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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, that a Referendum may be held to allow the senate districts to be drawn on a basis other than substansially 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. The senate elects one of its own members as Speaker ; the Speaker automatically becomes Lieutenant Governor Of Tennessee . Since 1971 , the office of ''Speaker of the Senate and Lieutenant Governor'' has been held by John S. Wilder of Braden . Wilder has traditionally depended on the support of both Republicans and Democrats for his support; therefore the Tennessee Senate is currently organized on a rather bipartisan basis with members of both parties serving as committee chairs, an unusual situation in a body elected on a partisan basis. The body elected in November 2004 consisted of 17 Republicans and 16 Democrats, the Republicans' first elected majority since Reconstruction ; a brief majority in the 1990s was the result of two outgoing senators switching parties. On February 3 , 2006 State Senator Don McCleary of the 27th District in West Tennessee held a Press Conference in which he Switched switched his party affiliation to Republican. In his press conference he promised to give his campaign contributions back. This gave Republicans a 18-15 majority. MAKE UP OF TENNESSEE SENATE, 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY Officers
The party affiliation and district numbers of Senators are listed after their names in this list. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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