FRANKFORT — The partisan wrangling that stalled legislative business for the last eight months exploded in the Capitol again Friday, threatening the rest of the new annual session.

        Senate Republicans tried to take over control of four statutory committees, which now have majority memberships of House members and Democrats. When that effort failed, the GOP responded by ending a decade of cooperation and arbitrarily assigned their Democratic colleagues to committee memberships.

        Senate Democrats, who agreed to help their Senate GOP colleagues in gaining equal memberships on the statutory committees, also offended their House Democratic allies. But the Democrats balked when Senate President David Williams added a demand that they help him win the chairmanships of all four committees, in addition to equal representation.

        “As long as it was a Senate versus House issue, we were prepared to be of assistance,” said Senate Democratic Leader David Karem, D-Louisville. “It's not appropriate to make us as Democrats be a part of Republican power plays.”

        Mr. Williams declined to answer questions.

        But when the takeover failed, Senate Democrats suffered at the hands of the majority Republicans, losing a seat on the all-powerful Appropriations and Revenue Committee and having their own committee preferences scrambled.

        Senate Democratic Whip Marshall Long said his colleagues must now make amends with their House colleagues. “They have and we have some fence-mending to do,” Mr. Long said.

        House Democrats were furious that the Senate would side with the Republicans, demonstrated by some shouting and name-calling in closed-door meetings. “It's something that our folks feel very, very, very strongly about,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Jim Callahan, D-Wilder. “We are not going to sell our members out in the House.”

        At issue are four committees that exist by statute, not by action of the Legislative Research Commission — the 16 constitutional and party leaders of the Senate and House. The “statutory” committees review government contracts, capital projects and bonds and administrative regulations and act as the legislature's investigative arm. They can influence, but cannot directly veto, certain executive branch actions.

        By law, three have seven members, appointed proportionately from both parties. The law does not say how many are to be from either chamber except for the one that has equal membership from the House and Senate.

        House Majority Floor Leader Greg Stumbo said the fighting does not bode well for legislative business when it resumes Feb. 6.

        “I don't think the people of Kentucky changed the constitution to have us come up here every year to fuss and fight with each other,” the Prestonsburg Democrat said.

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