Sen. Mike Williams, R-Maynardville, left, points out a senator seeking recognition to Senate President John Wilder, D-Mason, in Nashville in January.
Posted on 11/27/2006 7:39:58 AM PST by SmithL
MAYNARDVILLE, Tenn. - People in this mountainous eastern Tennessee district don't seem surprised that their state senator's independent streak is causing consternation again among his fellow Republicans.
Mike Williams bucked his own party two years ago to vote for longtime Senate Speaker John Wilder, a Democrat. Republicans hold the same 17-16 advantage this year, but Williams says he hasn't yet made up his mind for whom he will vote.
The political fate of 85-year-old Wilder hangs on Williams' choice, as do the hopes of Sen. Ron Ramsey, the Republican leader.
State Republicans have been haranguing Williams to return to the party fold, but several acknowledge that it might be a lost cause. A vote for Wilder may not hurt Williams much in his mostly rural district.
Tommy Perry, 66, a retired porcelain worker from the outskirts of Maynardville, said local people are comfortable with Williams making choices that stray from the party line.
"That's the only privilege you have down there, to vote for whoever you want," said Perry as he packed up his stand at a makeshift flea market next to a gas station. "I wouldn't hold that against him."
Von Richardson, 71, a former Union County sheriff, judge and county executive from Maynardville, said he expects Williams to vote for Wilder.
"I guess I'd rather he voted with the Republicans ... but I feel he must have good reasons for it," Richardson said. "We like Mike."
Wilder, who is seeking his 19th consecutive two-year term, may be the longest-serving speaker of a legislative chamber in U.S. history. The Senate speaker is in charge of assigning powerful committee chairmanships, and Wilder has sought to stem dissent over the years by making bipartisan appointments.
Mike Faulk, a Church Hill attorney who is considering challenging Williams for the Republican nomination in 2008, said voting for your own party leadership should be a given in the Senate.
"I agree with Mike Williams and anybody else who says there's too much partisanship," Faulk said. "But the one time you would expect there to be partisanship is when you select the leaders of the different houses of government, and it's the one time when you should expect party loyalty."
Faulk said he will make his decision on whether to run regardless of Williams' vote in January.
While many voters in the 4th Senate district might not be perturbed by what Williams calls the "inside baseball" of the speaker's race, he still understands that the more hard-core Republicans who turn out for the primary could strongly go against him.
Still, Williams says he may not announce his decision on his preferred speaker before the January vote. Williams, 51, said he voted for Wilder in 2004 because he was more likely to give both parties power.
Williams disagrees with critics who argue that Wilder's nomination of Republicans has more to do with self-preservation.
"His sense of fairness is, if you're in the Senate, everybody should have a voice," Williams said.
Williams said he got a taste of what he calls Wilder's "graciousness" early in his first term in the Senate.
"I was ready to leave politics, I was so disillusioned with it," said Williams, who had previously served six years in the state House. "I don't like the partisanship. I don't like people doing things to be hurtful to each other."
But Wilder stopped him in a hallway and encouraged him to persevere, Williams said.
"A person that will take the time to help you, rather than try to step on you, I think those people are rare," Williams said.
To that end, Williams also disagrees with Ramsey's position that the majority party should control all Senate committees.
"Government works best when both sides have a voice," Williams said.
Ramsey, who represents the Senate district next to Williams', said he will not offer Williams a deal - like retaining his speaker pro tem title or the promise of no primary opponent in 2008.
"I can only offer Mike the opportunity to do the right thing," said Ramsey, 51.
Besides, argued Ramsey, there's little reward for Williams in voting for a Democrat.
"He can vote with the Democrats and have 2 million Democrats in the state laughing at him because he's been their patsy," Ramsey said.
Williams said it pains him to be criticized for taking his time to think about how he casts his vote.
"It makes you wonder if some people really want ... a puppet in the Legislature that they can control and tell how to vote on everything," he said.
Williams turned back speculation that he might throw up his hands in the face of Republican pressures and turn Independent.
"The party would have to vote me out for me to go Independent. I'm not just going to voluntarily leave," he said. "I'm as much - or more - Republican than a lot of people. I'm pro-life, I'm an NRA lifetime member, I opposed the income tax."
John Schneider, a constituent from Luttrell, said he wouldn't have a problem if Williams shed the party label.
"We need to do away with the parties and vote for the person," said Schneider, 68 and a retired manager of an optical lens lab.
Here is the reason "republicans" lost the election. If they are going to be demonRATS, might as well have the real thing.
For the last 40 years I have been unfortunately calling the Pubs, the Stupid Party. Dennis Prager, George Will, Fred Barnes has also alluded to this problem of the Pubs. Being just too darn nice and not up to dealing with politics as warfare!
Have any of the conservative columnists blamed GOP ineptitude for the Nov. 7 results? Maybe Joseph Farah, but otherwise, they seem to follow the party line.
I've also noticed that the Republicans are nice to the Democrats but often not so "nice" to their fellow conservatives within the party.
Its been that way for a long time. The Republicans are "The Stupid Party" and the Democrats are "The Evil Party."
The Republicans need to start treating Democrats as the enemy rather than as friends with whom they have a few disagreements...
That right there is why no matter who he votes for he will likely be re-elected. In Union County party means little and family & neighbors means a lot. If the people know him and many do they will still vote for Williams. He isn't Wilders sock puppet that was Taxquist job.
You have to remember to that many in Union County still think the Butchers were saints. The others wish they had all been hanged. Those were mostly the ones who lost their life's savings in Southern Industrial. With only one county high school most families know each other or know about someone.
There's much bigger RINO's to fry in Nashville like McNally than to worry about Williams who unlike McNally was not voting on legislation and being the RINO's best friend.
Should read: There's much bigger REAL RINO's to fry in Nashville like McNally than to worry about Williams who voted Conservative unlike McNally was voting on legislation with the DEMs and being the DEM's best friend. Remember folks it was ones like McNally who made Taxquist's nightmare possible. Political Party in Union County means zilch and Williams knows that. He can be an Indie and still win it. If those in Nashville and other places try and push it this may well backfire in their faces.
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