CAPITOL VIEW
By Pat Nolan, NEWSCHANNEL 5 Political Analyst
May 19, 2023
MAYOR’S RACE QUALIFYING DEADLINE PASSES WITH A DOUBLE DIGIT NUMBER OF CANDIDATES IN THE FIELD; THE TENNESSEAN’S DAVID PLAZA ANALYZES FIRST CANDIDATE DEBATE ON INSIDE POLITICS; A LARGE FIELD DOMINATES THE METRO ELECTION; ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CASTS POTENTIALLY DARK SHADOW IN FUTURE ELECTIONS; ALMOST TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER, NASHVILLE’S BOMBED OUT HISTORIC SECOND AVENUE IS BEGINNING TO RE-EMERGE; CONTROVERSIAL BELLE MEADE PLAZA REZONING OVERWHELMINGLY APPROVED BY METRO COUNCIL; THE STATE TAKEOVER OF NASHVILLE’S GOVERNMENT CONTINUES WEEKS AFTER THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOURNS; GUN REFORM ACTIVITY CONTINUES WITH SPECIAL SESSION LOOMING IN AUGUST; THE DEBT LIMIT CRISIS CONTINUES WITH THE NATION ANOTHER WEEK CLOSER TO DEFAULT AND WITH NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT
MAYOR’S RACE QUALIFYING DEADLINE PASSES WITH A DOUBLE-DIGIT NUMBER OF CANDIDATES IN THE FIELD; THE TENNESSEAN’S DAVID PLAZA ANALYZES FIRST CANDIDATE DEBATE ON INSIDE POLITICS
The race to be Nashville’s next mayor passed a major milestone this week.
A double-digit number of candidates have either taken out petitions (15) or qualified to run (12) to take the place of Mayor John Cooper who decided not to seek re-election.
The exact number of candidates depends on some candidates whose petitions have not been certified by the Metro Election Commission.
All the qualified candidates now have a week to decide if they want to call off their candidacies and withdraw.
Nine of the certified candidates participated in their first major mayoral debate Thursday night.
That event is the first of three to be held before early voting begins in July.
The first debate was hosted by Belmont University, THE TENNESSEAN, NEWSCHANNEL5 and the League of Women Voters.
David Plazas, the Opinion and Engagement Director for the USA TODAY Network newsrooms in Tennessee and an editorial writer at THE TENNESSEAN, was one of moderators for the debate.
He joins us on INSIDE POLITICS.
We welcome David back to the program.
INSIDE POLITICS can be seen 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.
A LARGE FIELD DOMINATES THE METRO ELECTION
In addition to the double-digit number of candidates who have qualified to run for mayor, the race for vice mayor is between incumbent Jim Shulman and 34th District councilmember Angie Henderson.
The race for the 5 countywide at-large seats and 35 district posts in the Metro Council have attracted a number of candidates. As of Friday morning, there are 22 certified at-large candidates with 3 others awaiting their petitions to be certified, according to information posted on the Metro Election commission’s web site.
There are a number of district council races where only one candidate qualified, and they will be elected to office, running unopposed. Seven of those seats are currently held by incumbent councilmembers in Districts 2, 12,26, 27, 30 32 and 33. But the number of unopposed races could grow by at least one district based on a petitions taken out being qualified or not.
At present, there are no open seats (without incumbents) who have just one candidate. But that too could change if petitions taken out and submitted by the qualifying deadline (Thursday) are certified.
Among the present five at-large members, two are seeking re-election Berkley Allen and Zulfat Suara. Two others, Bob Mendes and Sharon Hurt are term limited (Hurt is running for mayor), The fifth at large seat is vacant due to Steve Glover’s resignation for health reasons.
A final list of candidates will be posted in next week’s Capitol View.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CASTS POTENTIALLY DARK SHADOW IN FUTURE ELECTIONS
I have no idea if this will impact our local races this summer (probably not?), but the growing impact of artificial intelligence seems to be casting a dark shadow on elections in upcoming 2024 elections, according to this article by the Associated Press. The consequences for the spread of still more misinformation are frightening.
Senate committees held hearings this week on how to regulate AI on a broader scale than just politics. There is interest in Congress in imposing oversight. But, as usual with emerging technologies (social media and the internet), Washington has much to learn and is far behind.
ALMOST TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER, NASHVILLE’S BOMBED OUT HISTORIC SECOND AVENUE IS BEGINNING TO RE-EMERGE
Nashville was rocked to its core on Christmas morning, 2000. A bomb was exploded in the historic area of Second Avenue, leaving serious damage to a number of buildings and raising concerns about the viability and future of the area.
But it seems Nashville finds a way. Metro government, building owners and merchants have all come together to craft a plan to revive and bring life back to the area.
Phase One of the project began this past week and will reportedly take a year to be completed. There remain several unknowns, but you can see also some optimism beginning to emerge.
CONTROVERSIAL BELLE MEADE PLAZA REZONING OVERWHELMINGLY APPROVED BY METRO COUNCIL
One of the hottest business development stories of 2023 has been plans to revitalize the 1960s-era strip mall in West Nashville named Belle Meade Plaza.
Neighbors complained the proposal was too dense, with its buildings too tall, and that the plan would make the already impossible traffic and congestion in that part of Harding Road even worse.
There was support for the effort. Two weeks ago, when the Metro Council considered the rezoning plan needed, it lasted over 2 hours, followed by debate by the Council for close to another hour.
Amendments were made, and the bill passed on second reading, with the issue then sent to the Council’s Planning Committee to review more proposed changes. It was thought it might take more weeks before the Council would take a final vote. But on Monday, the Planning Committee approved two other amendments and rejected others. The Committee then voted, without dissent, to approve the revised bill and send it to the full Council.
Tuesday night there was more debate on the Council floor. The full Council adopted the recommended amendments to the bill. But there were pleas for a deferral and to hold another community meeting to hear from the public. But that effort failed. The Council was ready to act, voting 28-1 with 3 abstentions to give final approval to the new Belle Meade Plaza plan.
Given how many weeks (sometimes months) to takes to move through the rezoning process, and because the Metro elections loom in August, the development process will soon slow down for a couple months before the new Council takes office after the September runoff races. And then the rezoning process will begin again in earnest. All those cranes on our skyline and, those construction projects that seem to be seemingly everywhere are not going away in our city on the rise.
In another important action Tuesday night, the Council gave final approval to a bill that seeks to help ease a part of the housing crunch in the city. The ordinance increases the number of unrelated people who can live in the same dwelling place. With housing in short supply, and rents skyrocketing, lots of folks adding roommates.
The original bill proposed a limit of 7. But concerned about traffic, parking and noise, some council members thought that was too high. But as the weeks and months went by (the bill was first filed in September of 2022), the Council debated just about every number from 1-10, but could not reach a consensus. Finally tying the unrelated persons number to bedrooms, the Council decided on 4 persons for dwellings with up to 4 bedrooms and 5 for dwellings with 5 more. They also added language making it clear that the Metro Codes Department can enforce this law.
THE STATE TAKEOVER OF NASHVILLE’S GOVERNMENT CONTINUES WEEKS AFTER THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOURNS
Governor Bill Lee has signed into law another bill passed by the Republican Super Majority in the Legislature to give the state more control over Nashville’s government. This time the new law places three top state officials on the Metro Center City Convention Board as non-voting members.
Governor Lee also signed a bill this week that would abolish the city’s voter-approved Community Oversight Board. Advocates for the Board had been hopeful the Governor’s delay in signing the legislation could open the opportunity for him to veto the bill. But given that the Governor has not vetoed any bills since he took office in 2019, that hope was probably foolhardy from the start.
The new law does have a process for Nashville and other cities to continue or establish new police watchdog boards, but the political process to do so requires super majority votes in the Metro Council and the state is setting rules over how and when these new boards can be created and what they can do.
GUN REFORM ACTIVITY CONTINUES WITH SPECIAL SESSION LOOMING IN AUGUST
With the special session of the Tennessee General Assembly on gun related issues just 3 months away, a new non-profit, non-partisan group is organizing to push gun reform efforts. The group, Voices for a Safer Tennessee, has already been quite busy since first coming together in the wake of the Covenant School tragedy in late March.
At the same time, a multi-sided court battle continues to rage over whether the writings of the Covenant murderer (now deceased) should be made public. Two guns rights organizations have filed suit to get the materials released, while state Republican lawmakers claim they need to see the writings to help them to be better informed during the upcoming special session.
This week another group, the 75% of the families whose children attend Covenant School and those who died, urged the court to never release the writings. A potential court hearing is pending.
There was also a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week that, down the road, may or may not impact the gun reform debate in Tennessee and across the nation. The case involves a new law in Illinois that bans assault weapons. The court has decided to let the new measure go into effect, at least for now. The case seems likely to be appealed to the Court once the appellate court hearing the matter renders its decision,
The High Court’s decision this week is also raising new questions about the court’s use of its “shadow docket” which is how this ruling came down.
Finally, the state’s effort to harden school security by hiring a School Resource Officer in every public school in the state may get off to a slow start. There is a shortage nationwide of such available officers. Nashville has had issues hiring the extra officers it has been trying to hire since last year.
THE DEBT LIMIT CRISIS CONTINUES WITH THE NATION ANOTHER WEEK CLOSER TO DEFAULT AND WITH NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT
Both the White House and House Republicans expressed cautious optimism this week that an agreement will be reached to raise the nation’s debt limit before the nation goes into default on its debts. That is something that could happen as soon as June 1.
But with Republicans demanding steep spending cuts (among Democratic programs) to vote for raising the debt ceiling, exactly what is the possible agreement to solve this crisis remains a mystery.
There’s talk of cutting the unspent covid relief funds that have still not been spent. And there is talk of imposing some work requirements for some federal aid programs. Nobody is saying how money will be saved, if the work requirements would save any money at all. Both sides have bragged they have hired new negotiators to focus the talks. President Joe Biden is attending the G-7 conference in Japan through Sunday but he is cancelling the rest of his overseas trip to be in Washington next week when the clock ticks even closer to default.
Of course, the President is also being criticized for shortening his trip.
Meanwhile, there are Democrats in the Senate saying the President ought to invoke the 14th amendment to resolve the debt limit crisis, while Democrats in the House are seeking to present a discharge petition to bring a bill to the floor to force Republicans to vote yes or no on raising the debt ceiling, as the political games of brinksmanship and chicken, continue.
Meanwhile, a number of major business leaders this week sent a joint letter to Washington leaders in both parties. They were careful not to take sides but warned of the devastating consequences of the U.S. defaulting on its debts.
Nearing the week’s end, there seems to be more optimism about a debt deal being achieved. Maybe that’s just to keep the financial markets from freaking out early, and hurting our credit rating, like what happened in 2011, the last time we got this close to falling off the fiscal cliff.
But then came news late Friday morning that the debt ceiling talks have paused. Stay tuned!
