With the news of the retirement next year of Tennessee Senator Dewayne Bunch (R-Cleveland), and the desire of yet another prominent conservative from the House Republican Caucus in Rep. Mike Bell wishing to move to the Senate, how the legislative musical chairs which is currently taking place will impact the leadership of the House of Representatives is an open question.
Speaker Kent Williams (I-Elizabethton)
House Speaker Kent Williams was selected as Speaker by 49 Democrats plus his own vote in January of this year, and now Williams is attempting to secure his position as Speaker in the next General Assembly, in a climate which might otherwise be much less likely to allow for his re-election to Tennessee's third-most powerful office. Williams is trying to solidify his position in part by forming his own Political Action Committee to aid Republican candidates-"for now" he says-and he has warmed himself to some Republican legislators, including several who had adamantly opposed Williams at the beginning of his tenure as Speaker, by appointing his Republican opponents to key committees. Kent Williams is holding out hope that he might be re-elected Speaker in spite of projected Republican seat gains which might be seen to favor the election of House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower as Speaker.
Despite Kent Williams' best efforts to butter over just enough people to maintain his fragile power base, his deception on the opening day of the session made him significant enemies inside the House Republican Caucus. Further, Williams' propensity to make a horse's rear of himself at caucus meetings after the GOP in the House readmitted him even though the State Republican Party will not (Williams spoke out of turn several times at a caucus meeting this past session and referred to one of his leading critics, Rep. Gerald McCormick of Hamilton County, as "fat boy" in an angry tone while saying "I've heard enough out of you"), did more to turn people against Williams in the opening months of session whose support Williams needed to stay in place.
One of Kent Williams' loudest opponents from the very beginning of his tenure as Speaker has been Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown), who challenged Williams to resign after he was made Speaker since he was seen to have betrayed the Republican Caucus and its leadership. On the floor of the House, Kelsey said Williams should "resign and run again as a Democrat or an independent." Kelsey also pressed sexual harassment charges against the Speaker for an incident involving Rep. Susan Lynn in the previous General Assembly. Kelsey is moving to the Senate, however, and Susan Lynn, Stacey Campfield, and Mike Bell are all trying to move into Senate seats and will not serve in the next House. With Kent Williams' most firm Republican opponents gone from the House in the 107th General Assembly, can Williams find a way to survive?
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