After witnessing the final week of the first session of the 106th General Assembly in June, there are some things worth noting about this year's legislative session, and especially the Speaker of the House, that could not have said when the Legislature convened in January.
The first and most obvious is the general state of affairs in the Tennessee House of Representatives. Both the Republican House Leadership, as well as many political pundits from both parties, expected the business of the House to grind to a halt after the Speakership election row. No one trusted Kent Williams then, and not a few believed that this lack of trust would cost everyone in terms of what the Legislature was able to accomplish this year. What was predicted by some-including this writer-is not exactly what happened. Many Republicans still look to Williams with a wary eye-how can they not after the way in which he gained power? However, when it came to committee appointments Williams kept his word, for the most part, about appointing conservatives to some of the most important committees. Further, Williams allowed the major pieces of the Republicans' non-fiscal agenda, from SJR 127 to all of the gun bills to make it to the floor. When these bills did see the light of day, they were approved in the House with large bipartisan majorities-just as we believed they would be in this conservative State.
Kent Williams was made Speaker with the votes of 49 Democrats plus himself in a secret deal that Democrats hoped would help them maintain something approaching control after the election of the first bona fide Republican House majority in Tennessee history.
The real question is not whether Tennessee Republicans should accept Kent Williams as Speaker of the House. At first, Williams "election" as Speaker was very difficult for many in or close to the GOP to swallow. Anyone who was on the House floor the day of the Speakership vote knew something was up. It was clear that the Democrats were the ones who chose Williams, and that the Leadership kept their plan secret even from many members of their caucus until just minutes before the vote.
Large portions of the Republican agenda passed because Williams kept his promise to bring those matters to the floor, which is a vast improvement over former Speaker Jimmy Naifeh. Naifeh understood that many Democrats from rural districts agree with Republicans on social issues and Second Amendment rights, and that even with a Democratic majority in the House, pro-life bills, gun bills, and other conservative matters would pass the House with solid votes in favor. Thus, Naifeh twisted arms and used (or rather, abused) his authority to vote in all committees to keep bills he knew would pass bottled up or make sure they died. Members who played ball with the Speaker were given the money for their district to help them get re-elected-regardless of party.
Williams hasn't hard-balled the conservative agenda the way that his predecessor did, and his few efforts to attempt it haven't been terribly successful. The split committee system he has created has killed several good bills, but just as many bad ones.The gridlock it has created has often proven to be a good thing.
Asking Williams to campaign for Republicans as a Republican Speaker may be quite a long stretch, however. In the case of Kent Williams, he owes nothing to Republicans, because the only Republican who voted for him was himself. Asking Williams to campaign for Republicans is a bit like asking Henry VIII to chair a campaign against beheadings. To maintain power, Williams will have to organize a coalition of some sort should the Republicans expand their majority. It certainly isn't impossible given Tennessee history, but the larger the Republican majority, the less likely Kent Williams will be able to hang on. If the Democrats retake the majority, they almost certainly will not renominate Kent Williams. Thus, it is in Williams best interest to keep the Republican numbers in the House low enough that he can cobble together the votes for re-election as Speaker. That threshold is somewhere between the 50-49 majority we now have and 53-46. If the Republican majority were to reach 55, it would be very hard for even dissident Republicans to justify a vote to retain Democratic Caucus nominee Williams. Kent Williams knows this, so why would he work too hard to cut his own throat?
Kent Williams' biggest fault is that he does have a tendency to play politics with his own vote and which policies he pushes. It is hard to pin him down and get him to take a firm stand on anything. While this seems like a good thing to those folks who clamor for the Legislature to "be more bipartisan," the problem is that whether anyone wants to admit it or not, the Speaker of the House does move policy. In practical terms he (or potentially she) is more powerful in our Tennessee system than the Governor. Hence, it is often important to know where the Speaker stands on important bills and not have to play guessing games about where the Speaker is going to fall on this bill or that one. Overall, however, it is both fair and honest say that Kent Williams has thus far done a yeoman's job as Speaker of the House.
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