Stockard on the Stump: House, Senate GOP leaders win most “effective” honors

This just in: Tennessee’s House and Senate Republican leaders are the legislature’s most effective lawmakers, according to a new report.

It’s only fitting since they get just about everything they want, not necessarily what we need.

The Center for Effective Lawmaking released the rankings this week based on the ability to sponsor and pass bills, some of which are meaningful, though the legislation isn’t cited in the report. It also found that – hold on to your hat – Democrats, or members of the minority party, have a harder time passing legislation than Republicans, who hold a supermajority. (Oops, there went another 75-24 vote. The rare close calls deal mainly with private-school vouchers.)

Coming in at the head of the House class was Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland, who introduced 144 bills in 2023-24, passed 52 in the House and pushed 47 of them to become law. 

The report doesn’t get into the recently completed regular and special sessions.

To Lamberth’s credit, he is nothing if not energetic, moving from one committee to the next, with nary a moment to spare poor reporters a comment, and roving around the House floor to make sure things are running smoothly, at least until someone starts a protest. He can also talk like a Tommy gun.

The Senate leader is the Senate majority leader, Jack Johnson of Franklin, who’s in the running to become the next Senate speaker. He introduced 156 bills, 74 of which became law in 2023-24. 

Part of the leader’s job in the House and Senate is to carry the governor’s bills, and most of those fly to passage. Much of their legislation, such as the budget and appropriations bills, also is required by law to pass.

Those hidden advantages give them an edge. House members also face limits on the number of bills they can file.

Next in line in the House are Republican Reps. John Ragan of Oak Ridge, who was so effective he lost in the last election, Clark Boyd of Lebanon, House Speaker Cameron Sexton of Crossville (we can see the smoke coming out his ears now for a fourth-place finish. After all he controls most of the GOP bills), Mary Littleton of Dickson, who is leaving after passing a litany of bills dealing with children, John Gillespie of Bartlett, who overturned Memphis’ effort to stop police profiling, Ed Butler of Rickman, Rusty Grills of Newbern, sponsor of this year’s failed pesticide protection bill, Lowell Russell of Vonore, and Sabi “Doc” Kumar of Springfield.

Lamberth and Johnson couldn’t cobble together the votes in 2024 to pass the governor’s private-school voucher bill, but thanks to a boatload of dark money and the governor’s endorsements they pushed it across the finish line in 2025, then expanded it this year. It’s only going to cost $270 million to send kids to private schools, and it will keep going up.

The leader combo also managed to pass an estimated $1.5 billion refund and tax-break package for businesses in 2024. The tax cuts, which amount to $400 million annually, came at the request of Lee and the Department of Revenue, which claimed it was threatened with legal action by a host of unnamed companies. Lamberth was among the few who said it was just good policy, even though out-of-staters are among those getting a large percentage of the breaks.

It wasn’t counted in these rankings, but Lamberth also struggled with a bill last year that would have allowed school districts to charge tuition to undocumented immigrant students. Republican Sen. Bo Watson, who didn’t make the rankings, pushed it through the Senate, but the bills didn’t match and wound up withering on the vine, in part because of a potential $1 billion loss of federal funds for violating discrimination laws. Watson declined to bring the bill back for a vote this session.

Coming in at second among Senate Republicans was Kerry Roberts of Springfield, followed by Joey Hensley of Hohenwald, Ferrell Haile of Gallatin (another Senate speaker candidate), Becky Massey of Knoxville, Page Walley of Savannah, Shane Reeves of Murfreesboro, Brent Taylor of Shelby County, John Stevens of Huntingdon and Jon Lundberg of Kingsport, who was beaten out of this seat two years ago.

Top three effective Democrats

The top ten House Democrats are Reps. Antonio Parkinson of Memphis, who is working toward a moderate position, Bob Freeman of Nashville, the late G.A. Hardaway of Memphis, Torrey Harris of Memphis, Democratic Leader Karen Camper of Memphis, Harold Love of Nashville, Johnny Shaw of Bolivar, Darren Jernigan of Nashville, who left the legislature, Jason Powell of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis.

The top three Senate Democrats are Leader Raumesh Akbari of Memphis, who occasionally extends an olive branch, at least until Republicans sliced up Memphis’s congressional seat last month, along with Jeff Yarbro of Nashville and Heidi Campbell of Nashville.

Freshmen House members “exceeding expectations” in the report for 2023-24 were Butler, Monty Fritts of Kingston, a gubernatorial candidate who started picking up the mic more after his campaign kicked off and saying a couple of outlandish things, Brock Martin of Huntingdon and Pearson, a congressional candidate.

Leaving but not quite forgotten

Veteran Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who is stepping away from Congress after Republicans redrew Memphis’ 9th district seat to try to give the GOP a clean sweep in Tennessee, is ranked the fifth-most effective Democrat out of 220 members, according to the Center for Effective Lawmaking report.

Cohen, 77, a former state senator, introduced articles of impeachment for President Donald Trump, and he did the same this week for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Tennessee’s congressional Republicans didn’t rate quite as high.

Former U.S. Rep. Mark Green, who drew a road map to the presidency but is no longer serving, ranked 83 out of 228 House Republicans. Tim Burchett of Knoxville came in at 109, Chuck Fleischmann of Chattanooga at 114, Andy Ogles of Culleoka at 135, David Kustoff of Shelby County at 175, Diana Harshbarger of Kingsport at 192, and – not quite last – Scott DesJarlais of Sherwood at 227.

Another fabrication?

You can learn all sorts of stuff by serving in Congress, other than how to enrich yourself and party like a rock star.

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles’ campaign has less $100k heading into potential competitive election

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson slapped Ogles’ hand this week over an online post in which the former Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee director said “homosexuality has no place in America.”

Asked about the “Ogler’s” social media statement, Johnson reportedly said, “We’re supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves, everybody. We’re supposed to treat every single person with dignity and respect, whether we agree with them or not.” He added, “It’s a Christian virtue, it’s a biblical virtue, it’s also an American virtue.”

Dang, who knew?

The shish kabob hit the fan this week, though, leaving Ogles squirming for the umpteenth time in the last few years, as he has faced an investigation over fuzzy campaign math that appears to be done. Going to bat for the president probably didn’t hurt.

Of course, he didn’t take the blame for this snafu, pulling an old excuse from the Trump playbook.

“Earlier today while working on the farm, my phone began going crazy because of a post made by a member of my comms team. The post was stupid, hurtful and a complete distraction from my America First focus. The employee has been reprimanded,” Ogles said.

It’s nice when the buck stops here.

First, he started the statement with a dangling modifier. Phones don’t cut hay or feed cows. 

Second, and more importantly, considering Ogles’ penchant for bending the truth – mainly with his resume and campaign finance reports – we wonder whether he authorized the post and simply told the staffer to send it out.

He also appears to be testing the boundaries of acceptable speech. Ogles has attacked Muslims and immigrants in previous posts but didn’t run into resistance until piling on to his spate of hate.

Who knows? The House Republican Caucus probably has a few gay members.

“Yes on 2” after all

Democratic Rep. Bob Freeman was stumped this week when called about serving as chairman of the Davidson County campaign for Tennessee’s “Yes on 2” drive to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting a state property tax.

Tennessee lawmakers push ban on state property tax

Not only did he say he didn’t know what this reporter was talking about when asked about being the only legislative Democrat listed on a release as county chair for the campaign, he said he wasn’t serving as Davidson County’s chairman.

Two days later, he was back in the hunt. Organizers say he agreed to chair the drive for the Nov. 3 election.

“We’re excited that it’s bipartisan,” said Jim Brown, Tennessee director of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Freeman updated his comment Thursday, saying he will “accept the role as chairman” and “support the cause.”

With that in mind, this reporter is going out on a limb without a ladder and predicting the ballot question will pass. County and city property taxes are enough.

“Keep on rolling, keep on rolling / Roll, roll with the changes.” *

* REO Speedwagon, “Roll With the Changes”