NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF — CAPITOL VIEW
By Pat Nolan, NEWSCHANNEL5 Political Analyst
September 1, 2023
INSIDE POLITICS THIS WEEK; MY REFLECTIONS ON THE SPECIAL SESSION; DOWN TO THE FINAL TWO WEEKS; MEMPHIS AND NASHVILLE ARE THE WORST CITIES IN THE NATION FOR PEDESTRIAN SAFETY; IT HAPPENED AGAIN THIS WEEK; DON SUNDQUIST
INSIDE POLITICS THIS WEEK
The special session of the Tennessee General Assembly on public safety is over.
Many think not much special happened, especially in the area of gun legislation.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee claims his calling lawmakers back to Nashville represented “an important week for Tennessee”, that while he says it was “a difficult week,’ he believes it is “a week that’s hopeful.”
That view may not be shared by many others as the level of frustration, even anger, to get anything done, built throughout the session, then bubbled over with pushing and shoving on the House floor right after adjournment.
One of those right in the middle of the controversy is Nashville Democratic state lawmaker Justin Jones.
He was scheduled to be our guest on INSIDE POLITICS this week.
But late Thursday, his office texted to say Representative Jones had to cancel due to an “emergency.”
We hope things work out well for him and we hope to have him with us on INSIDE POLITICS.
This week we will air an encore presentation of our interview with reporters Joel Ebert and Erik Schelzig. They have written a book entitled WELCOME TO CAPITOL HILL, detailing 50 years of scandal in Tennessee politics.
INSIDE POLITICS can be seen on its regular weekly schedule on NEWSCHANNEL5 PLUS.
Those times include:
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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.
MY REFLECTIONS ON THE SPECIAL SESSION
I never expected anything much to occur in the special session.
Therefore, I wasn’t surprised or disappointed.
I am rather embarrassed at how our elected state leaders showed how strongly tied they remain to the gun lobby.
They approved only 4 bills, including one to pay for the tens of thousands of dollars it cost to hold the special session, plus the millions appropriated to do the few things lawmakers approved, some of which the state is already doing.
But I am most embarrassed at how lawmakers verbally fought and feuded among themselves with the leaders of the Republican Super Majority seeking to operate under rules that unconstitutionally suppress any utterance of dissent, all in the name of keeping good order.
Last week there were these ridiculous rules, which sought to silence opposition, even ban signs to be held by members of the public, with views that oppose what these lawmakers espouse State Troopers were used to carry out of committee rooms those who first pushed back. Then the troopers cleared entire committee seating areas as well as the gallery in the House chambers.
Twice these arrogant state officials were stopped by a courageous Chancery judge, Ann Martin, who said the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids such illegal actions.
We did learn this week that the back story of these rules comes out a secret meeting of Republican leaders who violated their own standing rules to put in place these affronts to free speech and the right of citizens to petition our chosen leaders.
Will the GOP Super Majority try to insert the same rules into place when they return to regular session in Nashville in December? Will they also seek to continue to gag their own members if they speak out of turn which resulted in Representative Justin Jones being banned from speaking for a part of a legislative day. His Democratic colleagues walked out with him as the gallery chanted ‘Fascist, Fascist” and “Vote Them Out!”
The parents of the students at Nashville’s Covenant School are expressing their growing unhappiness about the ongoing lack of action. It was the loss of 6 people in a mass shooting there, including three nine-olds and three staff members that galvanized the move for this special session.
But, despite their disappointment and in a sign of their growing and continuing resolve, these parents vow they will be back too in January and continue the fight for change.
Meanwhile, with the special session over, some lawmakers are already thinking ahead about January and bringing back more of the same.
THE TENNESSEAN’s most conservative local columnist says the GOP Super Majority needs to change its tactics by January, adding the Republicans held all the political cards going into the special session but botched it.
A Covenant School mom says she believes she sees a change beginning across the state, even among conservatives, that will force change on gun violence reform, or see those who refuse, voted out of office. I hope they are both right, but I remain unconvinced that is about to happen.
DOWN TO THE FINAL TWO WEEKS
The runoff race for mayor continues to lean in favor of Metro Councilman Freddie O’Connell.
The list of endorsements keeps expanding, and it is much longer for O’Connell than for his conservative opponent Alice Rolli.
Here is a list from THE NASHVILLE BANNER that includes not just the mayoral contest, but endorsements for the eight candidates running for the four Metro Council At-Large seats also on the September 14 ballot.
With the field of candidates paired down for the runoff, Early Voting is off to a much stronger start than in the August balloting. It would appear no longer is undecided the most popular choice for September 14.
We voted 57,000 early in August. Through the first six days of runoff voting (through Wednesday) we have already seen over 30,500 Nashvillians vote, with 8 more days to go (through Saturday September 9). If we stay at the same daily average (over 5,000 a day), we will easily surpass the August early vote.
But is this early vote “ready for Freddie” or does it include a “Rolli’ surprise?
This week on the campaign trail it appears Rolli continues to be struggling to build any momentum. The Save Nashville PAC supporting Rolli is pumping up to $88,000 a week on local TV attack ads against McConnell, still saying he is a “lying politician’ when he says he support police while voting against Metro’s new countywide license plate reader program to help fight crime. This ad has also gotten Rolli caught in the middle. The Save Nashville ad says Rolli will “cut taxes.” But she says that’s not true. She says she will not raise taxes, but she doesn’t plan to cut them. The problem is: The ad is not Rolli’s and she can’t change it.
As for the At-Large race, a new poll indicates some surprises, and continued momentum for women, to at least maintain parity, if not become a majority for the first time, in the next 40 -member Metro Council.
MEMPHIS AND NASHVILLE ARE THE WORST CITIES IN THE NATION FOR PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
A new national survey (by a footwear company) finds the two largest cities in Tennessee, Memphis and Nashville, are the worst in the nation for pedestrian safety.
Since both cities continue to set new annual records for pedestrians killed in recent years, this is not breaking news. But seeing us embarrassed like this in a national survey is distressing.
As we are electing a new mayor, one stressing safety, the other to make Nashville’s work and to put our families first, it will be interesting to see what concrete steps the next mayor will take to lower our slaughter on the streets.
This is a problem many decades in the making, so solving it will take quite a while and it will be very expensive. To the new mayor, don’t just announce your new steps, hold yourself accountable. Set up a dashboard so everyone can measure our progress. Do that for affordable housing too, another long-term issue that will take decades to fix. But as a city, we can’t know how we’re doing until we know where we are and how we are progressing.
IT HAPPENED AGAIN THIS WEEK
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had it happen again this week.
While back home in Kentucky on summer recess, the Republican leader froze up for several moments when responding to a reporter’s question. It was similar to what happened to McConnell when he was in Washington a few weeks ago. The episode raises questions again about his future in leadership at a critical time with Congress returning next month.
But then on Thursday afternoon it was announced that the Senator has seen by Congress’s physician, who has “medically cleared him” to continue his duties.
So, pay no attention to your lying eyes?
When Congress returns, the Republican House will have less than a month to pass a series of annual appropriation bills or force another partial government shutdown. The GOP Caucus seems all over the map on how they plan to make the deadline. Some House conservatives seem to be taking a “so be it” attitude.
How will the economy respond to another shutdown? With the Federal Reserve still contemplating another hike in interest rates to lower inflation, the latest government report on Friday saw more jobs created than expected but unemployment creeping up as the Labor Day holiday approaches.
Back in Washington, at the same time pressure is building on GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to get behind efforts to impeach President Joe Biden. Again, not everybody in GOP Caucus or Republicans Senators are on board.
These are two issues the GOP “adult in the room,” Mitch McConnell, could be relied on to find a way out for his party. But is he still up to the task? If he leaves leadership, who is ready to take the place of the longest serving person in Senate leadership in American history?
Of course, former President Donald Trump, now the clear frontrunner to be the 2024 Republican nominee for President is chiming in telling Congressional Republicans to “Impeach ‘The BUM’ Biden Or ‘Fade Into Oblivion’.
Mr. Trump has his own challenges including a total of 91 felony counts pending against him in several federal and state cases. One in Washington D.C. accuses him of seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election. A judge this week set that trial to begin in early March 2024, in fact, it is the day before the Super Tuesday presidential primaries being held across the country. Awkward, but will it matter?
On Thursday the former President pled not guilty to the charges in Georgia as he has done in all cases in which he has been indicted.
One of the former President’s lawyers, and a co-defendant in another of his felony cases in Georgia, former New York City Mayor Rudy Guliani, has even more immediate legal problems after losing a defamation lawsuit.
Finally on Thursday, one of the leaders of the Proud Boys group was sentenced to 17 years in prison for seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
One other story to watch as we move into September again involves Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who has disclosed more information about trips he has received from a long time right wing friend. You can be sure there will be more calls for the Justice to resign and for stronger ethics rules and disclosures for all nine high court justices along with calls to increase the size of the High Court.
But there are reports that Justice Thomas, and at least one other Justice, are now going on the offensive to push back against the ongoing controversy.
With still more court cases and trials and other big stories to come, 2024 looks to be another unprecedented year for presidential and national politics.
DON SUNDQUIST
This week the state has been mourning the death of former Governor and West Tennessee Congressman Don Sundquist.
He was the state’s chief executive for two terms from 1995 to 2003. He swept to the Governor’s mansion on the strength of the nationwide 1994 Republican Revolution that saw the Tennessee GOP capture, not just the Governor’s chair, but both of Tennessee’s U.S. Senate seats.
Governor Sundquist was easily re-elected to a second four-year term in 1998. He appeared to be the most popular elected official in the state. But then he did a very strange thing politically. He felt the state was facing a major fiscal deficit, and to solve it, he decided to back an income tax in Tennessee.
Such a controversy ensued, Governor Sundquist was disowned by his party, with protestors circling the state Capitol blowing their horns to try and stop the proposal in the General Assembly. Egged on by local radio talk show hosts, the “horn honkers” (as they were called) parked their cars and pick-up trucks, and tried to take over the Capitol, even breaking some windows in the attempt.
The income tax effort failed with the state going past the July 1st deadline to pass a budget in 2002. The then Democratically controlled General Assembly finally approved a one cent increase in the sales tax, the last time there has been a major tax increase.
Throughout it all, Governor Sundquist never wavered in his support for an income tax. Even as state voters approved a ban on an income tax in the Tennessee constitution, and former governor Sundquist went into political exile after leaving office, his unwavering leadership as governor on the issue, right or wrong, remains in sharp contrast to the deadlock and bickering seen the recent special session of the Legislature, when the gun lobby special interest continued to reign supreme.
