaire was never the right choice Now