NASHVILLE Traditionally an insiders affair, the contest for the Tennessee state Houses most powerful post the speakership has been anything but that this year.
With Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, challenging Republican Speaker Beth Harwell in Wednesdays GOP Caucus election, various tea party groups, anti-Common Core activists and the Tennessee Firearms Association have been bombarding Republican representatives with emails and phone calls in support of Womick.
Just last week, the Tennessee Republican Assembly and the heads of the Chattanooga and Nashville tea parties entered the fray, praising Womick as a true patriot and true conservative and arguing that his elevation to speaker would further the true intention of Tennessee voters as expressed in the recent elections.
The Coalition believes that this level of support should be reflected by a Speaker as conservative as the voters who have made this possible, the group said in its news release.
Efforts to reach Chattanooga Tea Party President Mark West on Monday were unsuccessful.
Harwell is seen as having the upper hand in the 73-member GOP Caucus contest as she seeks a third two-year term. Since Democrats have only 26 seats, the real race is among Republicans.
Womick helped lead a House rebellion last legislative session against Common Core standards and has denounced Republican Gov. Bill Haslam as a self-serving autocrat.
The sometimes-fiery Womick also has attacked now-departing Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman. And he has accused Haslams chief of staff, Mark Cate, of having tried unsuccessfully to recruit GOP candidates to run against him in his House district primary last summer.
That is totally crazy, Cate said in an interview. I had no involvement at all. This is crazy. I have no idea why hes picked us out, but its totally untrue.
Womick has also accused Harwell of having stood by and watched as Cate and other Haslam staffers targeted five other Republican incumbents through a newly created political action committee called Advance PAC.
See the original post here:
Tea party seeks to crash state House speaker race