CAPITOL VIEW
By Pat Nolan, NEWSCHANNNEL5 Political Analyst
August 18, 2023
MAYORAL RUNOFF CANDIDATE ALICE ROLLI ON INSIDE POLITICS; A WEEK OF STAFF DISTRACTIONS FOR ROLLI AND A CHALLENGE FOR O’CONNELL; SINE DIE; ANOTHER MONTH ANOTHER INDICTMENT FOR FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP; WILL THE SPECIAL SESSION BE SPECIAL AT ALL?
MAYORAL RUNOFF CANDIDATE ALICE ROLLI ON INSIDE POLITICS
By this time next week, early voting will have begun for Nashville’s runoff election set for Thursday September 14.
Last week we had one of the two candidates for mayor, progressive Metro Councilman Freddie O’Connell, as our guest on INSIDE POLITICS.
This week we welcome the second candidate in the race, conservative businesswoman Alice Rolli.
We welcome Alice to the program.
As we did last week, our interview with Alice Rolli will air first at 6:30 P.M. on WTVF-TV Channel 5, the main channel of the NEWSCHANNEL5 NETWORK.
INSIDE POLITICS can be seen as well on its regular weekly schedule on NEWSCHANNEL5 PLUS.
Those times include:
7:00 p.m. Friday.
5:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
1:30 a.m. & 5:00 a.m. on Sunday.
THE PLUS is on Comcast Cable channel 250, Charter Cable channel 182 and on NEWSCHANNEL5’s over-the-air digital channel 5.2. We are also on DISH TV with the rest of the NEWSCHANNEL5 NETWORK.
One option for those who cannot see the show locally, or who are out of town, you can watch it live with streaming video on NEWSCHANNEL5.com. Just use your TiVo or DVR, if those live times don't work for you.
This week’s show and previous INSIDE POLITICS interviews are also posted on the NEWSCHANNEL5 website for your viewing under the NEWSCHANNEL5 PLUS section. A link to the show is posted as well on the Facebook page of NEWSCHANNEL5 PLUS. Each new show and link are posted early in the week after the program airs. I am also posting a link to the show each week on my Facebook page.
A WEEK OF STAFF DISTRACTIONS FOR ROLLI AND A CHALLENGE FOR O’CONNELL
We discussed this development in our INSIDE POLITICS interview.
Alice Rolli had to spend much of the week off her key campaign message of why she thinks she is the best candidate to be mayor.
Instead, she had announced why she fired one of her top advisors, Woodrow Johnson and his Shane consulting firm, because of ties to the Proud Boys, an exclusively male North American far-right neo-fascist militant organization that promotes and engages in political violence.
Rolli says she took the action as soon as she learned of that tie, but the consultant says he told her about the Proud Boys connection months ago when they first met. He says he and his firm resigned last weekend over differences about the ongoing campaign.
Campaign finance records show Rolli has paid the consulting firm over $250,000. Another news report says the Proud Boys tie to the firm can be found through a simple Google search. The controversy raises questions on how well the Rolli campaign vetted this hire.
Meanwhile, with the Metro Council’s 24-14 vote Tuesday night for the city to move ahead with a full blown license plate reader (LPR) program to fight crime, Councilman and mayoral candidate Freddie O’Connell’s no vote on the bill, opens the opportunity for Alice Rolli to attack him as being “soft on crime.”
Rolli has been claiming Nashville has a growing rate of violent crime and is becoming like many other large cities with Democratic mayors. O’Connell indicated he opposed extending the LPR program because it lacks the “guard rails” the program needs to protect the privacy of Nashville residents and to prevent “over-policing” in black and brown neighborhoods.
But his vote raises other questions if O’Connell is elected. Metro Police Chief John Drake was active in supporting the LPR extension. Will that create a rift between the Chief and a Mayor O’Connell? There are still more votes ahead for the new mayor and council to approve an RFP for the program , and to select the operator of the LPR system and buy all the cameras and other equipment needed. Will a Mayor O’Connell work quickly to move the LPR effort forward despite opposition from his progressive allies and in the new Metro Council, a body which appears will be even more progressive leaning than the current 40-member body?
There is one other political thunder cloud that remains on the horizon. Republican Super Majority leaders have indicated, if Nashville didn’t approve an LPR program, the Legislature would impose their own from on high. Now even if Nashville is seemingly moving ahead on the matter, will GOP lawmakers find the guard rails and other restrictions in the Nashville, LPR plan so onerous, they will nullify it and pass their own law to mandate what they want? Is it here we go again in the next chapter of the feud between the General Assembly and Nashville?
Several lawsuits are already in the courts as a part of this feud. And this week in the news, we saw another reason why Nashville has amenities the state covets. Southwest Airlines announced it is expanding its crew base here along with adding new gates at Nashville’s International Airport. Certainly, this gives state officials, who say they control the local Airport Authority, the right to brag on how well the Nashville Airport is doing, even though they are newbies to running the Airport and have historically contributed little to the process.
SINE DIE
Tuesday, August 15 marked the final meeting of the 15th Metro Council after an historic, eventful and tumultuous four-year term.
It was my last meeting too.
Announcing the television coverage of the Council sessions was my first job in television, beginning in July 1973 and ending in May 1985 when I went to work in the mayor's office.
I did some fill-in work on Council broadcasts in the following years. Then I decided to try to return full time in August 2019. I have done another 4 years on the broadcast for a total of 16 years spread out over five decades.
But as I approach being 72 later this year, it's time to let go. I have always enjoyed the work, but the late- night hours, with adjournments often well after midnight, at the end 6 or7 hour meetings, I don't want to do that for another four-year term. Even last night’s final meeting lasted until after 1:00 A.M.
But I do leave with one very special memory of that final Council meeting. Early on in the session, Vice Mayor Jim Shulman announced that this was my last broadcast and thanked me what I added to the meetings. The full Council responded with a 10-15 second standing ovation which left me stunned. All I could do was wave and say thank you. I also tried not to cry I was so touched.
So clearly, this is the best time to say farewell and continue to concentrate on my work at NEWSCHANNEL5.
ANOTHER MONTH ANOTHER INDICTMENT FOR FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
For the fourth time in the last five months, former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a grand jury. This time, it is a citizen’s panel in Atlanta, GA.
With Mr. Trump now facing a total of 91 felony counts, here is how this state case is the same, but different…and perhaps more challenging for the former President and his 18 co-defendants compared to the other indictments.
Of course, even as the legal counts and challenges grow, nothing seems to blunt Mr. Trump’s momentum in securing the 2024 Republican presidential nomination He remains far ahead of his challengers. The former President came to Nashville this week (Thursday) for a likely very successful fundraiser. He was expected to be joined by some of the state’s top GOP elected officials, who have already endorsed him.
But a new poll shows a different story from voters concerning the 2024 general election in November of next year.
Next week the national Republican Party is sponsoring a nationally televised debate (FOX) among its presidential candidates. The big question is will Trump participate? And if he doesn’t, will anyone watch?
Is the real reason the former president is being coy about the debate (besides showmanship) because to be on stage, he must sign a pledge to support the GOP nominee, whoever that is? So far, Trump is refusing to sign the pledge putting party officials in a bind.
The same poll that shows a large majority of voters won’t support Donald Trump in November 2024, also shows a smaller majority that won’t vote for current Democratic President Joe Biden. The President has his own legal challenges because of his son, Hunter Biden, who is now facing the scrutiny of a Special Prosecutor into his business affairs. The move to appoint the special prosecutor comes after a plea bargain deal seems to have fallen apart.
President Biden seemed to suffer a lapse this weekend. After seeming to be keenly attuned to the American president’s role as being “comforter in chief” at a time of a national tragedy and sorrow, he blew it when first asked about the deadly wildfires in Hawaii. He is now trying to quickly catch up.
Other celebrities, some with homes in Aloha State, are trying to reach out to help those in need. That includes one of Nashville’s favorite former residents, Oprah Winfrey. Good for her! Of course, this is the era of craziness and just plain meanness in spreading lies and false conspiracy theories on internet and social media. We all deserve better than this on-line garbage!
Honors continue to pour in to remember the saintly life of Nashville’s Charles Strobel. Many who have led noteworthy life are noted with their obituary printed in THE NEW YORK TIMES. Charlie did even better than that. His life was honored in a full column!
And there this even longer salute. It is a nearly hour- long podcast that showcases an extended interview, conducted in 2020, with the former Catholic priest, and founder of the ROOM IN THE INN program.
WILL THE SPECIAL SESSION BE SPECIAL AT ALL?
On Monday afternoon, August 21, the Tennessee General Assembly is being called back to Nashville by Governor Bill Lee for a special session on public safety.
But will the session be special? It was first mentioned by the Governor in the wake of the Covenant School mass shooting in late March, which left six dead, including three nine-year-olds.
But the gun lobby has done its work. There are very few gun-related bills on the lawmaker’s agenda, even though a new government study shows the epidemic of gun violence in Tennessee is getting worse, especially for our children.
There is one bill that sponsors say should get support from all sides (even though it doesn’t seem to have a sponsor in the Senate). But while the penalty for making threats of mass violence or gun crimes should be a felony, not just a misdemeanor, what took so long to get us to come together on doing that?
