| Kent Williams | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 13, 2009 |
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| Preceded by | Jimmy Naifeh |
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Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives
from the 4th district |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2006 |
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| Preceded by | Jerome Cochran |
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| Political party | self-proclaimed Carter County Republican[1] (2009—present) Republican (until 2009) |
| Spouse(s) | Gayle Williams |
| Residence | Elizabethton, Tennessee |
| Alma mater | Unaka High School |
| Occupation | Restaurateur, Farmer |
| Religion | Southern Baptist |
Kent Williams (born June 23, 1949) is a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, representing District 4. He is the speaker of that body in the 106th Tennessee General Assembly (2009—2010). He was elected to the House in 2006 and reelected in 2008 as a Republican, but in February 2009 the executive committee of the state Republican Party stripped Williams of his party affiliation after he voted with all 49 House Democrats to elect himself Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.[2] Williams chose "Carter County Republican" as his new party designation.[1]
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Biography
Williams was born in Carter County, Tennessee, on June 23, 1949. His father worked as a laborer in one of the Elizabethton rayon mills. His family lived in Dale Hollow in the Sadie section of Stoney Creek, at the foot of Holston Mountain.[3]
Williams graduated from Unaka High School[4] and left Carter County to find work in Michigan, where he worked in the kitchen of a large hospital and where he met his future wife, Gayle. Williams later returned to Elizabethton, where the couple raised their four sons.[3]
Early in his career he worked for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, but because he had been hired during a Republican administration, he lost that job in 1975 after Democrat Ray Blanton became governor.[5]
Williams is a farmer and owns a restaurant in Elizabethton.[4][5] He was previously a vice president of Steak Houses of Homestead Inc. and Family Steak Houses of Miami Inc.[4]
Political career
Williams was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 2006, having defeated incumbent Jerome Cochran of Johnson City (although in Carter County) during the Republican primary election.[5] In that campaign, he chastised Cochran for a lack of progress in state-funded projects in Carter County.[6] TNGA House Speaker Williams was later quoted within the November 30, 2009 edition of the Elizabethton Star as to the lack of progess on the Elizabethton Northern Connector highway project under the Tennessee Department of Transportation - the one of the same infrastructure projects that Williams had previously and very publicly criticized former State Rep. Cochran - was "...probably 20 years away" from completion.[7]
Speaker position
Williams was elected as speaker of the Tennessee House on January 13, 2009, in a surprising divergence from the Republican party's accepted plan for succession. Democrats, who had lost the majority in the House for the first time since 1969, threw their support behind Williams as a means of keeping House Majority Leader Jason Mumpower out of the office.[8][9][10] Williams, one of 50 Republicans in the 99-seat House, voted for himself alongside the assembly's 49 Democrats to clinch the position, defeating Mumpower by a vote of 50 to 49.[11] Outgoing speaker Jimmy Naifeh instructed the House clerk to depart from the normal practice of conducting a roll call of the members in alphabetical order, instead calling first on the Democrats, then on the Republicans. This allowed Williams to vote last, so that before he voted he knew that his vote for himself would be the deciding vote. After the vote he was booed[11] and called a "traitor." Subsequently, Williams voted with the Democrats to elect Democrat Lois DeBerry as speaker pro-tem over Republican Beth Harwell.
Williams, a moderate, was one of seven Republicans who in 2007 had voted for Democrat Naifeh as speaker of the 105th General Assembly. He explained to a friend that if he "wanted to get anything done in Carter County [he] had to vote for Jimmy Naifeh."[12]
After the November 2008 election in which Republicans won a one-seat majority in the House, Williams had joined the other 49 Republicans in the House in publicly pledging to vote for a Republican for speaker.[5] He also had privately promised to vote for Mumpower.[12] After voting with the Democrats, Williams acknowledged that he had broken a promise, but said that his votes were made in the best interest of the state.[5]
After his election as speaker, the House Republicans expelled Williams from their caucus and the party's state executive committee discussed removing him from the party.[5] On February 9, 2009, the Tennessee Republican Party ousted Williams from the party. Williams said he had no intention of joining the Democratic Party, if he does run for re-election in 2010 it will be as an independent,[13] but continues to consider himself a Republican.[1]
References
- ^ a b c "Speaker Kent Williams". Tennessee General Assembly. http://www.capitol.tn.gov/house/members/h4.html.
- ^ Emery, Theo (February 10, 2009). "Republicans kick Williams out of party: Tennessee House Speaker vote spurs action". The Tennessean. http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090210/NEWS0201/902100341.
- ^ a b Thompson, John (January 17, 2008). "Now House speaker, Williams' life had humble beginning". Johnson City Press. http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=LOCALNEWS&ID=66684.
- ^ a b c "Biography". Tennessee General Assembly. http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/house/members/h4.html. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f "Kent who? Dazzling maneuver makes backbencher speaker," The Tennessee Journal Vol. 35, No. 3, January 16, 2009
- ^ John Thompson, Victor in 4th vows action on stalled projects, Johnson City Press, August 5, 2006
- ^ http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:HGBLZcsjL1UJ:www.starhq.com/news/html/news/articles/articles.asp%3Fday%3DMonday%26article%3Dtdotprogressreport.html+%22Kent+Williams%22+Northern+Connector+20+years&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari "New signalization planned for Broad Street, West Elk Avenue"
- ^ "Williams upsets House Speaker race". The Tennessean. January 13, 2009. http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090113/NEWS02/90113034/1009.
- ^ Rook (January 13, 2009). "Humiliation! GOP Defeat in TN! State House in "Absolute Chaos!"". DailyKos. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/13/17122/6402/796/683663.
- ^ Anaxamander (January 13, 2009). "Right Wing Republicans Thwarted in Tennessee". DailyKos. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/1/13/15515/6781/808/683643. Retrieved January 14, 2009.
- ^ a b Naujeck, Jeannie (January 13, 2009). "Tennessee Legislature opens session with surprise vote". Nashville Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2009/01/12/daily19.html.
- ^ a b Schrade, Brad (January 18, 2009). "How Kent Williams became the House's new speaker; GOP rift that led to election surprise has deep roots". The Tennessean. http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090118/NEWS0201/901180380.
- ^ Johnson II, Lucas L. (February 10, 2009). "Tennessee GOP ousts Williams". The Leaf-Chronicle. Associated Press. http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20090210/NEWS01/902100335. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
External links
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Jimmy Naifeh |
Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives 2009–present |
Incumbent |
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