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Going against the grain, Tennessee GOP captures majority in the House
Tennessee went against the national grain and in a stunning conclusion to the 2008 election cycle gave Republicans a one-seat majority in the in the state House of Representatives last night.
State House Minority Leader Jason Mumpower said Tuesday evening the GOP won at least 50 seats in the State House and will control of the Tennessee General Assembly's lower chamber.
“We have won 50 seats,” Mumpower said. “That is the majority.”
State Democratic leaders did not seem to contest the change in power late Tuesday night.
“It appears the Republicans have a one seat majority,” Democratic House Caucus Press Secretary Addison Pate said.
The GOP winning control of the State House likely means the end to the long reign of House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh. It also will mean a turnover in the state’s constitutional officer, many of which have openly campaigned for Democrats in recent election cycles.
The State House win for the GOP mirror Tennessee's political posture in 2006, when Republican Sen. Bob Corker won the only seat for the GOP nationally as the party was losing control of the U.S. Senate and House.
Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama won a convincing electoral landslide Tuesday night nationally, but Tennessee did not cooperate. The state's 11 electoral votes went to GOP nominee Sen. John McCain as well as the State House changing hands. The GOP also built a true majority in the State Senate, giving the party control of the Tennessee General Assembly.
Republicans on the Hill and the state's media late Tuesday night were projecting the GOP won Senate contests in District 12 between Republican Ken Yager and Democrat Becky Ruppe and District 26 between Republican Delores Gresham and Democrat Randy Camp.
It appears the GOP's third pick-up in the Senate will be through former Republican turned independent Sen. Mike Williams losing to Republican Mike Faulk by a narrow margin of less than 300 votes, according to network television return numbers.
The results in the senate also cast doubt on what will happen in the Clarksville senate seat once held by Rosalind Kurita.
Even though Kurita was ousted by Democrats from their ticket and her independent write-in campaign was defeated last night by Democratic nominee Tim Barnes, the firmly controlled GOP state senate could choose not to seat Barnes and have another election for the seat.
Republican lawmakers were summoned to the State House for a hastily called press conference after winning control of the legislative body.
“We have always known the House Republicans represent the heart and soul of Tennessee voters,” Mumpower said. “We have seen that validated tonight.”
Calling it an historic night, Mumpower thanked the people of Tennessee and said that he and his colleagues were very excited and grateful for the opportunity to lead.
“It is a challenging time ahead,” Mumpower said, “We will lead in a way that will make the people of Tennessee proud.”
Mumpower assured reporters that all of the members of the Republican caucus in the State House would stay loyal to the party and not cross party lines when the vote for Speaker of the House is held when the legislature reconvenes next year. He also promised that all three constitutional officers, Secretary of State Riley Darnell, Comptroller John Morgan, and State Treasurer Dale Simms, would be replaced with Republicans.
Interestingly, one person whose political life may now have new breath is former Congressman Van Hilleary. Hilleary has been actively campaigning for the GOP the past several months and will likely make a play for one of the constitutional offices according to several Republican sources.
The election result also means that the county election commissions in all ninety-five counties will now be comprised of a Republican majority. Yes, that means Davidson County too. Even the Sergeant-at-Arms for the House could lose their jobs.
Congressional districts could change dramatically with last night’s results. When redistricting of the Congressional boundaries begins in the next U.S. Census, a GOP controlled legislature could easily redraw the lines and give Republicans something along the lines of six seats compared to the four they have now and limit Democrats to three seats state wide.
Democrats on the Hill last night were shell-shocked over the results.
“It was a tough night. When the party at the top of the ticket carries the state by 22 points or more it's expected that the results will translate down ticket. Especially in those areas where the margin at the top of the ticket was substantially higher,” House Democratic Caucus Press Secretary Addison Pate said. “Democrats will continue to work on those issues that are important to working families: jobs, healthcare and education.”
Outgoing State Rep. Phillip Pinion said a lack of support from national Democrats hurt the party's efforts in Tennessee. Pinion appeared to allude to a lack of presence in the state by Obama.
“The top of the ticket lost it for Tennessee,” Pinion said. “We lost strong Democratic districts basically due to a lack of support from the national Democratic Party. The state party put up a good fight, but without national help they were hamstrung.”
Where the election turned for Republicans was Tony Shipley defeating incumbent Democrat Rep. Nathan Vaughn in upper East Tennessee, Vance Dennis taking the seat vacated by retiring Democratic Caucus chair Randy Rinks in West Tennessee, and Middle Tennessee losses by incumbent Rep. Bob Bibb to Joshua Evans, Joe Carr defeating Tim Tipps in a seat held by the retiring John Hood, and Terri Lynn Weaver beating Cleveland Bain in the seat held by retiring Democratic Rep. Frank Buck.
The losses suffered by the House Democrats likely will have a dramatic impact on who their leader this next session. Stung by the defeats, Democratic members will have to decide whether they will retain Naifeh as their leader, turn to Nashville Rep. Gary Odom or go in a completely new direction with a member like Sparta's State Rep. Charlie Curtiss.
Democrats are expected to hold a formal press conference in the coming days to discuss the election results.
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If they want to keep the power they need to act like conservatives not RINOs.They shouldn't seat Barnes. They should force another election and offer Kurita the republican slot.
What a great victory for Republicans! I am excited about constituent driven people taking control of the corrupt and inept Davidson County Election Commission stacked with Union bosses by the Dems. igdaf...you are correct, last nights loss by McCain was a rejection of "moderate" Republicanism. Good luck Republicans in dealing with Bredesen...you'll need it. Perhaps Ron Ramsey will now consider running seriously for Governor.
really glad naifeh will be gone......he was holding us back.
Anna I don't know much about Ramsey and doubt whether he can beat the machine but Marsha Blackburn could.I don't want to see Frist run and couldn't vote for him but if past be the judge that is who they will offer up to us.
Once we have Gov Frist in place maybe we'll be alright.
Make sure they hear that idgaf! YOU DON'T REPRESENT YOUR CONSTITUENTS WHEN YOU REACH ACROSS THE AISLE!
“[A] turnover in the state’s constitutional officer, many of which have openly campaigned for Democrats...”: What kind of English is this? What the hell does this clause mean?Then, this article follows that non-sense with a typo in the following sentence, and the wonderful phrase “a convincing electoral landslide” in the sentence after that. A convincing landslide, eh? as opposed to an unconvincing landslide?The sentence after that is also awful, but by that point any reader has realized that none of the story’s writers read the story: dropped “that”s, omitted hyphens, use of “less” when “fewer” is needed, &c.Amy Griffith’s story on early voting is so nicely written, and this one is such a mess—it’s the CITY PAPER reading experience.(I note that Jason Mumpower asserts that “House Republicans represent the heart and soul of Tennessee voters”, not their brain.)Nothing stops the ascendant Republicans, however, from doing what the state needs: less funding for roads & other pork; increased & focused funding on education at all levels; cutting the sales tax; eliminating the sales tax on food & clothes; instituting an income tax for all individual incomes over $200,000; ending state killing; and funding community improvements in low-income housing, job-creation, & libraries.As for re-districting, we will have an election in 2010 before the census is done. The Republicans may not be in charge in January 2011.The state's Democrats have only themselves to blame. They have blown too many opportunities to help Tennessee move forward.They shouldn’t blame Barack Obama. When you have permitted your state to maintain such a poor education system that its voters solidly support John McCain after solidly supporting Bush-Dick twice, then you can’t expect Obama to waste time & money here.If the Democratic-run General Assembly had raised Tennessee’s schools, then the presidential race in Tennessee would’ve been worth attending.
If it wasn't for Obama, the Repubs would have probably lost the TN elections. Obama caused the lifetime Repubs to come out and vote, hence the win in TN. Glad to see it happened, the state giv't has more effect on us than the president does.
Texas reapportioned without a census when they overthrew the evil overlords. What prevents Tennessee from doing the same thing next year? The gerrymandering is the only reason why there is a Lincoln Davis and a Bart Gordon. Dividing the population up logically, keeping counties whole and grouping neighboring counties into regions will move them out and will probably take out Tanner as well. That will then properly apportion the state's congressional delegation to the citizen's real political beliefs. It is about time that all the old-South Democrats finally died off so change could finally occur. Their blind devotion to a party that left them years ago was hard to watch. Who else thinks Gray Sasser did a bang up job this year? That is what the Democrats get for selecting someone to lead them who looks and talks like a Dick Tracy bad guy.
The Democratic leaders in this state are a disgrace.Democrats should DEMAND the resignation of party chairman Gray Sasser - a great guy who's good at fundraising but knows nothing about how to spend the money.Other perpetrators of this massacre are the leaders in the House and Senate caucuses - Naifeh and Kyle. Both of whom have outlived their usefulness and have no clue about recruiting and training candidates or how to campaign in the 21st century.Thank God for President-Elect Obama's win last night, but Tennessee Democrats - especially the leadership - ought to be hanging their heads in shame today.Pathetic.
Perhaps some dems/independant voters got turned off what the dems did to Kurita.
By: Idahoser on 11/5/08 Make sure they hear that idgaf! YOU DON'T REPRESENT YOUR CONSTITUENTS WHEN YOU REACH ACROSS THE AISLE! ***********************The "problem" is the reaching is usually only done in one direction.
Jeff, redistricting takes a long time. Texas didn’t do it the year before a census. I agree that we should have more logical congressional districts & state legislative districts, too (we should have a unicameral legislature, anyway, but that’ll never happen). They should expand from the nine most populous cities, moving outward in a circular fashion.
gerrymandering is a terrible practice that both parties seem to be quite comfortable with keeping. If we were divided appropriately then representatives would have to listen to constituants and compromise on issues. When you know you only answer to one side or the other you have no motovation to "play ball" and work for the greater good.
The voters have spoken in TN. No Obama no to the dems.
This isn't anything to be proud of. Don't you guys realize that most Republican states fall under the categories of least educated and lower income? It's time to grow up Tennessee and get with the rest of the changing country/world.
So being a Democrat means I'll be smarter and make more money? Let me guess, Democrats also have prettier children and always pay their bills on time.
That's correct.
It's a proven fact that there's a higher percentage of people without college degrees who voted for McCain. The southern states are less cultured and less diverse in their thinking. McCain won Tennessee, but he didn't win Davidson county.
Actually proven fact is that people with 2-year and 4-year degrees are more likely to vote Republican in a regular year. Education past that point usually has a person voting Democratic. Exit polling for this election showed near equal proportions for Obama between high school and college graduates (not specifying how much college). Obama took 52% of the high school graduate vote to 53% of the college graduate vote.
Ever looked at the demographics of Davidson Co.? I bet Obama took Memphis too.
I'm just really glad to live in a state that is not progressive enoughincome taxto see the error of our ways and vote for the best candidateliberal mediaMr. Obama
To further skew the numbers:The two counties with failing school systems (Shelby and Davidson) were the two large victories in state for Obama. The counties with the largest percentage of college graduates (Williamson and Anderson) were overwhelming McCain victories.
Williamson (the White-flight county) is utterly dependent on Davidson for its high incomes, which it wants to protect, so it voted for McCain rather than spend a dime on the low-income folks living in Davidson, who see their better interest in voting for Obama. The bigger point is that people in Tennessee's poor rural counties will do better w/ Obama but they, too, vote for McCain. That is where we see the lack of education.