Earlier in the week, I wrote a controversial column about Tennessee House Speaker Kent Williams burning bridges that are keeping him out of the Tennessee Republican Party. In light of that, some may ask whether there is a way for the Speaker to rebuild those bridges and be readmitted to the party he says that he wants to be a part of.
The answer is-maybe.
As has been written in this space before, an apology would go a long way toward rehabilitating Kent Williams, but even those who are intent on never letting Kent Williams return to the party for any reason are forced to admit that in a very real sense, he is already halfway in the door since he is currently a member of the House Republican Caucus. That means that for the purposes of legislative organization, at least, Kent Williams is a Republican.
There is also little doubt that Kent Williams is aiming for another term as Speaker of the House, and one of the reasons that he wants to be re-enstated as a member of the Tennessee Republican Party is that being a party member would make it much easier for Williams to get the Republican nomination for Speaker. Last January, Williams was made Speaker because he received the Democratic nomination, but if political projections for the 2010 General Election turn out to be even remotely accurate, there will be too few Democrats to sustain Williams as Speaker should they want to do so. Kent Williams either needs the Republican Caucus to back him or he needs a real bipartisan coalition to re-elect him Speaker.
The appetite on the part of the Republican State Executive Committee to re-admit Williams with no sanction appears to have weakened in recent weeks, so Williams will indeed have to run for re-election to his House seat as an independent. If he is re-elected, and manages to build a broad coalition of support as John Wilder did in the Tennessee Senate in 1987, it would be difficult at that point to keep Williams out of the Tennessee GOP. One or two Republican votes for re-election, or even a smattering of members would not be enough, Williams would need a significant number of Republican votes for Speaker as well as the likely nomination of the House Republican Caucus.
It is a far-fetched and not likely scenario, but Tennessee State politics is filled with tales of the far-fetched and unlikely coming to pass. January 2011 could be bedlam in the Tennessee House.
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