NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In Music City, we're all used to putting in the work to land those hard-to-get tickets. But we're willing to bet you wouldn't consider the Tennessee Legislature to be one of them.
In a new rule from House Republicans, the East Gallery's 120 seats are still open to the general public and are considered first come, first served. But over on the the west side, those 128 seats now require a special ticket.
"You’re allowing more public to be here, not less public to be here," argued Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville.)
"This is very similar to how other state houses do it, and especially to how Congress does it," said Rep. William Lamberth, (R-Portland) and House Majority Leader.
Here's how it works. Every member of the House gets one ticket per day and can give it to whomever they choose. But to invite bigger groups, it'll require members to convince other members to donate their seats.
"The members can talk back and forth and get the number of tickets they need for that day — and you can actually work across the aisle," said Sexton.
But Democrats, who make up less than a third of the membership, worry they won't actually get cooperation.
"There’s 75 of them, so they get 75 tickets compared to our 24 so I don’t see the fairness there," said Rep. John Ray Clemmons, (D-Nashville) and Democratic House Caucus Chairman.
"Every single member has one ticket, that’s not going to change," said Sexton. "If they pick up more seats, they get more tickets. If they lose seats, they get less tickets. How is that not fair? How is that not fair?"
"If I don’t have a guest coming that day, I’m going to be more than happy for my ticket to go to a group that’s coming," volunteered Rep. Lamberth.
Democrats also contend they didn't get much notice about the change. Minority Leader Karen Camper (D-Memphis) told reporters she got a call about the concept on Monday. By Tuesday morning, it was the new rule.
"I think it was about an hour before when they delivered them to us, so I didn’t realize he was getting ready to roll it out," explained Rep. Camper.
By the sound of it, it's a debate that isn't going away anytime soon.
"Trying to say anything is limited here to the public I think is ridiculous," said Sexton.
The Tennessee Senate's spectator policy has not changed. All of their seats are still first come, first served.
With new technology comes new ways to help people. This story shows a great use of AI that is starting to be rolled out in Tennessee. This one can help those who may be blind, deaf or neurodiverse navigate the Tennessee State Library and Archives from an app on their smart phone.
-Lelan Statom
