| And while Hyde got love from many of his former PUP foes, he finds himself in an unfamiliar position: that of the challenger. The incumbent is now the UDP's Mark King.
As we told you, after Hyde stepped down, King won as Area Rep in Lake Independence. Many have speculated that if King had faced the former 3 term Area Rep, he might have lost. So now that Hyde is back in as standard bearer, those "what if" scenarios are becoming a real possibility.
That's exactly what we asked King about this weekend when we caught up with him at another event. He says that Hyde's return changes nothing about the way he operates in Lake I. Here's how that conversation went:
Hon. Mark King
"As you know I've been doing my work as an area rep. and as the minister of gangs and the responsibility also for conscious youths - that is my job. I am always in this community. You guys have don't many interviews with me. Politics is nowhere around the corner for us, no elections. But if we ought to look at it about the return of the PUP's candidate, he has just become basically a name in this area and we have no fear for that kind of thing."
Cordel Hyde
"Over the last two years, everywhere I go, people from Lake Independence have made it very clear to me that they want me back that they are just waiting for me to come back. For every one person who might be negative - 20-25 persons are positive."
Daniel Ortiz
"However he did represent this area for three terms and it's not that he lost, he walked away. Do you think that influences his abilities to get back in and win the favors of Lake I?"
Hon. Mark King
"Absolutely not, because if you want to look at it in detail, he's been in this constituency from 15 years and people are still poor, broke and hungry and now I've been here for two years and I want you to see the kinds of programs that we have for children in the police cadet corps, that we have for the young women, that we have for the elderly, the kind of infrastructure and investment coming to Lake I - men are getting jobs, the streets are being paved - things are happening in here. At the end of the day he had 15 years to do that and to add, he was a minister for those 15 years. I am only a junior minister of state with not a ministry. People got to understand that I have little less resources, far less and I am doing far more because I am here in the constituency doing what I am supposed to do."
Cordel Hyde
"You are giving my opponent too much prominence. Really, I mean I am not come here, I was born here, I live here and I will die here, so all the noise and all of that I couldn't pay attention to that."
Reporter
"How would you respond to the criticism that the only reason you got elected was because he basically walked away and got a free chance?"
Hon. Mark King
"I would absolutely say that in politics you have to have lots of luck. You have to have the skills to get on the ground and do what you have to do and it doesn't matters who wins. At the end of that day a win is a win and any candidate will tell you that. Now coming into the future, however he mans the ground because I guarantee you he can't man the ground better than me. I am always on the ground. So at the end of the day, the people will take the 15 years that he had that he didn't do anything with and they will match it against the 2-3 years that I am here, understanding that I am not a minister and at the end of the day they are going to determine who does the work better and that's their choice at the end of the day."
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