House Speaker Beth Harwell presides over a floor session in Nashville in this file photo.
The anonymously photoshopped picture.NASHVILLE – State Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, is disavowing anonymous emails portraying Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell and two key legislative allies as puppets on a string controlled by the House clerk.
In an email to House members, Womick, who hopes to unseat Harwell as speaker in the Dec. 10 Republican Caucus meeting, said he will “not allow” his challenge “to degrade into a campaign centered around character assassination.”
“While I appreciate the efforts of undisclosed supporters across the state, I am not responsible, do not condone, and do not support these, or any future emails, that degrade, attack, or misrepresent the character of any individual associated with the Tennessee House of Representatives,” he wrote.
The image is one of several winding up in Republicans’ email. The puppet email simply says, “Tennessee deserves leaders who won’t have their strings pulled. Be there. Vote Rick.”
But it features a of a grinning House Clerk Joe McCord, a former Republican House member, pasted on to a body holding marionette strings with the faces of Harwell, House Finance Committee Chairman Charles Sargent, R-Franklin; House Speaker Pro Tem Curtis Johnson, R-Clarksville, and former Republican Caucus Chairman Debra Maggart crudely slapped onto dangling puppets.