CHARLESTON — Political winds already are churning inside the West Virginia Senate over who will wield the gavel in the 2012 legislative session.

By the end of the month, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin must abandon his Senate seat and call a special session to determine the next president — a post that both Sens. Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, and Mike Green, D-Raleigh, want to make their own.

Less than 24 hours after Tomblin’s victory was secure in a special, court-ordered election, Green acknowledged Wednesday he is “absolutely” interested but made no prediction on how many votes he can count on among his 28 fellow Democrats once they huddle inside a closed-door caucus.

Kessler wasn’t the least bit shy about his chances of staying at the podium.

“I believe I have the commitments to win it,” he said.

Apprised of Green’s decision, Kessler appeared surprised, saying the Beckley resident told him by text message only a month ago he would support him.

“Mike was one of my guys,” he said.

“That’s interesting. I’ve not heard from him. I’m still confident I’ve got the commitment to prevail both in caucus and on the floor. We lose one, but I’ve not heard of any others who have left.”

Turmoil erupted in the usually sedate chamber last year after Joe Manchin resigned as governor after being elected U.S. senator, and Tomblin moved into his old office as acting governor. After a tumultuous session, the Senate created the position of “acting president,” and Kessler won it by acclimation.

Yet a third name might surface before the showdown comes — that of Sen. Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, whom Kessler recently removed as president pro tempore after McCabe disclosed his desire to serve as president. McCabe was succeeded by Sen. Joseph Minard, D-Harrison.

“I respect Brooks, but he was part of my inner core of the leadership team,” Kessler said.

Each day, an hour before the floor session, Kessler met with McCabe and his majority whip, Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, to lay out plans for the day.

“He was an integral part of our leadership team,” Kessler said of McCabe.

“When he decided he wanted to go his own way, I felt I had no choice but to replace him. If you’re going to be on the same team, you’ve got to wear the same color jersey. You can’t be technically my vice president and right-hand man and working for cross purposes.”

Kessler said no philosophical differences existed with McCabe.

“He just indicated he wanted to run and take my position,” he said.

“You can’t have your vice president actually campaigning to take out the president. It’s not unique to politics. In any organization, (such as) athletics, you can’t have the assistant coach trying to get the head coach fired.”

McCabe hasn’t publicly announced his plans, but Green is definitely a contender.

“I’ve never hid my ambitions over the last two years of this whole process as far as aspiring to be the Senate president,” he said, en route to a golf match in Greenbrier County.

“As we travel the next two weeks, checking the lay of the land, just as we talk to our members to see ... It will be a very important decision to decide who will president in the Senate the next few years.”

Green said the chamber has a number of qualified senators capable of running the Senate.

“My interests would be just to try to bring continuity back to the Senate,” he said.

“It’s been very tumultuous the last 10 months within the Senate. There have been things that have happened that most of the senators have never seen. We’ve had a steady hand leading the Senate the last 16 years in Earl Ray Tomblin. The thing that I and most of the members are looking for is some sense of stability.”

Green said he has sufficient experience to become Senate president, once Tomblin resigns his Logan County seat and a new senator succeeds him.

“The role of Senate president is just like any other executive or CEO of any company,” the senator said.

“You have to surround yourself with good, qualified people, let those people do their job, and the Senate president, along with Senate employees... It’s a relationship-building process. I think with my personal experience, I’m very qualified do to it.”

While he and Kessler are the only confirmed candidates, Green anticipates more in the fray.

“I’m sure there will be several people that will test the waters and see what their support will be,” he said.

Kessler gave the Senate high marks for overcoming some brief turmoil that began once Tomblin moved downstairs to occupy the governor’s desk.

“Frankly, I think we had good stability in the Senate,” he said.

“We passed, I believe, the governor’s entire agenda. We worked well with acting Gov. Tomblin. We worked hand in hand with him on Marcellus, food tax reduction. I think we’ve done some really good things.”

While rancor was the story of the day in the House of Delegates over redistricting, the issue cleared relatively calmly in the Senate, he said, absent any “complaints, lawsuits, threats, wailing and railing.” Although the Senate plan wasn’t welcomed 100 percent, it passed easily, contrasted with the hard feelings in the House, Kessler pointed out.

“I think under challenging circumstances, we rose to the occasion and did good work,” he said.

“I think West Virginia is truly poised to do some really good things with stability in the Senate.”

If re-elected as president, Kessler said he would likely maintain most of his current team, and, even with Green’s challenge at the special session, he still has votes from 18 to 19 of the Democrats.

“I’ve got nothing to go on, other than their word,” the former judiciary chairman said.

“When they tell me something, I’ve got to take it to the bank.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com