Tennessee House of Representatives
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The Tennessee House of Representatives, is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.
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[edit] Constitutional requirements
According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consist of 99 members elected for two-year terms. In every even-numbered year, elections for state representative are conducted simultaneously with the elections for U.S. Representative and other offices; the primary election being held on the first Thursday in August. Seats which become vacant through death or resignation are filled by the county commission (or metropolitan county council) of the home county of the member vacating the seat; if more than a year remains in the term a special election is held for the balance of the term.
[edit] Districts
Members are elected from single-member districts. The districts are traditionally numbered consecutively from east to west and north to south across the state; however, in recent redistricting this convention has not always been strictly adhered to, despite a constitutional provision requiring districts to be numbered consecutively.
Districts are required to be reapportioned every ten years following the federal census in order to be of substantially equal population. However, from 1902 until 1962, the General Assembly ignored this provision. It was estimated that by that point that some districts in the Memphis area had approximately ten times the population of some in rural areas. In 1962 this issue was taken to court. Despite U.S. courts having traditionally declined to rule on such issues, the US Supreme Court opted to hear this case and ruled that the legislature had to comply with the state constitution, as its failure to do so was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (see Baker v. Carr). Subsequent litigation has further refined the rules regarding this; in the late 1990s a majority-black district in rural West Tennessee was required to be created. As of 2006, the House consists of 53 Democrats and 46 Republicans.
The 1960s redistricting was credited by some observers with creating the first Republican majority in the Tennessee House since Reconstruction in 1968; this situation lasted only until the next election in 1970. 1970 also marked the first election of a Republican governor in a half century and saw both houses of the legislature begin to assert themselves as a counterbalance to executive authority; prior to this time legislators had not had their own staffs or even their own offices and were largely at the mercy of what the governor's staff chose to tell them and in many ways were often something of a "rubber stamp."
[edit] Speaker of the House
The Speaker of the House is second in line to succession to the governorship after the Speaker of the Tennessee Senate; however, no Speaker of the Tennessee House has ever become governor. Since 1973, all Speakers have been from a single Democratic faction in West Tennessee; this has become a source of some resentment. The Speaker, under House rules, has the right to appoint all committees and their chairs and assign proposed legislation to committees, giving the Speaker tremendous power to push legislation through or conversely, to block it. The current Speaker, Jimmy Naifeh, has long been a target of concerted Republican efforts to unseat him. Recent high-profile and well-funded efforts to defeat him at the polls in his own district have failed thus far; future efforts may center around their allying with dissident Democrats who do not have a good relationship with Naifeh in an effort to replace him with another, less partisan, Democrat.
[edit] Make-up of Tennessee House of Representatives, 105th General Assembly (2007-2008)
| Affiliation | Members |
|
| Democratic Party | 52 | |
| Republican Party | 46 | |
| Vacant | 1 | |
| Total |
99 | |
| Majority |
8 | |
[edit] Officers
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: Jimmy Naifeh
- Speaker Pro Tempore: Lois DeBerry
- Deputy Speaker: Larry Turner
- Majority Leader: Gary Odom
- Assistant Majority Leader: John Litz
- Majority Floor Leader: Dennis Ferguson
- Majority Caucus Chairman: Randy Rinks
- Majority Caucus Vice Chairman: Joe E. Armstrong
- Majority Caucus Secretary: Larry Turner
- Majority Caucus Treasurer: Sherry Jones
- Majority Whip: Mark Maddox
- Minority Leader: Jason Mumpower
- Minority Assistant Leader: Harry Brooks
- Minority Caucus Chairman: Glen Casada
- Minority Caucus Vice-Chairman: Jimmy Eldridge
- Minority Floor Leader: Brian Kelsey
- Minority Caucus Secretary: Cris Crider
- Minority Caucus Treasurer: Joey Hensley
- Minority Whip: Beth Harwell
[edit] Members
| District | Name | Party |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Jon Lundberg | Rep |
| 2nd | Nathan Vaughn | Dem |
| 3rd | Jason Mumpower | Rep |
| 4th | Kent Williams | Rep |
| 5th | David Hawk | Rep |
| 6th | Dale Ford | Rep |
| 7th | Matthew Hill | Rep |
| 8th | Joe McCord | Rep |
| 9th | Michael Harrison | Rep |
| 10th | John Litz | Dem |
| 11th | Eddie Yokley | Dem |
| 12th | Richard Montgomery | Rep |
| 13th | Harry J. Tindell | Dem |
| 14th | Park M. Strader | Rep |
| 15th | Joe E. Armstrong | Dem |
| 16th | Bill Dunn | Rep |
| 17th | Frank S. Niceley | Rep |
| 18th | Stacey Campfield | Rep |
| 19th | Harry Brooks | Rep |
| 20th | Doug Overbey | Rep |
| 21st | Jimmy Matlock | Rep |
| 22nd | Eric Watson | Rep |
| 23rd | Mike Bell | Rep |
| 24th | Kevin Brooks | Rep |
| 25th | Eric H. Swafford | Rep |
| 26th | Gerald McCormick | Rep |
| 27th | Richard Floyd | Rep |
| 28th | Tommie F. Brown | Dem |
| 29th | Joanne Favors | Dem |
| 30th | Vince Dean | Rep |
| 31st | Jim Cobb | Rep |
| 32nd | Dennis Ferguson | Dem |
| 33rd | Jim Hackworth | Dem |
| 34th | Donna Rowland | Rep |
| 35th | Dennis E. Roach | Rep |
| 36th | William Baird | Rep |
| 37th | Bill W. Harmon | Dem |
| 38th | Les Winningham | Dem |
| 39th | George W. Fraley | Dem |
| 40th | Frank Buck | Dem |
| 41st | John Mark Windle | Dem |
| 42nd | Henry Fincher | Dem |
| 43rd | Charles Curtiss | Dem |
| 44th | Michael Ray McDonald | Dem |
| 45th | Debra Young Maggart | Rep |
| 46th | Stratton Bone | Dem |
| 47th | Judd Matheny | Rep |
| 48th | John Hood | Dem |
| 49th | Kent Coleman | Dem |
| 50th | Gary W. Moore | Dem |
| 51st | Mike Turner | Dem |
| 52nd | Rob Briley | Dem |
| 53rd | Janis Baird Sontany | Dem |
| 54th | Brenda Gilmore | Dem |
| 55th | Gary Odom | Dem |
| 56th | Beth Halteman Harwell | Rep |
| 57th | Susan M. Lynn | Rep |
| 58th | Mary Pruitt | Dem |
| 59th | Sherry Jones | Dem |
| 60th | Ben West, Jr. | Dem |
| 61st | Charles Michael Sargent | Rep |
| 62nd | Curt Cobb | Dem |
| 63rd | Glen Casada | Rep |
| 64th | Tom DuBois | Rep |
| 65th | Eddie Bass | Dem |
| 66th | Robert Bibb | Dem |
| 67th | Joe Pitts | Dem |
| 68th | Curtis G. Johnson | Rep |
| 69th | David Shepard | Dem |
| 70th | Joey Hensley | Rep |
| 71st | Randy Rinks | Dem |
| 72nd | Steve McDaniel | Rep |
| 73rd | Jimmy A. Eldridge | Rep |
| 74th | John C. Tidwell | Dem |
| 75th | Willie Butch Borchert | Dem |
| 76th | Mark L. Maddox | Dem |
| 77th | Phillip Pinion | Dem |
| 78th | Phillip Johnson | Rep |
| 79th | Chris Crider | Rep |
| 80th | Johnny Shaw | Dem |
| 81st | Jimmy Naifeh | Dem |
| 82nd | Craig Fitzhugh | Dem |
| 83rd | Brian K. Kelsey | Rep |
| 84th | Joe Towns, Jr. | Dem |
| 85th | Larry Turner | Dem |
| 86th | Barbara Cooper | Dem |
| 87th | Vacant | |
| 88th | Larry J. Miller | Dem |
| 89th | Mary Wilder | Dem |
| 90th | John J. Deberry, Jr. | Dem |
| 91st | Lois M. DeBerry | Dem |
| 92nd | G. A. Hardaway | Dem |
| 93rd | Mike Kernell | Dem |
| 94th | Dolores Gresham | Rep |
| 95th | Curry Todd | Rep |
| 96th | Steve McManus | Rep |
| 97th | Jim Coley | Rep |
| 98th | Ulysses Jones, Jr. | Dem |
| 99th | Ron Lollar | Rep |
[edit] Staff
- Speaker's Chief of Staff and Chief Clerk: Burney Durham
- Assistant Chief Clerk: Tammy Letzler
- Assistant to Clerk: Kim Cox
- Journal Clerk: Jessica Clayborn
- Chief Bill Clerk: Amber Rice
- Bill Clerk: Allison Andraza
[edit] External links
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