John Shelton Wilder (born 1921) has served as Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee since 1971. 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee is the Speaker of the Tennessee State Senate and first in line in the succession to the office of Governor of Tennessee in the event of the death, resignation, or removal from office through impeachment and conviction of the Governor. ... 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ...

Wilder is from Fayette County, Tennessee. He is from an affluent family with extensive agricultural and agribusiness interests. He and his family were known for fairer dealings with black farm employees and tenants than was typical of the area during the segregation era. During this time, Fayette County was one of only two Tennessee counties with a black majority, so this fact served him very well upon entering into elective politics at about the time that Tennessee blacks in rural areas were first being allowed their constitutional rights to participate in political decisions which had been guaranteed under the Tennessee and federal constitutions but previously unenforced. Wilder is also a prominent attorney in Somerville, Tennessee, county seat of Fayette County. His law degree is from the former Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis. Fayette County is a county located in the state of Tennessee. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... Segregation means separation. ... State nickname: Volunteer State Other U.S. States Capital Nashville Largest city Memphis (largest metropolitan area is Nashville) Governor Phil Bredesen Official languages English Area 109,247 km² (36th)  - Land 106,846 km²  - Water 2,400 km² (2. ... Rural areas are sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities and towns. ... An attorney is someone who represents someone else in the transaction of business: For attorney-at-law, see lawyer, solicitor, barrister or civil law notary. ... Somerville is a town located in Fayette County, Tennessee. ... The University of Memphis was founded in Memphis, TN in 1912 as the West Tennessee Normal School. ...

Wilder is a U.S. Army veteran of World War II. He was a member of the former Fayette County Quarterly Court (now referred to as the County Commission) for eighteen years. A Democrat, he was first elected to the Tennessee State Senate in 1958, serving until 1960. He ran again in 1966, winning another two-year term in the state Senate. After this point, a state constitutional amendment extended the length of terms in that body to four years. Wilder was elected to a four-year state Senate term in 1968. He represents Senate District 26. The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... The Democratic Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... The Tennessee State Senate is the upper house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the formal name of the Tennessee state legislature. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...

He was elected Lieutenant Governor by his fellow Senators in January, 1971, an event reported by at least one Nashville political reporter and commentator as "The Democrats get Wilder!" (The same vote also automatically under Tennessee law made him Speaker of the Senate.) He was the first Lieutenant Governor in almost half a century to serve under a Governor of a different political party, Republican Winfield Dunn, who had been elected the previous November. This was important, as the Democrats in the state legislature, having just regained control of the Tennessee House of Representatives, set out to make their control of that body an offset to the power of the Governor. Prior to this time, the General Assembly had never had its own independent staff, or even its own offices, frequently working out of hotel rooms. Now a massive building project (which somewhat ironically entailed the demolition of one of the hotels that many legislators had previously favored) was undertaken to correct this and make the legislative branch of state government more co-equal to the other two. January is the first month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... For other cities named Nashville, see Nashville (disambiguation). ... Law (a loanword from Old Norse lag), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow... The term Speaker is usually the title given to the presiding officer of a countrys lower house of parliament or congress (i. ... A governor is also a device that regulates the speed of a machine. ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... Bryant Winfield Culberson Dunn (born July 1, 1927) was governor of Tennessee from 1971 to 1975. ... November is the eleventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... Chamber of the Estates-General, the Dutch legislature. ... The Tennessee House of Representatives, in American politics, is the lower house of the state legislature of Tennessee, formally called the Tennessee General Assembly. ... The Tennessee General Assembly is the formal name of the legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... A hotel is an establishment that provides lodging, usually on a short-term basis. ... Adolf Hitler: layered visual irony? What is Irony? Irony is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used. ...

Wilder defied the established precedent by seeking to serve as Lieutenant Governor for an extended period. By the mid-1980s many of the members of the Senate Democratic Caucus had tired of his leadership. There were also regional issues at stake as well – by this point the speakers of both houses of the legislature had been from West Tennessee for almost two decades. The dissident faction coalesced around the leadership of State Senator Riley Darnell from Clarksville in Middle Tennessee, who had served as Senate Majority Leader. When Darnell received the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor in 1987, Wilder's long tenure as Lieutenant Governor appeared to be over. However, in a surprise (but not entirely unprecedented) move, Wilder was then nominated by the Republican Caucus for Lieutenant Governor. With the support of all fifteen Republicans in the chamber, and six dissenting Democrats, Wilder won the vote 21 – 15 and then proceeded to organize the Senate on a "bipartisan" basis, awarding a majority of the committee chairmanships to his Democratic loyalists, the rest to Republicans. Since then, Wilder, until 2005, continued to be reelected "unanimously" and to award chairmanships to his supporters in both parties, making the Tennessee Senate one of the few legislative bodies in the world to be elected on a partisan basis, but organized on a more-or-less nonpartisan one. Even when two outgoing state Senators switched parties in the mid-1990s, giving the Republicans a short-lived one-seat Senate majority, nothing of consequence changed. Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... A caucus is most generally defined as being a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement. ... West Tennessee is one of the three traditional regions in the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... Riley C. Darnell (born May 13, 1940) is Secretary of State for the state of Tennessee. ... Clarksville is a city located in Montgomery County, Tennessee. ... Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to law as well as custom. ... 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In U.S. politics, nonpartisan denotes an election in which the candidates do not declare or do not formally have a political party affiliation. ... In politics, party switching is any change in party affiliation of a partisan public figure, usually one who is currently holding elected office. ... Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ...

This coalition has made Wilder one of the longest-serving (reputedly the longest) freely-elected legislative leaders in the world. It has also made it awkward for Republicans to oppose him for reelection to the state Senate every four years, and in fact, many do not, and often even assist him in fundraising to ward off his Republican opponents. He at one point apparently promised to make 2004 his last race and then to retire; recently he seems to be backing away from this. Republicans were split on opposing him again, some working vigorously for his defeat, others working with equal ardor on his behalf. On November 2, 2004, Wilder was reelected to another term in the Tennessee State Senate. However, statewide the Democratic Party lost control of the state senate, albeit by only a one-seat margin. This meant that if the Republicans could have established true party discipline, they could have chosen either to retain Wilder or replace him; however, since several incumbent Republicans who were either reelected or whose terms did not expire in this election cycle were known to be allies and close friends of Wilder, the outcome that was considered to be most likely by most close observers was that these Republicans would join with the Democratic minority to continue Wilder's working majority and that he would be reelected Lieutenant Governor. At least one Nashville television station had theorized that Wilder would actually switch parties before or at the start of the next session in order to maintain his power, but others suggested that this was unlikely and that he would probably remain a nominal Democrat but would appoint Republican majorities to committees and all or most of the chairmen will be Republicans; by mid-November 2004 this was regarded to be by far the most likely outcome, despite some telephone calls to Wilder's Republican supporters from United States Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. In December 2004 the executive committee of the Tennessee Republican Party announced that sanctions were possible for Republican legislative members who cast votes for Democrats for organizational purposes. (These votes are open, not secret ballots). These were potentially to include party endorsement of opposing candidates in future primary elections. This was a major policy change, as traditionally the Tennessee Republican Party has made no endorsements in contested primary elections. Nonetheless, two Republican members of the Tennessee State Senate – enough to assure Wilder's reelection provided his traditional unanimous Democratic support in recent years – voted for Wilder on January 11, 2005, assuring him another two-year term as lieutenant governor, his 18th. Wilder then appointed Republican majorities to seven of the nine committees but left the five existing Democratic chairmen in place; this resulted in Democratic majorities and chairs on two committees, including what is regarded as the most important one, the Senate Finance Committee, which left many Republicans very upset. Asked about this unusual arrangement, Wilder was quoted in the Nashville City Paper as saying, "Nobody needs control of the Senate. The Senate needs to be the Senate," which seems to be a typical Wilder quote that sums up his seemingly-minimalist philosophy of government and perhaps of life as well. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 2 is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 59 days remaining. ... Party discipline is the ability of a political party to get its members to support the policies of the party leadership. ... 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December See also: November 2004 in sports November 2004 in science Deaths in November • 30 Pierre Berton • 29 John Drew Barrymore • 26 Bill Alley • 24 Arthur Hailey • 23 Rafael Eitan • 18 Bobby Frank Cherry • 16 John Morgan • 13... The Senate Majority Leader is a member of the United States Senate who is elected by his or her party conference to serve as the chief Senate spokesman for his or her party and to manage and schedule the legislative and executive business of the Senate. ... Bill Frist Dr. William Harrison Frist (born February 22, 1952 in Nashville, Tennessee) is a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee and a cardiac surgeon. ... 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in December • 30 Artie Shaw • 29 Julius Axelrod • 28 Jacques Dupuis • 28 Jerry Orbach • 28 Susan Sontag • 26 Reggie White • 26 Sir Angus Ogilvy • 23 P. V. Narasimha Rao • 23 Doug Ault • 19 Renata Tebaldi • 16... A primary election is one in which a political party selects a candidate for a later election by all registered voters in that jurisdiction (nominating primary). ... January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ...

Wilder is a most unusual figure. Unlike many lieutenant governors, particularly in other states, he has never expressed any ambition whatever for higher office. In a now almost-vanished Southern style, he often refers to himself in the third person, as "The Speaker likes being Speaker." He is a cycling enthusiast and has been a licensed private pilot for over a half-century, occasionally still flying himself from Fayette County to Nashville for legislative meetings, a distance of almost 200 miles (320 km). When Republicans recently attacked him for this, claiming that the partial reimbursement that he receives for this has cost the state over $250,000 over the past ten years, his campaign's reply was that much of this travel was to enable him to both to attend to his Senate duties and still be involved in the giving of care to his wife of 63 years, Marcelle, who died in the summer of 2004. In fact, his campaign team has cited an ad on this topic as being the key to his most recent reelection. Wilder often appears feeble, but then expresses a ready dry wit and a remarkable memory for past people and events. He has been known to address the Senate in a long, rambling, stream-of-consciousness style, with frequent references to those now-obscure persons and events. (Perhaps in this he is most like U.S. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia.) He is a unique living human monument to an otherwise almost bygone era. The Southern United States or the South, also known colloquially as Dixie, constitute a distinctive region covering a large portion of the United States, with its own unique heritage, historical perspective, customs, musical styles, and cuisine. ... Cycling is a recreation, a sport, and a means of transport across land. ... The word pilot has several meanings: In shipping, a pilot is someone who guides ships through the waters near a harbour, or especially narrow or otherwise dangerous coastal waters. ... The United States Senate is the upper house of the U.S. Congress, smaller than the United States House of Representatives. ... Robert C. Byrd Robert Carlyle Byrd (born November 20, 1917) is a West Virginia Democrat serving in the United States Senate. ... State nickname: Mountain State Other U.S. States Capital Charleston Largest city Charleston Governor Joe Manchin Official languages English Area 62,809 km² (41st)  - Land 62,436 km²  - Water 376 km² (0. ...

In May 2005, three Tennessee state senators (along with a former state senator, a state representative, and two other political activists) were arrested in an FBI "sting" operation involving corruption called "Operation Tennessee Waltz". (One of the three senators, John N. Ford, subsequently resigned.) Several Tennessee political pundits and editorial writers questioned if whether Wilder's accommodating, low-key leadership style was in some small part responsible for an atmosphere in which this sort of activity was seen as at least somewhat acceptable, although this notion was vehemently rejected by Wilder's supporters. 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in May May 26: Eddie Albert May 25: Ismail Merchant simba the bear May 25: Sunil Dutt May 25: Graham Kennedy May 22: Thurl Ravenscroft May 21: Howard Morris May 21: Subodh Mukherjee May 21: Stephen... Official FBI Seal The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... John Ford Operation Tennessee Waltz was a sting operation set up by federal and state law enforcement agents, including the FBI and TBI, that led to the arrest of seven Tennessee state lawmakers on the morning of May 26, 2005 on bribery charges. ... John Ford (born May 3, 1942) is a funeral director, insurance agent, and consultant in Memphis, Tennessee. ...