Tennessee Senate

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The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the formal name of the Tennessee state legislature.

The Tennessee Senate, according to the state constitution of 1870, is composed of 33 members, one-third the size of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Senators are to be elected from districts of substantially equal population. According to the constitution a county is not to be joined to a portion of another county for purposes of creating a district; this provision has been overridden by the rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States in Baker v. Carr (369 US 182 1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (337 U.S. 356 1964) The Tennessee constitution has been amended to allow that if these rulings are ever changed or reversed, that a referendum may be held to allow the senate districts to be drawn on a basis other than substansially equal population.

Until 1966, Tennessee state senators served two-year terms. That year the system was changed, by constitutional amendment, to allow four year terms. In that year, senators in even-numbered districts were elected to two-year terms and those in odd-numbered districts were elected to four-year terms. This created a staggered system in which only half of the senate is up for election at any one time. Districts are to be sequentially and consecutively numbered; the scheme basically runs from east to west and north to south. The senate elects one of its own members as Speaker; the Speaker automatically becomes Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee. Since 1971, the office of Speaker of the Senate and Lieutenant Governor has been held by John S. Wilder of Braden. Wilder has traditionally depended on the support of both Republicans and Democrats for his support; therefore the Tennessee Senate is currently organized on a rather bipartisan basis with members of both parties serving as committee chairs, an unusual situation in a body elected on a partisan basis. The body elected in November 2004 consisted of 17 Republicans and 16 Democrats, the Republicans' first elected majority since Reconstruction; a brief majority in the 1990s was the result of two outgoing senators switching parties.

On February 3, 2006 State Senator Don McCleary of the 27th District in West Tennessee held a press conference in which he switched his party affiliation to Republican. This gave Republicans an 18-15 majority.

[edit] Make up of Tennessee Senate, 104th General Assembly

Affiliation Members
  Republican Party 18
  Democratic Party 15
 Total
 33
 Government Majority
 3

Officers

The party affiliation and district numbers of Senators are listed after their names in this list.

District Name Party
1st Steve Southerland Rep
2nd Ron Ramsey Rep
3rd Rusty Crowe Rep
4th Micheal R. Williams Rep
5th Randy McNally Rep
6th Jamie Woodson Rep
7th Tim Burchett Rep
8th Raymond Finney Rep
9th Jeff Miller Rep
10th Ward Crutchfield Dem
11th David Fowler Rep
12th Tommy Kilby Dem
13th Bill Ketron Rep
14th Jerry W. Cooper Dem
15th Charlotte Burks Dem
16th Jim Tracy Rep
17th Mae Beavers Rep
18th Diane Black Rep
19th Thelma Harper Dem
20th Joe M. Haynes Dem
21st Douglas Henry Dem
22nd Rosalind Kurita Dem
23rd Jim Bryson Rep
24th Roy Herron Dem
25th Doug Jackson Dem
26th John S. Wilder Dem
27th Don McLeary Rep
28th James F. Kyle, Jr. Dem
29th Ophelia Ford Dem
30th Stephen I. Cohen Dem
31st Curtis S. Person, Jr. Rep
32nd Mark Norris Rep
33rd Kathryn I. Bowers Dem

[edit] External links


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