HIGH SCHOOL CIVICS
Part Five: How things have changed

We're going to slip a history lesson into this civics section and talk about how the relationship between the governor and the legislature has changed over the years.

The Tennessee House of Representatives in the 1930s
PHOTO: Tennessee Blue Book, 1939
Before the 1960s the governor of Tennessee was more powerful than he is today. The house and senate met only once every two years and generally rubber-stamped the governor's proposals. If a state representative or state senator wanted to pass any bill, no matter how minor, he or she had to convince the governor it was a good idea. If the governor agreed, the bill would pass. If the governor didn't like the idea, it would probably fail.

State legislators also had no offices and no staffs (and there were no cellular phones back then). Once a state representative or senator got to Nashville, there wasn't really a place for him to work, other than his desk in the house or senate chamber and his hotel room. If he did want to write a complicated bill, there was no legislative staff to help him draft such a bill. He had to either find a Nashville lawyer to help him, or ask the governor's staff for help.
Benton
PHOTO: TN Lobbyists Association
Perhaps the best example of just how powerful the governor was is the following anecdote: In 1946 a U.S. Army veteran named George Oliver Benton was elected to the state senate. Between his election and his swearing-in ceremony, he received a call from the office of Tennessee Governor Jim McCord. "Would you like to be the Speaker of the Senate?" the gubernatorial aide asked. "Sure I would," Benton said.

A few weeks later Benton was elected by his fellow senators to be Speaker of the Senate (a position synonymous with Lieutenant Governor in Tennessee). He eventually learned that Governor McCord chose him to be Speaker of the Senate because Benton was a political rookie and knew almost nothing about the process; the governor didn't want to have to deal with a powerful Speaker of the Senate. McCord, who had not gone to World War II, was also nervous about the potential power of all the returning veterans. With a veteran and political neophyte as Speaker of the Senate, McCord could run the legislature and address the veteran problem in one stroke. And, by the way, when Governor McCord told the other members of the state senate to vote for Benton, they did just that.

(By the way, the source of this anecdote was Benton himself, who later became a lobbyist and who died in 2001.)
Legislative Plaza is an underground "building" that can be reached by walking through the covered area to the right of this sign.
Through a series of events, things changed tremendously in the late 1960s and early 1970s. By 1975 the Tennessee General Assembly had broken away from the governor's control and had begun making independent decisions about what bills to pass and who to elect to the positions of house and senate speaker.  A major part of this process was the construction of a new (underground) legislative office building, now known as Legislative Plaza. With the construction of Legislative Plaza and the conversion of the War Memorial Building next door into legislative use, the Tennessee General Assembly had, for the first time, offices for every member and committee rooms in which to meet. Prior to that time, legislative committees often met in Nashville hotels.
The Tennessee Senate in the mid 1990s
A few other changes during this era included:

* A dramatic increase in the number of African-American lawmakers because of the Voting Rights Act of 1964
* A shift in power from rural to urban areas largely because of changes wrought by the Baker vs. Carr lawsuit (more on that later)
* An increase in legislative pay
* A shift from Democratic domination of the state to more of a two-party system
* Annual meetings of the General Assembly, instead of meeting once every two years

The office of State Senator Doug Jackson of Dickson
Today, the Tennessee governor is still a powerful person. The budget the governor submits in January of every year, for instance, still passes much the way he submitted it. On those occasions when the governor vetoes a bill, the legislature rarely chooses to override it. In fact, a few years ago, when the legislature voted to override a veto by Governor Don Sundquist, no one could remember the last time the legislature had done it.
Senators Bo Watson (Chattanooga) and Mark Norris (Memphis)
But today, unlike the old days, individual legislators have the power to propose and pass bills that the governor doesn't necessarily agree with. Unlike the old days, each lawmaker has his or her own office, a phone, and people to help write bills. And, unlike the old days, the legislature meets every year, instead of every other year.

Now we're going to shift our attention to talk about another group of people who play an important role at Legislative Plaza -- and those are lobbyists. Click here.

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