Tennessee Senate leaders predict no move to expel member before speaker vote

Tennessee’s Senate Republican Caucus won’t try to remove a member for a rogue endorsement before the election of a new Senate speaker, two key lawmakers said Monday, a move that could affect the outcome of a tight race.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin, who is running against Sen. Paul Bailey for the speaker’s post, said in a Monday statement, “The Senate Republican Caucus stands firmly behind the Republican nominee for governor. There are no plans to change the makeup of the caucus’s membership prior to the November 10 caucus elections.”

Sen. Ferrell Haile of Gallatin, who serves as Senate speaker pro tempore, acknowledged Monday “gossip” exists about a vote to expel Sen. Janice Bowling of Tullahoma from the caucus after she endorsed independent gubernatorial candidate David Hatley over Republican nominee Sen. Marsha Blackburn.

But Haile said the “proper time” for any discussion about removing Bowling from the caucus should be after the race for the speaker’s seat, which also determines Tennessee’s lieutenant governor.

“I don’t think the caucus will consider it until after the lieutenant governor’s race, and I don’t know that they’ll consider it then,” Haile said. “There’s a few folks around that are calling for that, but I haven’t heard much of that. In other words, I don’t think that’s gonna take place.”

Republican TN state senator spurns party, backs independent candidate Hatley

Bowling is said to be a supporter of Bailey of Sparta, who is running against Johnson of Franklin in the speaker’s race to replace outgoing Lt. Gov. Randy McNally of Oak Ridge. Bowling could not be reached for comment during the last week and a half.

Bailey said Monday he doesn’t know “officially” whether Bowling is backing him in the race but called her an “independent thinker” and a friend for 30-plus years and “assumed she may be supporting” him.

The competition is close as a Nov. 10 officer vote approaches for the 27-member caucus that holds a supermajority in the 33-member Senate and, because of that advantage, selects the Senate speaker no matter how Democrats vote in the ultimate election. Whoever is selected as Senate speaker also serves as lieutenant governor in Tennessee and is first in the line of succession to serve as governor in case that person is incapacitated or has to leave office. 

Removing a vote for Bailey would bolster Johnson’s chances of election with at least two of the Republican senators believed to be uncommitted.

Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Ken Yager, who is seeking the caucus leader’s post again, downplayed the matter Monday, saying he is “not aware of any organized effort to remove” Bowling from the caucus.

Nor is any meeting to be held in advance of the caucus vote scheduled for Nov. 10 to expel any member from the caucus, Yager said.

“There have certainly been some members (who) have offered opinions, but there’s been no organized effort to have any such meeting,” Yager said. 

Bailey, who chairs the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee but isn’t a member of Senate leadership, said Monday “there was quite a bit of chatter going on” about the potential removal of Bowling for backing Hatley. But he said he believes such talk has “died down now.”

“No members of leadership have discussed that with me,” Bailey said, only rank-and-file members who’ve called him to ask what’s happening.