State Rep. Mike Carter (R-TN-29) has written a letter to his Tennessee House colleagues asking that he be considered for Speaker of the House, multiple media outlets reported.
According to The Tennessee Journal: On the Hill, the Ooltewah Republican’s letter included the following:
Today I am writing to request your support to serve as your Speaker. I am not asking you to serve me. I am asking for the high honor to serve you and the state of Tennessee.
I state this now, no Chairmanship, no Vice-Chairmanship, nor any other title or position currently held shall be removed. To allow that would give our opponents an opportunity to claim that any removal of a title is reflective of some conduct unbecoming of that representative. Considering what we have been through and realizing that conservative leadership is essential to the progress of Tennessee, we must balance every appearance against the effect on the reelection of our members.
I will form a PAC for the benefit of the members and work diligently to restore confidence with our contributors. I will assist the Caucus Chairman whenever he feels the office of Speakership is helpful for raising money.
The entire letter is available from the Journal.
Casada said that he will meet with Republican Caucus leaders after a vacation to determine the best date to resign as speaker, the Chattanooga Times Free Press said.
The newspaper said:
But Carter said in an interview that Casada’s statement “left me with more questions than answers. No date was given, and there was no statement that he would resign [from] the House as well as his speaker position.”
If Casada remains in the House, Carter said, “it would be difficult to work with him after you voted no confidence, and it could fractionalize the Republican Caucus.” Moreover, the attorney said, removing Casada as a representative “may be essential to his removal as speaker.”
WRCB quoted Carter as saying about Casada, “If he is going to resign, he just needs to say he is going to resign.”
Carter said he was filing a petition for a Special Session of Legislature that would remove Casada from the House immediately.
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Background Photo “Tennessee House Floor” by Ichabod. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Interesting that he is one of the small group of Representatives pushing for Casada to resign … and now it is revealed that he wants to be Speaker. Suspicious “coincidence” & unbecoming of a statesman.