Tennessee State Senate

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The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the Tennessee state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly.

The Tennessee Senate, according to the state constitution of 1870, is composed of 33 members, one-third the size of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Senators are to be elected from districts of substantially equal population. According to the constitution a county is not to be joined to a portion of another county for purposes of creating a district; this provision has been overridden by the rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States in Baker v. Carr (369 US 182 1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (337 U.S. 356 1964) The Tennessee constitution has been amended to allow that if these rulings are ever changed or reversed, a referendum may be held to allow the senate districts to be drawn on a basis other than substantially equal population.

Until 1966, Tennessee state senators served two-year terms. That year the system was changed, by constitutional amendment, to allow four-year terms. In that year, senators in even-numbered districts were elected to two-year terms and those in odd-numbered districts were elected to four-year terms. This created a staggered system in which only half of the senate is up for election at any one time. Districts are to be sequentially and consecutively numbered; the scheme basically runs from east to west and north to south.

Republicans attained an elected majority in the Senate in the 104th General Assembly (2005-2006) for the first time since Reconstruction; a brief majority in the 1990s was the result of two outgoing senators switching parties.

The senate elects one of its own members as Speaker; the Speaker automatically becomes Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee. The current Speaker of the Senate and Lieutenant Governor is Republican Ron Ramsey, who was elected to the position in 2007, succeeding John S. Wilder, who had held the post since 1971. Although the Republican Party had attained a one-member majority in the November 2004 election, Wilder, a Democrat, had held his seat due to the support of some Republicans.

[edit] Make up of Tennessee Senate, 106th General Assembly (2009-2010)

Affiliation Members
  Republican Party 19
  Democratic Party 14
 Total
33
 Majority
5
District Name Party
1st Steve Southerland Rep
2nd Ron Ramsey Rep
3rd Rusty Crowe Rep
4th Mike Faulk Rep
5th Randy McNally Rep
6th Jamie Woodson Rep
7th Tim Burchett Rep
8th Doug Overbey Rep
9th Dewayne Bunch Rep
10th Andy Berke Dem
11th Bo Watson Rep
12th Ken Yager Rep
13th Bill Ketron Rep
14th Eric Stewart Dem
15th Charlotte Burks Dem
16th Jim Tracy Rep
17th Mae Beavers Rep
18th Diane Black Rep
19th Thelma Harper Dem
20th Joe M. Haynes Dem
21st Douglas Henry Dem
22nd Tim Barnes Dem
23rd Jack Johnson Rep
24th Roy Herron Dem
25th Doug Jackson Dem
26th Dolores Gresham Rep
27th Lowe Finney Dem
28th James F. Kyle, Jr. Dem
29th Ophelia Ford Dem
30th Beverly Marrero Dem
31st Paul Stanley Rep
32nd Mark Norris Rep
33rd Reginald Tate Dem


Officers

[edit] External links

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