On February 8, the Tennessee Republican Party expelled the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kent Williams, from the party. See this story in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Now, unless the party takes him back, he must run for re-election in 2010 as an independent (or, possibly as a Democrat, should he become a Democrat).
Tennessee does not have registration by party. It seems likely that the speaker is the first Independent to head up a state legislative body in the United States in decades, perhaps since before World War I. There are now 49 Republicans, 49 Democrats, and one independent in the Tennessee House.
That is good news; there is one less Republican office holder in this country now. The GOP will be a minor-sized party by the year 2012, anyway.
How do we do this for Specter, Collins, and Snow?
Let me see here, Harry Johns: You want to expel the only three Republican Senators who are showing some common sense (except for the fact that they remain in the GOP)? They really should bail out anyway because your ship is going down like the Titanic. The Republican Party will be a minor sized party by the year 2012.