East Tennessee's importance in helping to craft the Republican Party as a Statewide political force and shaping the hefty GOP majorities in the State House and Senate is being highlighted tonight in Morristown as Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell visits the area to address the Hamblen County Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner. If you think that the Speaker of the House addressing a regular county party fundraising dinner in a predominately Republican part of the State isn't that big of a deal, someone apparently thinks that it is. Senator Lamar Alexander officially asked if he could attend tonight's event (as if anyone were going to tell the sitting Republican United States Senator from Tennessee "no"), and further inquired if he could be the one to introduce Beth Harwell. The Republican Party has not only arrived as Tennessee's dominant political party, but East Tennessee as the new dominant political region.

One big question about Speaker Harwell's potential remarks tonight is whether she will discuss efforts to reform education and remove the Tennessee Education Association's collective bargaining privileges. How much of the forthcoming budget process with the Speaker give her listeners insight into, and will we have some idea just how long this year's legislative session might last?

Those wishing to attend tonight's Hamblen County Lincoln-Reagan Day festivities should make their way to the Family Life Center of First Presbyterian Church in Morristown at 7:00pm. Tickets are $25 per person.