Let the games begin: Local GOP legislator finds speaker election ‘painful’
By Carole Robinson, Staff Writer
crobinson@williamsonherald.com
Outfoxed by the fox with the first vote of the 106th General Assembly, the State House Republicans, who have a one-person majority, learned the Democrats are still poised, ready and eager to set the agenda.
In a cagey, in-your-face move that was made possible by the defection of Kent Williams (R-Elizabethton), it was the House Democrats that elected the Republican speaker.
After Republicans nominated Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) as speaker of the House, they motioned an end to the nominations, but Rep. Gary Odom (D-Nashville) challenged the motion and nominated Williams, who has a track record of being sympathetic to Democrats, Rep. Glen Casada (R-College Grove) said.
Although 49 Republicans voted for caucus nominee Mumpower, Williams joined with House Democrats giving him a one-vote majority and the speaker’s chair, using “government to buy power,” Casada said.
The new speaker was booed by the gallery.
“Painful, painful, painful,” said Casada, still reeling from the vote. “What’s painful is not that he worked with the Democrats. What’s painful is the deceit. He looked at 49 Republicans and repeatedly said, ‘I’m for you.’ He used deceit and deception. That’s an evil thing.”
According to Casada, the 49 Republicans will stick together and maintain the Conservative values that gave them the surprise majority in November.
To avoid a repeat of 2005, when Republicans’ had a one-vote majority in the Senate but not the lieutenant governor’s seat because of the defection of two in their ranks, the House Republican Caucus pledged to “vote for a Republican for speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.”
“Initially when we did that, there was no caucus nominee,” Casada said. “When we had one, we went back to everybody and they all said, ‘Yes.’”
The speaker of the House appoints all committee heads and Casada predicts that although his party is in the majority, Democrats will remain in charge of key committees, making it difficult for conservatives to move forward with their agenda.
Everyone suffers – Democrats and Republicans but Tennessee is hurt the worst at a time when we need moral character in government and we have just the opposite, Casada said.
“I predict he will become an Independent,” Casada said. “A lot of the Republican State Executive Committee members are calling for (Williams) ouster as a member of the Republican Party. If Kent had said all along he was for (former speaker) Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington) we would have been angry, but this was deceit. I got to think that the Democrats are thinking they can’t trust him either. If a man will lie to you, he’ll lie to me.”
It was a lot less dramatic in the State Senate. With a 19-14 majority in the Senate, the GOP retained Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville) as speaker and lieutenant governor.
Posted on: 1/15/2009
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