Monday, January 29, 2007

You're Invited: Reception Honoring Republican Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey

Friday, February 9, 2007

5 p.m.-7 p.m.

Ridgefield’s Country Club Ballroom

Entertainment

Heavy H’ors d’oeuves

Cash bar

Please Rsvp by February 3, 2006 by e-mail if you are the guest of a sponsor to

Tswenergy@aol.com or by U.S. Mail to:

Tracy White
1 Huntington Pointe
Kingsport, TN 37660

*$10 per person to help cover the cost of the
event. Please note this is not a fundraiser as the legislature is in session.

Questions: please call 341-5505

Thursday, January 25, 2007

News From Chairperson Cecile Testerman

The annual Lincoln Day Dinner will be Saturday, April 28, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. at the American Legion in Rogersville. Tickets will be $20.00 and will be available beginning March 1, 2007. Ticket sales information will be announced later. Congressman Davis will be our keynote speaker. The meal will be prepared by Klassy Katering. An award will be presented to the Republican Man and Woman of the Year; any suggestions will be appreciated.

We will be electing new officers on March 20, 2007, at 119 South Depot Street, Rogersville at 11:30 a.m. The nominating committee will present a slate of officers at the meeting. There will be absolutely no nominations from the floor. According to our bylaws (See Section 5), which are available upon request, all interested nominees must advise the current Chairman with a letter of intent to fun by 5:00 p.m. three (3) days prior to the meeting. These letters may be mailed to:

Cecile Testerman, Chairperson
Hawkins County Republican Party
1321 Main Street #16
Rogersville, TN 37857


Chuck Holt, our present First Vice-Chairman, has submitted his letter of intent to fun for the chairman's position.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Jefferson County GOP Reorganizes: New Officers Elected

Former Hawkins County GOP 1st Vice-Chairman Mike Faulk filed this report after attending Saturday's Jefferson County GOP Reorganization meeting held at the Courthouse in Dandridge, Tennessee.

Elected for another term as GOP Party Chairman was Hobart Rice. Hobart follows Jim Gass who served as Chairman this past year. Rice has previously served as Party Chairman.

Vicki Forgety, wife of Chancellor Telford Forgety, was elected as the 1st Vice-Chairman. Dr. Bernard Bull of Carson Newman College is the new 2nd Vice-Chairman. Dr. Walter Crouch, former interim pastor at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Mt. Carmel, Tennessee, who is also a member of the Carson Newman faculty and staff was selected as Party Secretary.

Lee Wanda Majors will serve another term as the Party Treasurer and she will be assisted by Betty Fain who will be the Vice-Treasurer. Seniors Chairman is Frank Constantino and Youth Chairman is Aaron Ogle who is a student now at Carson Newman College.

The reorganization was well attended and will provide good initial momentum for a good off-year Lincoln Day Dinner. See below.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Jefferson County GOP Announces Lincoln Day Dinner Plans

Newly elected Jefferson County GOP Chairman Hobart Rice has announced Congressman David Davis will provide the keynote address at the Jefferson County Lincoln Day Dinner scheduled for Saturday, February 17, 2007 to be held in Jefferson City at Carson Newman College.

For more details on ticket prices, venue, and times, please contact Chairman Hobart Rice at (865)397-3242 or Barbie Evans at (865)475-7578.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

2007 Women's Club Officers


Nancy Heck, President

Connie Reimann, First Vice-President

Patsy Courtney, Second Vice-President

Joyce Simon, Treasurer

Not pictured are the Recording Secretary and the Corresponding Secretary: Kay Holt and Donna Sharp.

Hawkins County Republican Women: 2007 Officers Installed



Hawkins County Republican Women had their first meeting of the new year, January 11, 2007, for the purpose of installling new officers. Speaker for the meeting and conducting the installation ceremony was former County Party Vice-Chairman and GOP Political Blogger, Mike Faulk.


Installed were:

President - Nancy Heck
First Vice President - Connie Reinman
Second Vice President - Patsy Courtney
Treasurer - Joyce Simon

Recording and Corresponding Secretaries, Kay Holt and Donna Sharp, were unable to attend and will be installed at a later day.

$15 Annual Dues were collected. Dues are $10 for associates.

Hawkins County GOP Chairman, Cecile Testerman, announced the date of the 2007 Lincoln Day Dinner, April 28, 2007, with the location to be announced.

The next meeting date for the Hawkins County Republican Women will be March 8, 2007. Special guests attending the Installation Ceremoney were Bridgette Baird with U. S. Senator Bob Corker's office and Lana Moore with U. S. Senator Lamar Alexander's office.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Thank You Sen. Williams for Listening, Hearing, and Doing the Right Thing!

The Hawkins County Republican Party extends its congratulations to Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey who was elected today as Speaker of the Tennessee Senate by an 18-15 vote including that of our Senator Mike Williams!

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Another Editorial Against Wilder

Wilder’s leadership non-existent in Senate

January 05, 2007
Nashville City Paper

It is one of the classic clichés in public life. Often, the armchair philosophers of the world posit a community gets what it deserves in an election.

If that is the case, then it would appear Tennesseans are about to “deserve” the vacuous leadership of Lt. Gov. John Wilder again.

Wilder pulled the first in an expected pair of Houdini-like political escapes this week, winning the Democratic Senate Caucus nomination for state Senate Speaker and the Lt. Governor’s title by default.

Wilder beat out Sen. Joe Haynes, not exactly known as a political risk-taker. For Haynes to even enter the race must have meant at one point he was fairly certain he would win. It was not to be.

In truth, Wilder, a Democrat, has become a political lightning rod in the state as his ability to remain Lt. Governor rests with his ability to get Republican Senators to cross party lines. Republican leaders and activists have been particularly resentful that Tennessee has yet to experience GOP leadership in the Legislature’s higher house despite a GOP majority.

In fact, it is really unclear what Wilder has brought to the leadership of the Senate in the last decade of his 30-year-plus reign as Lt. Governor other than a bi-partisanship born not of high-minded ideals but political expediency.

Wilder has failed to contribute substantively in any debate about the state’s future in recent memory or offer any legislation of substance addressing these kinds of concerns.

What Wilder has done is to politically survive. He is most often knocked for his mercurial style and his advanced age when critics question his leadership. Clearly, the years have not lessened Wilder’s political acumen, but it seems that this keenly honed sense of political maneuvering is all he is willing to contribute at the highest levels of state government.

In truth, Tennesseans from both political parties tired of Wilder’s non-leadership in the Senate need to look not at this aging political warrior but at their own state Senator. Though Tennesseans themselves are not directly casting the ballots to put Wilder back in the speaker’s chair, they are electing year in and year out state Senators by and large willing to do so.

Nashville’s own Senators have chosen to toe the party line and support Wilder despite his seemingly absent leadership style beyond bipartisan committee assignments and oddball floor speeches.

So, to date, Tennesseans for the last three decades have deserved John Wilder as their Lt. Governor. They may earn the right to call him speaker again very soon.


Two of three Nashville newspapers have now called for Lieutenant Governor Wilder's replacement. Two, Kingsport Times News and Knoxville News Sentinel, of three daily newspapers that circulate most widely in the Fourth Senate District which includes Hawkins County have also editorialized against Wilder continuing as Speaker of the State Senate.

If you agree with what these newspapers are saying, please let Sen. Williams know so there can be no doubt what his constituents want him to do

District Address

P.O. Box 176
5224 Maynardville Highway
Maynardville, TN 37807
Phone (865) 992-6254

Nashville Address

4 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243-0204
Phone (615) 741-2061
Fax (615) 253-0286

Staff Contact: Dorris Barnes and Skip Cauthorn, Executive Asst. for Policy and Research

Internet E-Mail Address
Sen. Mike Williams
"sen.micheal.williams@legislature.state.tn.us"

Friday, January 05, 2007

Form Your Own Opinion!

From the Nashville City Paper
January 5, 2007

Wilder wins Dems nomination for Senate speaker
By John Rodgers, jrodgers@nashvillecitypaper.com
January 05, 2007

Sen. Joe Haynes’ ill-fated run for the Democrats’ nomination for speaker of the Senate came to an end Thursday as he lost to Lt. Gov. John Wilder in a secret ballot.

Haynes (D-Goodlettsville) said he entered the race because he believed Wilder (D-Mason) couldn’t get the 17 votes required among the full, 33-member state Senate to be reelected to a 19th two-year term.

The Republicans have a 17-16 majority in the state Senate.

After Wilder officially received the Democrat’s nomination, Haynes still thought Wilder didn’t have the 17 votes required to be elected to his 19th term as speaker of the Senate.

“I don’t think he can,” Haynes said of Wilder’s ability to get 17 votes. “I think I could.”

The full Senate gathers Tuesday, when they are scheduled to elect their speaker of the Senate.

Two Senators that will likely play a key role in Tuesday’s outcome are Senators Jerry Cooper (D-Morrison) and Mike Williams (R-Maynardville).

Haynes said if he had won the Democrat’s nomination, both Cooper and Williams would vote for him.

Wilder said Williams was “with” him, but had doubts about Cooper’s support.“I hope so,” Wilder said. “I’m with him. He’s good. He’s one of the best and I care about him and I mean, he’s good. I’m going to do all I can to help him.”

The three attendees at the meeting who knew the vote count – Sen. Doug Jackson (D-Dickson) and two Democratic staffers – would not release the results.

Toward the end of the meeting, Wilder got a call on his cell phone and answered “Mike.”

He walked into the hallway, while being tailed by two reporters, and had a conversation with “Mike” in which Wilder appeared to be telling the person on the other end of the line that their “job” was “not over.”

“This is God’s will. It is God’s will. It is. But don’t you quit.”

Wilder also told “Mike” that “we need Jerry Cooper.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to get him, but we need him.”

When asked at the meetings close if the “Mike” on the phone was Sen. Mike Williams, Wilder initially said “yes,” then said it was another caller that Wilder had clicked over to on his other line at the conclusion of the first conversation.

Wilder then told a City Paper reporter that who he talks to is “my business.”

Several Democrats at the meeting gave credit to Williams. Sen. Charlotte Burks (D-Monterey) told the Democrats’ “how much we appreciate him.”

Haynes said he invited Williams to the Senate Democrats’ meeting, but he was in Cincinnati on business.

“He gave that priority over us, but we still love him,” Haynes said.

If Williams is the only Republican who votes for Wilder, Cooper could keep Wilder from getting 17 votes and reelected by abstaining. Haynes said he believes Cooper would abstain under that circumstance.


If that happens, Wilder remains what Haynes described as a “holdover speaker.” Haynes said he wouldn’t vote for Wilder if Wilder didn’t agree to vote for him if Haynes eventually won the nomination in additional Democratic Caucus meetings.

Wilder’s victory set the stage for the official election for Speaker of the Senate Tuesday when Wilder will face the Republican nominee, Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville).

The Republicans, with their 17-16 majority in the state Senate, could make whomever the Democrats’ nominated a moot issue if they were united behind Ramsey.

It wouldn’t be the first time Williams sided with Wilder versus Ramsey. In 2005, Williams and another GOP Senator defied party label and voted for Wilder, even though the Republicans again had a 17-16 majority.

Haynes was reelected to his position as caucus chairman.