Jimmy Naifeh | |
---|---|
79th Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives | |
In office January 8, 1991 –January 13, 2009 | |
Governor | Ned McWherter Don Sundquist Phil Bredesen |
Preceded by | Ed Murray |
Succeeded by | Kent Williams |
Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from the 81st District | |
In office January 14,1975 –January 8,2013 | |
Preceded by | Albert A. Kelley |
Succeeded by | Debra Moody |
Personal details | |
Born | Tipton County,Tennessee,U.S. | June 16,1939
Political party | Democratic |
Residence | Covington,Tennessee |
Alma mater | University of Tennessee |
James O. Naifeh (born June 16,1939) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party from the State of Tennessee. He served as the Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1991 to 2009,serving longer in that position than anyone else in Tennessee history.
Naifeh is a second-generation Lebanese-American from Covington,a town north of Memphis. His family was in the grocery business and has hosted an annual Naifeh Family Coon Supper since 1945. Following his graduation 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] Naifeh's detractors saw this as a conflict of interest. Naifeh's reply was that she had no undue influence over him in any area of legislation and that she had been in that profession for many years before the personal relationship between them began,so it is hardly as if she entered the field once she married the Speaker as a way of offering access to him.
Naifeh is considered a master of parliamentary procedure and tactics,which is very important in that the Speaker of the House in Tennessee generally personally presides over all sessions of the chamber. He is also regarded as being very partisan,particularly by his Republican opponents,who have long made him a "target" for defeat. In the most recent redistricting,much of the southern portion of Naifeh's native Tipton County was removed from his district. Many suggest that this was because Memphis suburbanites,who are generally quite conservative and reliable Republican voters with no long-term ties to Tipton County,would vote to replace Naifeh with a conservative Republican. However,he easily defeated retired Air Force colonel Tony Lopez in 2002.
In December 2002,African American physician Dr. Jesse Cannon,a Republican and Naifeh's personal physician,announced that he would oppose Naifeh in 2004. Dr. Cannon counted heavily on support from outside the immediate region and was fairly successful raising campaign funds among affluent Republicans in the Nashville area.
In an interesting dynamic to the race,the only other county in the district,added in the most recent redistricting,Haywood County,is Tennessee's only black-majority county. However,on November 2,2004,Naifeh defeated Cannon by a margin of approximately 58% to 42%.
The Democratic majority in the Tennessee House was narrowed to 53-46 by the overall statewide outcome of this election. Shortly after the election some pundits suggested scenarios in which another Democrat considered to be less partisan,such as Frank Buck of Dowelltown in Middle Tennessee,could have been elected Speaker if he could get the unanimous support of the Republican minority and the help of a few dissident Democrats from the eastern two-thirds of the state.
From 1973 until January 2007,when state senator John S. Wilder was defeated in his reelection bid for the speakership of the state senate,both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly had been led by West Tennesseans. However,Republicans could not agree on a replacement,and when the issue came to a vote (Buck declined to be nominated),nine Republicans joined with all of the Democrats to reelect Naifeh. These Republican members were warned of the possibility,even the probability,of facing officially-party-endorsed opponents in the August 2006 primary election,should they choose to stand for another term.
In 2006,The NRA lobby began lobbying TN reps within the legislature. Speaker Naifeh walked into his office one morning noting “well,the NRA lobby is all up in these halls.”
With the NRA funding the TN GOP,a shift in TN politics and policy was occurring. In 2008 election / 2009 inauguration Republicans took over the TN House for the first time in decades;and “guns in bars”was one of their biggest policy concerns - during an economic crisis.
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]
On March 8,2012;Naifeh announced he would not run for a 20th term in November. By the time of his retirement,he was the only elected Democrat above the county level in much of his district. While he had remained popular over the years,it had long been very likely that his seat would be taken by a Republican once he retired.
Haywood County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee,in the region known as West Tennessee. As of the 2020 census,the population was 17,864. Its county seat and largest city is Brownsville. It is one of only two remaining counties in Tennessee,along with Shelby County,with a majority African-American population.
Lincoln Edward Davis is an American politician and the former U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 4th congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.
Philip Norman Bredesen Jr. is an American politician and businessman who served as the 48th governor of Tennessee from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party,he was elected in 2002 with 50.6% of the vote and re-elected in 2006 with 68.6%. He served as the 66th mayor of Nashville from 1991 to 1999. Bredesen is the founder of the HealthAmerica Corporation,which he sold in 1986. He is the last Democrat to win and/or hold statewide office in Tennessee.
John Shelton Wilder was an American politician who was the 48th Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee for 36 years from January 1971 to January 2007,possibly the longest time anyone has served as Lieutenant Governor or a similar position in the history of the United States. He was a Tennessee state senator from 1959 to 1961 and again from 1967 to 2009. Tennesseans do not elect their lieutenant governor;rather,the Speaker of the Senate,who is first in the line of succession to the governor,is granted the title by statute.
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly,the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.
James Hayes Shofner Cooper is an American lawyer,businessman,professor,and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee's 5th congressional district from 2003 to 2023. He is a Southern Democrat and was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition,and represented Tennessee's 4th congressional district from 1983 to 1995. His district included all of Nashville. He chaired the United States House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the House Armed Services Committee,and sat on the Committee on Oversight and Reform,United States House Committee on the Budget,and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,more committees than any other member of Congress. At the end of his tenure,he was also the dean of Tennessee's congressional delegation. Cooper is the third-longest serving member of Congress ever from Tennessee,after Jimmy Quillen and B. Carroll Reece.
The 1984 United States Senate elections were held on November 6,with the 33 seats of Class 2 contested in regular elections. They coincided with the landslide re-election of President Ronald Reagan in the presidential election. In spite of the lopsided presidential race,Reagan's Republican Party suffered a net loss of two Senate seats to the Democrats,although it retained control of the Senate with a reduced 53–47 majority.
Jason Everett Mumpower currently serves as Tennessee's 35th Comptroller of the Treasury. He was first elected to the position by the Tennessee General Assembly on January 13,2021. He is responsible for leading the Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury,which comprises 12 divisions and more than 560 employees,and ensuring the Office fulfills its mission to make government work better.
The 8th congressional district of Tennessee is a congressional district in West Tennessee. It has been represented by Republican David Kustoff since January 2017. The district appears rural on a map,but the bulk of its vote is cast in the suburban and exurban areas around Memphis,such as Germantown,Bartlett,and Collierville,as well as Fayette and Tipton counties. This area boasts some of the highest median incomes in the state.
The Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in Tennessee. The party was founded in 1826 initially as the Jacksonian Party. The Tennessee Democratic Party was born out of President Andrew Jackson's populist philosophy of Jacksonian democracy in the mid to late-1820s. After Jackson left office,the Democratic Party struggled in the state as the Whig Party would go on to be the dominant party in Tennessee until its collapse after the 1852 Election. Prior to the Civil War,as a result of the collapse of the former Whig Party,the Democratic Party became the dominant party in the state. After the war ended,the Republican Party would be the dominant political party during Reconstruction,but once Reconstruction ended,the Democratic Party would dominate Tennessee Politics up until 2011 when the Republican Party would gain firm control of Tennessee State Government.
Tennessee's politics are currently dominated by the Republican Party. Republicans currently hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats,a majority of Congressional seats,and the state legislature. Democratic strength is largely concentrated in Nashville,Memphis,and parts of Knoxville,Chattanooga,Clarksville,Murfreesboro,and Jackson. Several suburban areas of Nashville and Memphis also contain significant Democratic minorities.
Kent Williams was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives,first elected in 2006 to the Tennessee House of Representative as a Republican from House District 4 (then entirely then Carter County in 2006 and reelected to the House in 2008.
Richard Glen Casada Jr. is an American politician,and a former Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives,where he represented District 63 from 2003 to 2023. He was the Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives from January 8,2019 through August 2,2019,whereupon he resigned his post amid scandal. This was the shortest stint of a Tennessee Speaker of the House in modern history. Casada was previously the Majority Leader of the Tennessee House of Representatives. His opposition to Syrian refugees attracted national attention in the media in 2015.
Scotty Campbell is an American politician and professional wrestling promoter. He was a Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives for the 3rd district,encompassing Mountain City,Johnson County,and parts of Sullivan County.
Mary Littleton is an American politician. A Republican,she has represented District 78 in the Tennessee House of Representatives since January 8,2013.
The 2018 Tennessee gubernatorial election took place on November 6,2018,to elect the next governor of Tennessee,alongside other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican governor Bill Haslam was term-limited,and is prohibited by the Constitution of Tennessee from seeking a third consecutive term. Republican candidate Bill Lee was elected with 59.6% of the vote,defeating Democratic nominee and former Nashville mayor Karl Dean.
The 1976 United States presidential election in Tennessee was held on November 2,1976. The Democratic Party candidate,former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter won the state of Tennessee with 56% of the vote against Republican Party candidate,President Gerald Ford,carrying the state's 10 electoral votes.
The 1968 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 5,1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 11 electors to the Electoral College,who voted for president and vice president.
The 2022 Tennessee gubernatorial election took place on November 8,2022,to elect the governor of Tennessee,alongside other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican governor Bill Lee was re-elected to a second term with 64.9% of the vote,defeating his Democratic challenger Jason Martin. Lee improved on his performance from 2018.
Tom Leatherwood is an American politician serving in the Tennessee House of Representatives from Tennessee's 99th house district,since 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party. The 99th district includes the Northeast part of Shelby County,Tennessee,including the Town of Arlington,City of Lakeland,City of Millington,parts of North and East Bartlett,and unincorporated Northeast Shelby County.