Jimmy Naifeh | |
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| 79th Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives | |
| In office January 8, 1991 –January 13, 2009 |
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Naifeh is a second-generation Lebanese-American from Covington, a town north of Memphis. His family was in the grocery business. After graduating from the University of Tennessee, Naifeh served in the United States Army as an infantry officer.
He was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1974, and was Speaker from 1991 to 2009. He represents House District 81, which includes most of Tipton County and all of Haywood County. Prior to his election as Speaker served in other positions in the Democratic Caucus such as chairman of the Rules Committee, Majority Floor Leader, and chairman of the Rural West Tennessee Democratic Caucus.
From 1995 to 2008, Naifeh was married to Betty Anderson, considered by many Tennessee political observers to be the most influential lobbyist in the state. [1]
In December 2002, African American physician Jesse Cannon, a Republican and Naifeh's personal doctor, announced that he would oppose Naifeh in 2004. On November 2, 2004, Naifeh defeated Cannon by a margin of approximately 58% to 42%.
In the 2008 November elections Republicans won the majority of the state House, winning 50 of the 99 seats, with the Democrats holding 49. This is the first time the GOP has had a majority in the Tennessee House since 1971, and the first time both House and Senate have had Republican majorities since Reconstruction. This ended Naifeh's long term as Speaker, but the Republicans' narrow majority in the House did not allow them to elect their preferred Speaker. While 49 Republicans voted for Jason Mumpower, the 49 Democrats and Republican Representative Kent Williams voted for Williams to succeed Naifeh as Speaker. [2]
Naifeh, who was chairing the House for the last time, helped to engineer Williams' election by instructing 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. [3]
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On March 8, 2012; Naifeh announced he would not run for a 20th term in November.