Last week Sal DiMasi sailed to another term as Speaker of the Massachusetts House, but there was a far more interesting leadership vote in Nashville yesterday. Republicans outnumber Democrats 50-49 in the Tennessee House, but the Democrats hijacked the vote for Speaker in that chamber, voting unanimously for a moderate Republican (who naturally voted for himself) and thus blocking the GOP’s more conservative choice. The Nashville Post reported on the maneuvering in a story with the subhead “Rep. Kent Willams met with boos after pulling off shocking win.”

It wasn’t quite as dramatic, but cross-party voting caused the election of at least one Speaker in Massachusetts: Tom Finneran, who upset fellow Democrat Richard Voke in 1996 thanks to the votes of Republicans in the House. The Boston Globe’s Adrian Walker provided a history lesson in a 1998 story:

Finneran ascended to the speaker’s chair two years ago in an unconventional manner. Locked in a battle with former House Majority Leader Richard A. Voke to succeed Charles F. Flaherty as speaker, Finneran, a lifelong Democrat, courted Republican legislators and, with their support, won election by a vote of 91-67.

He has been consolidating his control since, emerging as the most powerful speaker since John Thompson, the Iron Duke, ran Beacon Hill in the 1960s.