Free Republic

NASHVILLE - Former Lt. Gov. John Wilder announced minutes ago that he will not seek re-election to the state Senate seat he has held for 44 years. "I wanted to do what God wanted me to do, and I didn't know exactly what that was," Wilder said in a rambling speech on the Senate floor shortly before noon today. After long deliberations, he said, "I decided not to run for re-election" for the Somerville seat. Wilder compared service in the Senate to being a soldier. He closed his speech with this cryptic remark: "If I don't change my mind, that's...

This past week, I have been asked many times why I voted for a new lieutenant governor. How could I vote for someone who is not a member of my own political party? The answer is very straightforward: I voted my conscience. The most basic tenet of democracy is that the majority rules. In the Tennessee Senate, Republicans have held the numerical majority for three years. Yet, we were in a peculiar situation where the minority continued to keep the majority in the form of the lieutenant governor. That is not our democracy. It was time for a change in...

NASHVILLE -- Democratic state Sen. John Wilder may no longer be the lieutenant governor, but he can still park his plane for free at the state hangar at the Nashville airport. Wilder, who had been speaker since 1971, was beaten by Republican Sen. Ron Ramsey of Blountville earlier this month. The Senate speaker also holds the title of lieutenant governor, and is first in the line of succession if the governor dies or resigns. Wilder this week cleared out the speaker's office at Legislative Plaza so Ramsey could move in. He has flown his plane dubbed "Jaybird" to and from...

History hunts for its participants, sometimes denying them their first choice for fame before foisting its indelible mark on them at an unexpected time. History found Rosalind Kurita on Tuesday. Kurita, a Democratic state senator from Clarksville, felt the breath of history last year when she challenged Harold Ford Jr. for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. The registered nurse would have become the first female U.S. senator from Tennessee had she prevailed over Ford and defeated Republican nominee Bob Corker in November. It was not to be. Ford vastly outdistanced her in fund raising, Democratic powerbrokers lined up...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Republican Ron Ramsey has been elected speaker of the Tennessee Senate, defeating Democrat John Wilder who has been speaker since 1971.

NASHVILLE - Contrary to the claims of some leading Democrats, state Sen. Mike Williams said Monday he has made no commitment to vote for the re-election of John Wilder as lieutenant governor today. Gov. Phil Bredesen, meanwhile, said he will stay completely out of the lieutenant governor's contest between Democrat Wilder and Senate Republican Leader Ron Ramsey unless it evolves into "something like a terrible deadlock that was damaging the state." "Do I look so stupid as to get myself involved with that?" Bredesen said when asked if he would favor the Democratic candidate. "We will work with whoever emerges."...

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...

John S. Wilder needs 17 votes to remain Lt. Governor, but there are only 16 Democrats in the Tennessee Senate. That hasn't stopped him before.

Lt. Gov. John Wilder and state Senator Jeff Miller said they were subpoenaed today by an attorney for Tennessee Waltz defendant Roscoe Dixon to testify in Dixon’s upcoming federal trial in Memphis. Wilder was served with the subpoena Wednesday morning. Wilder told reporters he thinks there are other subpoenas that have been issued to lawmakers and more to come, though he could not name names. “I wasn’t surprised to get it,” Wilder told reporters Wednesday morning. Miller acknowledged being subpoenaed this morning, though he told reporters he wasn't sure why. "I have absolutely no idea why I was subpoenaed," Miller...

Senate Democrats sent Lt. Gov. John Wilder to serve his 17th term as speaker of the Senate. According to Bonna de la Cruz a writer for the Tennessean, this is Wilder's statement to his fellow Democrats:"Thank you, I care about you. You make a difference. You make a little difference. A little difference is the difference. That's enough to be the difference."