A Republican In The Legislature Only: House GOP Votes To Keep Williams

By Kleinheider Posted on March 11, 2009 at 10:19 am

Despite being expelled from the Tennessee Republican Party by its chairwoman Robin Smith back in January, Tom Humphrey reports that Speaker Kent Williams is a Republican — at least as far as the House GOP Caucus is concerned.

Since going back on his promise to vote for Jason Mumpower for house speaker and instead joining with 49 House Democrats to elect himself speaker, Williams status as a Republican has been a matter of some debate.

While he was allowed into an open caucus meeting in February, he has been subsequently turned away from such caucus meetings this month. Republican Leader Jason Mumpower as well as Caucus Chair Glen Casada have previously asserted that they had the power to ban Williams from the caucus without the benefit of a vote.

But on Monday night there was a vote — and Kent Williams prevailed:

“I think the sentiment is to allow Kent to come into the meetings,” he said during a brief interview today. Mumpower said he assumes that will include the right to vote on caucus matters.

Mumpower refused to provide any details of the vote, but other Republican legislators say a substantial majority favored Williams’ continued presence at caucus meetings.
“I don’t want to betry the confidence of caucus members,” said Mumpower in declining to give vote totals.

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Tags: Carter County Republican, Glen Casada, Jason Mumpower, Kent Williams, Robin Smith, TNGOP  

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