Robin Smith ‘encouraged’ to run for House speaker
NASHVILLE — State Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, says she’s getting “encouraged” by some fellow Republicans as well as business people to run to replace current Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, who says he will resign his post in June after the GOP Caucus approved a no-confidence resolution this week.
“While I’m flattered, I have not announced that I’m running,” said Smith, a former Tennessee Republican Party chairwoman, political and business consultant and freshman representative, in an interview. “I’m watching. I’m not saying I would never run, but at this time, I’m watching.”
She noted that “No. 1, there’s not been a resignation. There’s not anything that’s been announced. And we all know a day in politics is as a thousand years. It’s almost biblical.”
“I’m getting a lot of calls from people,” she said. “I’ve had six members to talk with me about seriously considering running. I’ve had several business folks call me and ask about seriously running because of the understanding that I have about business, project management and things like that in the business world.”
Moreover, Smith said, “overwhelmingly, people I have heard from have been folks I have worked with over the span of time on grassroots elections.”
She said in the Wednesday evening interview that she is “being encouraged, but I have not made calls.”
On Wednesday, Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, a Casada critic, announced he was running, as did Deputy Speaker Matthew Hill, R-Jonesborough, a Casada ally who was appointed to his post by the now-departing speaker.
The GOP Caucus earlier this week said it no longer had confidence in Casada in a 45-24 vote called amid a sex text messaging scandal and other controversies that had engulfed him after he became speaker in January.
Carter then called for a special session to oust Casada both as speaker and as a representative in the House.
Last week, Carter had charged in a letter that he believed Casada had sought to “rig and predetermine” the outcome of a proposed Ethics Committee advisory opinion the speaker sought on his dealings with ex-aide Cade Cothren.
In explicit text messages later leaked to Nashville news organizations, Cothren boasted about his sexual escapades in a text string that included Casada and a former political operative the speaker described as “disgruntled.”
Casada had responded jokingly or approvingly to three of the texts. But other controversies blew up for the speaker, as well.
During Monday’s closed-door GOP Caucus meeting, Carter spoke out against Casada. Meanwhile, Smith had argued during the meeting that caucus members instead should censure Casada, saying the provision was a remedy under GOP rules, while the no-confidence vote is not mentioned.
A few days before the vote, Smith said she was working on two bills aimed at changing the Tennessee Capitol’s culture, one of them being a one-alcoholic-drink limit at the receptions sponsored by various special interests.
Smith said based on “what I’m hearing from the business folks that I’m speaking with, they don’t understand how people have been in office and yet they have not changed the culture” on Tennessee’s Capitol Hill.
Moreover, Smith said, “the things I probably heard at least four times in our comments back and forth when people were talking about the need to remove [Casada] and to do that and change things — we all promised to come to Nashville and not let Nashville change us. But it has.”
Meanwhile, the race is likely to get more crowded.
House Speaker Pro Tem Bill Dunn of Knoxville said he expects to announce a decision soon on whether he will run.
Others looking at the contest include former Speaker Pro Tem Curtis Johnson, R-Clarksville; GOP Caucus Chairman Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville; former caucus chairman Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, and Rep. Jerry Sexton, R-Bean Station.
“While I’m flattered, I have not announced that I’m running. I’m watching. I’m not saying I would never run, but at this time, I’m watching.” – ROBIN SMITH