State Sen. Mike Williams (Maynardville), the legislature's lone independent, has told NashvillePost.com he will seek re-election.
Williams filed papers to do so prior to last week's deadline but declined to guarantee that he would be a candidate, saying he wanted to wait until today to make his decision. He had until noon today to withdraw his name from consideration on the November ballot.
The news that Williams will be a candidate is likely to be welcomed by his former colleagues in the Republican Party. Although he had been a member of the GOP caucus for most of his 17 years in the legislature, he gained the ire of his caucus for backing former Democratic Lt. Gov. John Wilder in leadership contests.
Williams was not the only member of the GOP who cast votes for Wilder in the Senate, but his ongoing disputes with current Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey was enough to cause him to leave the caucus.
When Williams announced last year that he was bolting the GOP, State Sen. Paul Stanley (R-Memphis) brazenly declared that, come election time, it would be "hunting season" in the East Tennessee district. Stanley will now get his chance to see Hancock County.
The Republican candidate for the seat is attorney Mike Faulk of Church Hill.
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