Harwell: House has votes to expel Durham
NASHVILLE — Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell said Thursday she believes there are sufficient votes in the House to expel embattled Rep. Jeremy Durham, R-Franklin, when lawmakers convene at the state Capitol next week on an unrelated issue.
“I will be supportive of it,” Harwell, R-Nashville, told reporters. “We’ll just have to check with the body as a whole, but I’ll certainly be supportive of it. My guess would be that it would [pass].”
Last week, Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, issued the call for an “extraordinary” session of the General Assembly to fix a state DUI law passed earlier this year that now threatens to cost Tennessee an estimated $60 million in federal highway funding.
As a result, the state House and Senate will be meeting Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week to repeal the DUI sentencing provision that’s landed the state in hot water with the feds.
But being in session also allows Harwell and other representatives to deal with Durham, 32, a one-time rising GOP star engulfed in controversies for nearly a year. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery last summer released results of an investigation that cites 22 women saying Durham sexually harrassed or made inappropriate advances or suggestions to them.
Durham, a former House majority whip before stepping down, also has issues with his state campaign account, and the FBI is reportedly looking into that.
While Haslam’s call is limited to the loss of federal funds on the transportation issue, Harwell said an expulsion motion and vote would be a procedural matter and thus allowable in the special session.
“Well, we just did check with legal counsel and in fact we can because it’s a procedural motion,” the speaker said. “It can be handled under this special session. Nothing else can be. It’s a very limited call. We can’t
address other issues but we can do a procedural movement.”
It would take two thirds of the 99-member chamber to expel Durham.
Durham appeared to suggest in an interview with Nashville television station WKRN later on Thursday that he would attend the special session provided he can “face” the women who have leveled charges against him.
All 22 women spoke with investigators from the attorney general’s office on condition they not be identified.
“If they provide me a legitimate opportunity to present my own evidence and face my accusers, I wouldn’t miss it,” Durham, an attorney, told WKRN. “But it must be fair.”
Durham also added, “They’re trying to expel someone who’s never been charged with a crime and never been the subject of a human resources complaint. The least they could do is give me a fair trial. Simply giving some[one] a few last words before a vote is taken on them sounds more like medieval beheading than anything resembling American constructional principles.”
Article II, Section 12 of the Tennessee Constitution provides that “each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member, but not a second time for the same offence.”
Republican majority lawmakers are also looking to provide the boot to Rep. Joe Armstrong, D-Knoxville, who was recently found guilty by a federal jury of failing to report to the Internal Revenue Service more than $300,000 he made in profits from selling state-issued cigarette stamps he bought in advance of a tobacco-tax hike for which he advocated and voted.
Those insider actions weren’t illegal in and of themselves. But Armstrong’s failure to report the money he made and not pay taxes on it was a crime.
Asked if Durham and Armstrong would be able to present their sides to fellow representatives before any ouster votes, Harwell said, “they would have a few moments to speak, yes.”
The ouster vote would involve only the 99-member House and not the 33-member Senate.
Durham, who lost his Aug. 4 GOP primary election, will leave office on Nov. 8, the general election day. But if he stays in office until then, the two-term incumbent will become eligible for a taxpayer-supported state pension of at least $340 a month, or $4,080 a year, when he reaches retirement age.
House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, earlier this week said Durham and Armstrong should just go and avoid making more of a public spectacle of themselves than they already have.
“The game’s up, and I just hope they both realize that and go out with some dignity rather than go out with a mess — one final mess on their hands,” McCormick said.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @ AndySher1.