Tennessee House of Representatives

Tennessee House of Representatives
Tennessee General Assembly
Type
Type	Lower house
Term limits	None
New session started	January 11, 2011
Leadership
Speaker of the House	Beth Harwell, (R) since January 11, 2011
Speaker pro Tempore	Judd Matheny, (R) since January 11, 2011
Majority Leader	Gerald McCormick, (R) since January 11, 2011
Minority Leader	Craig Fitzhugh, (D) since January 11, 2011
Structure
Members	99
Political groups	Republican Party (64) Democratic Party (34) Independent (1)
Length of term	2 years
Authority	Article III, Tennessee Constitution
Salary	$19,009/year + per diem
Elections
Last election	November 2, 2010 (99 seats)
Next election	November 6, 2012 (99 seats)
Redistricting	Legislative Control
Meeting place
House of Representatives Chamber Tennessee State Capitol Nashville, Tennessee
Website
Tennessee House of Representatives

The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Tennessee.

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.

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. Following the 2008 legislative elections, the House consisted of 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats.

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."

Speaker of the House

The speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the House. The speaker is elected to a two-year term at the beginning of the 1st half in each Session of the Tennessee General Assembly. Additionally, the speaker is second in line for succession to the governorship,after the Speaker of the Tennessee Senate, in the event of such need . The speaker appoints members to all committees as well. Even though the speaker does not have to make committee assignments proportional to the party composition, usually that discretion is used when determining such. Usually consideration to the abilities, preferences, party representation, and seniority of the members are taken into consideration. The chairperson, vice chairperson, and secretary of each committee also are chosen by the speaker and must be given the same considerations in their selection. The speaker is a voting member of all standing committees of the House, as is the speaker pro tempore. The speaker also serves as co-chairperson of the Joint Legislative Services Committee and must approve, in concurrence with the speaker of the Senate, the directors of the offices of Legislative Information Services, Legal Services, Legislative Administration and Legislative Budget Analysis. Additionally, is in charge of all facilities, professional and clerical staff, custodians and security personnel of the House.

The current Speaker is Beth Harwell of Davidson County.

Composition of the 107th General Assembly—2011–2013

Affiliation	Party (Shading indicates majority caucus)			Total
	Republican	Carter County Republican	Democratic		Vacant
End of previous legislature	50	1	48	99	0
Begin	64	1	34	99	0
Latest voting share	65.7%		34.3%

Officers

• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Rep. Beth Harwell (R)
• Speaker Pro Tempore: Rep. Judd Matheny (R)
• Deputy Speaker: Rep. Steve McDaniel (R)
• Speaker Emeritus: Rep. Jimmy Naifeh (D)
• Majority Leader: Rep. Gerald McCormick
• Minority Leader: Rep. Craig Fitzhugh

Members

District	Name	Party	Counties represented
1	Jon Lundberg	Republican	Sullivan in part
2	Tony Shipley	Republican	Sullivan in part
3	Scotty Campbell	Republican	Johnson and part of Sullivan
4	Kent Williams	Carter County Republican	Carter
5	David Hawk	Republican	Unicoi and part of Greene
6	Dale Ford	Republican	Washington in part and Hawkins
7	Matthew Hill	Republican	Washington in part
8	Art Swann	Republican	Blount in part and Sevier in part
9	Michael Harrison	Republican	Hancock and part of Hawkins
10	Don Miller	Republican	Hamblen
11	Jeremy Faison	Republican	Cocke and part of Greene
12	Richard Montgomery	Republican	Sevier in part
13	Harry J. Tindell	Democratic	Knox in part
14	Ryan Haynes	Republican	Knox in part
15	Joe E. Armstrong	Democratic	Knox in part
16	Bill Dunn	Republican	Knox in part
17	Frank S. Niceley	Republican	Knox in part
18	Steve Hall	Republican	Knox in part
19	Harry Brooks	Republican	Knox in part
20	Bob Ramsey	Republican	Blount in part
21	Jimmy Matlock	Republican	Loudon in part and Monroe in part
22	Eric Watson	Republican	Meigs, Polk, and part of Bradley
23	John Forgety	Republican	McMinn and part of Monroe
24	Kevin Brooks	Republican	Bradley in part
25	Cameron Sexton	Republican	Cumberland and part of Bledsoe
26	Gerald McCormick	Republican	Hamilton in part
27	Richard Floyd	Republican	Hamilton in part
28	Tommie F. Brown	Democratic	Hamilton in part
29	Joanne Favors	Democratic	Hamilton in part
30	Vince Dean	Republican	Hamilton in part
31	Jim Cobb	Republican	Hamilton in part and Rhea
32	Julia Hurley	Republican	Roane
33	John Ragan	Republican	Anderson in part
34	Richard Womick	Republican	Rutherford in part
35	Dennis E. Roach	Republican	Claiborne, Grainger, and part of Jefferson
36	Dennis Powers	Republican	Campbell and Union
37	Bill W. Harmon	Democratic	Sequatchie, Van Buren, Grundy, and Marion
38	Kelly Keisling	Republican	Clay, Jackson, Pickett, Scott, and part of Anderson
39	David Alexander	Republican	Franklin, Moore, and part of Lincoln
40	Terri Lynn Weaver	Republican	DeKalb, Smith and Macon
41	John Mark Windle	Democratic	Fentress, Morgan, and Overton
42	Ryan Williams	Republican	Putnam in part
43	Charles Curtiss	Democratic	White and parts of Putnam and Warren
44	Michael Ray McDonald	Democratic	Sumner in part
45	Debra Young Maggart	Republican	Sumner in part
46	Mark Pody	Republican	Cannon, Trousdale, and part of Wilson
47	Judd Matheny	Republican	Coffee and part of Warren
48	Joe Carr	Republican	Rutherford in part
49	Mike Sparks	Republican	Rutherford in part
50	Gary W. Moore	Democratic	Davidson in part
51	Mike Turner	Democratic	Davidson in part
52	Mike Stewart	Democratic	Davidson in part
53	Janis Baird Sontany	Democratic	Davidson in part
54	Brenda Gilmore	Democratic	Davidson in part
55	Gary Odom	Democratic	Davidson in part
56	Beth Harwell, Speaker	Republican	Davidson in part
57	Linda Elam	Republican	Sumner in part and Wilson in part
58	Mary Pruitt	Democratic	Davidson in part
59	Sherry Jones	Democratic	Davidson in part
60	Jim Gotto	Republican	Davidson in part
61	Charles Michael Sargent	Republican	Williamson in part
62	Pat Marsh	Republican	Bedford and parts of Lincoln and Rutherford
63	Glen Casada	Republican	Williamson in part
64	Sheila Butt	Republican	Maury in part
65	Eddie Bass	Democratic	Giles and Marshall
66	Joshua Evans	Republican	Robertson
67	Joe Pitts	Democratic	Montgomery in part
68	Curtis G. Johnson	Republican	Montgomery in part
69	David Shepard	Democratic	Dickson and part of Hickman
70	Joey Hensley	Republican	Lawrence, Lewis, and part of Wayne
71	Vance Dennis	Republican	Hardin, McNairy, and part of Decatur
72	Steve McDaniel	Republican	Henderson, Chester, and parts of Decatur and Wayne
73	Jimmy A. Eldridge	Republican	Madison in part
74	John C. Tidwell	Democratic	Houston, Humphreys, Perry, and parts of Hickman and Maury
75	Tim Wirgau	Republican	Henry, Benton, and Stewart
76	Andrew Holt	Republican	Weakley and part of Carroll
77	Bill Sanderson	Republican	Obion, Lake, and part of Dyer
78	Phillip Johnson	Republican	Cheatham and parts of Montgomery and Williamson
79	Curtis Halford	Republican	Gibson and part of Carroll
80	Johnny Shaw	Democratic	Hardeman and part of Madison
81	Jimmy Naifeh, Speaker emeritus	Democratic	Haywood and part of Tipton
82	Craig Fitzhugh	Democratic	Lauderdale, Crockett, and part of Dyer
83	Mark White	Republican	Shelby in part
84	Joe Towns, Jr.	Democratic	Shelby in part
85	Johnnie Turner	Democratic	Shelby in part
86	Barbara Cooper	Democratic	Shelby in part
87	Karen Camper	Democratic	Shelby in part
88	Larry J. Miller	Democratic	Shelby in part
89	Jeanne Richardson	Democratic	Shelby in part
90	John J. Deberry, Jr.	Democratic	Shelby in part
91	Lois M. DeBerry	Democratic	Shelby in part
92	G. A. Hardaway	Democratic	Shelby in part
93	Mike Kernell	Democratic	Shelby in part
94	Barrett Rich	Republican	Fayette and parts of Hardeman and Tipton
95	Curry Todd	Republican	Shelby in part
96	Steve McManus	Republican	Shelby in part
97	Jim Coley	Republican	Shelby in part
98	Antonio Parkinson	Democratic	Shelby in part
99	Ron Lollar	Republican	Shelby in part

See also

• Tennessee Senate

External links

• Official website