Senator from Wyoming Dies in Office

JUNE 4, 2007 TAGS: POLITICS ADD A COMMENT

Senator Craig Thomas, A Republican from Wyoming, died Monday evening at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He had Leukemia, and his chemotherapy had stopped working, according to a statement from Sen. Thomas' family. He was 74.

Unlike the controversy when Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota fell ill, the Senate will not undergo a rebalance of power. Under Wyoming law, the state Republican Party will nominate three people to fill the vacant seat. The governor, a Democrat, will then choose among the Republican nominees.

Sen. Thomas is the first sitting Senator to die in office since Paul Wellstone, a liberal Democrat from Minnesota, died in 2002.

According to the Web site, Politicalgraveyard.com, Sen. Thomas is only the second sitting U.S. Senator to die this decade. In the 1960's, fifteen Senators died in office. And in the 1940s, twenty-five Senators died in office.

Craig Thomas was elected to the Senate in 1994 after serving in the House since 1989. He was a rank-and-file member of the conservative base of the then Senate majority and served on the National Parks Committee, a logical place for a Senator from Wyoming.

Obit from The Associate Press
List of sitting Senators who have died, from www.politicalgravestone.com