House party

Now that the gnashing of teeth is over at the statehouse and a sense of normalcy (read: hopelessly deadlocked) has returned to to our state government, everyone can take a deep breath and look at what happened. The Monday paper had it plainly: Rep. Jason Mumpower was widely expected to be elected Speaker of the House, ushering in Republican leadership and the appointment of three constitutional offices (comptroller, treasurer and secretary of state) would go to the favored Republican candidates. The script was plainly written, easy to follow and all but certain.

Tennessee’s legislature is almost evenly split on party lines, 50 Republicans to 49 Democrats. Rep. Jimmy Naifeh (D) had been unable to convince a single Republican house member to vote for him to keep his Speaker post, and it was all but certain to end as scripted.

A single click off a button changed all of that.

Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver (R), a freshman member, pressed the wrong button and voted with the Democrats to allow for a short recess. At the recess, the Democratic House leaders put forward a backup plan to nominate another Republican instead. Rep. Gary Odom (D) came forward and nominated Kent Williams (R) for the seat, an old high school basketball teammate opponent. After the roll-call vote, Williams voted for himself, ensuring an extraordinary rise from obscurity to one of the highest offices in state government. Rep. Weaver will likely never hit the wrong button again.

The papers say that state government is in disarray, and many are still a bit stunned of how it happened. Williams has a one-way ticket out of his party, and Democrats suddenly have a bit of hope at not being marginalized by a group that rarely breaks rank with its party leadership. I have watched my Facebook News Feed fill up with comments ranging from outrage, denial, disgust and a few cheers. I believe that it is just another day in Nashville.

One of my favorite things about Tuesday’s events is the number of e-mails and text messages I got about it. I rarely get to check the news during work hours unless looking up something related to our industry. Still, I am grateful for friends that make sure that I do not miss out on anything.


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