Small crack in the East TN Republican stronghold

[southerncrone]

State Senator Mike Williams of Maynardsville leaves Republican party to become an independent. He states he was tired of being expected to vote the Republican line, and will now vote to best represent his constituents.

Sad he was not doing that for the last 15 years.

He is also current Speaker Pro tem of the TN Senate.
:woohoo:

[SharonAnn]

1. Yes, isn't that wonderful? The Dems had to get rid of Wilder and wouldn't do it, so a Dem

had to vote for someone else for Senate Leader. GOP were majority and offered the only other choice.

Democrats here have been angry with her for doing that, but I say it's our fault if we can't nominate anyone better than an 80+ year old, corrupt crony, atavistic throwback.

Now at least the GOP also have a "defector" in their ranks.

From what I've heard, he's a fairly good guy, way more moderate than the usual extremem right-wingers.

Things may get interesting here.

[southerncrone]

2. You are speaking of Kurita, I assume

Yes, thought a lot of her when she was running for Senate seat against Ford, but this stunt soured me on her. But you are right, there are a lot of deserving Dems in Senate that could have been chosen instead of Wilder; Joe Haynes comes to mind. I wish Bredesen would have asked him to concede to someone else. But the elderly can be hard-headed, especially if they have a position of Power! Wilder definitely hurt us. His arrogance cost us the Leadership position. It hurts so much to lose any thing to the GOP here, they seem so arrogant about any progress they make.

With Williams as Pro tem, does tend to help balance the power structure in Senate again.

I just hope Williams doesn't have an "accident"; would not be out of their realm of activity.

For now, I will celebrate his defection!:party:

[tnlefty]

3. Especially when Wilder could've listened to pleas for him to step

down, and to use his age as excuse, to let someone else run? Has he been released from the hospital after he fell at home and was in intensive care for a few days?

I have a friend who is on the state executive committee and I called him/her to talk about a range of things, and he/she laughed and stated that letters and e-mails were being distributed requesting that dems not speak to Kurita while in Nashville. He/she thought it ridiculous because he/she is very well aware of Wilder's history.