Senator Mae Beavers was ousted from her role as Republican Senate Caucus Treasurer today in leadership elections, according to TNReport. The other Senate GOP caucus elections kept leaders in their roles, including Ron Ramsey, who will be the GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor and Mark Norris as majority leader. (News release posted HERE.)
The new treasurer will be Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin.
The caucus treasurer plays a key role, particularly in election years. That person has check-writing authority and can send campaign cash to key members fighting to keep their seats or snatch away Democratic ones.
…The Senate vote, in some ways, mirrors last month’s House Republican leadership vote. The only contested race in that race was for the Speaker Pro Tem, the House’s number two spot. Rep. Judd Matheny lost that race to Rep. Curtis Johnson.
Those losses may pull the curtain back a bit on what has appeared have been a united Republican Party since the GOP won supermajorities in both Houses. Both Beavers and Matheny endorsed Lou Ann Zelenik over incumbent US Rep. Diane Black in the 6th Congressional District race. Black has many friends in the General Assembly, where she served in the House from 1998 to 2005 and in the Senate from 2005 until her Congressional win in 2010.
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Note: Haile was named to replace Black in the Senate on an interim basis when she won the seat in Congress. He did not seek election to a full term until this year, when redistricting left the seat without an incumbent. (Sen. Kerry Roberts found himself in a new district with Sen. Jim Summerville of Dickson.)