A day after passing one of the state’s hardest-fought budget bills, Senate Democrats today ousted their leader, Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson of Beloit, who helped negotiate the final deal, and replaced her with veteran Sen. Russ Decker of Schofield.
The news came when Decker, the co-chairman of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, emerged from a closed-door meeting of Senate Democrats that lasted for about three hours.