Speaker of The House
In 1987, the Republicans in the State House elected B. Bradford Barnes of Bridgeville Speaker. However, Barnes died in office shortly thereafter. Spence, who had entered the State House in the same year as Barnes, was then selected to succeed Barnes as Speaker. He has served in that capacity ever since, and is the longest serving Speaker of the House in the history of the Delaware General Assembly. He has also held the position of Speaker longer than any current Speaker of any state legislature in the United States.
In 2006, Spence and Majority Leader Wayne Smith were opposed for their leadership positions in the Republican Caucus by Joseph W. Booth and Richard C. Cathcart, respectively. However, Republicans in the Delaware State House retained their majority and lost only two seats in the 2006 elections that saw multiple Republican losses throughout the country. House Republicans elected to stay with the leadership that had led them through the tumultuous election. After being re-elected Speaker, Spence, rather than punishing Booth and Cathcart, appointed both to the powerful Appropriations and Joint Finance committees.
Read more about this topic: Terry R. Spence
Famous quotes containing the words speaker and/or house:
“I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of today. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The glance is natural magic. The mysterious communication established across a house between two entire strangers, moves all the springs of wonder. The communication by the glance is in the greatest part not subject to the control of the will. It is the bodily symbol of identity with nature. We look into the eyes to know if this other form is another self, and the eyes will not lie, but make a faithful confession what inhabitant is there.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)