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Tennessee House Member Wins Top Job, but Loses Party
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy Feb 11, 2009 12:32am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Tuesday, February 10, 2009 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | NASHVILLE — In November, the Tennessee Republican Party won a historic victory: its first majority in the state House of Representatives since 1869. But on Monday morning, just as the legislative session was about to begin, the party voluntarily gave it up.
In the latest flourish of a twisty melodrama that has consumed the General Assembly for weeks, the party chairwoman stripped the speaker of the House, Kent Williams, of his Republican Party membership, citing “dishonor, deception and betrayal.” Because Mr. Williams represented the party’s one-vote edge in the House, Republicans no longer control the chamber.
The bizarre sequence of events began on Jan. 13, the day the Republicans were preparing to elect their choice for speaker, Representative Jason E. Mumpower. Though the Republican majority was slim — 50 to 49 — Mr. Mumpower was so certain of victory that he had worked up his committee assignments and ordered 65 state flags, each of which was to be run up the Capitol flagpole that day and later distributed as souvenirs.
But Mr. Williams, a little-known legislator from East Tennessee, had made a secret deal with House Democrats. All 49 voted for him and, with Republican dignitaries from across the state looking on, he voted for himself.
When the audience erupted in cries of “Judas” and worse, Mr. Williams, 59, remained composed. “I understand the boos; I’ve been booed before,” he said, before going on to describe his plans for bipartisan power-sharing.
“Today is about change, a change not only that we need here in the state of Tennessee but a change we need throughout our country,” he said. “We need to utilize the talents of all the members of this General Assembly, not just the Democratic Party and not just the Republican Party.”
He went on to demonstrate his bipartisanship by helping to re-elect a Democrat, Lois M. DeBerry, as speaker pro tempore, in violation of a pledge he signed saying he would vote Republic |
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