Category: Politics Feature

As the Shelby County Commission prepares to vote Monday on its new chairperson for the next calendar year, the dope sheet is cloudier than usual — with at least four of the seven GOP members acting like contenders.

They are:

MARILYN LOEFFEL, the second-term member from Cordova. The current vice chairman, Loeffel has a close working relationship with current chairman Walter Bailey, a Democrat.

Ordinarily, she would be a shoo-in as the putative chairman-designate under a protocol that dictates that the parties take turns nominating a chairman. But she has managed to offend or disappoint or otherwise displease almost all her GOP mates during the last year.

Some of them object to her habit of couching her votes in pieties, even when such rhetoric — as in the case of her support last year for now cashiered commissioner adnministrator Calvin Williams, forced out for conflict-of-interest problems — doesn’t seem to fit.

Others, like rival chairmanship candidate Bruce Thompson, a first-termer, see Loeffel to be a double-edged obstruction to their conservative cause — first by vorting so as to enable what they see as questionable expenditures and then taking an adamant no-new-tax position that makes their own reluctant compromises look weaselly; second by offering no practical solutions to the county’s worsening fiscal crisis.

Loeffel has her own vote and a majority — but probably not all — of the Democrats, some of whom have indicated they’re ready to desert her ship if the water rises too high.

BRUCE THOMPSON, who has become something a a spokesman, along with buddy and supporter David Lillard, for strict fiscal solvency and new budget-review procedures.

Thompson’s views are out of kilter with the commission’s Democrats, though he has good personal relations with most of them and a vote or two among them ready to go his way.

His problem is that he may not have enough fellow GOP members willing to commit to him. Some have privateLy opined that, as a first-year member, he is (in the words of one) “moving too fast.” And some are, quite simply, rivals for the position of chairman.

TOM MOSS, now in his second term (his first full one). Moss last week advertised himself as a potential compromise candidate and is ideally positioned to be just that.

Though his early acceptance of a compromise budget proposal containning a tax increase irked some of his fellow Republicans, most of them came around to seeing the necessity for one. And Moss’s later efforts to cut the amount of the property tax hike mollified them further.

Except for his dedicated support for most zoning proposals, homebuilder Moss (who had zealous support from the development community when he was voted onto the commission in late 2000) has no particular dogmatic ax to grind, votes flexibly, and has a sympathetic ear for the views of fellow members in both parties.

LINDA RENDTORFF, the veteran Republican whose name, easily enough pronounced, still confounds many of her colleagues despite a decade of service on the commission.

That situation is something of a metaphor for Rendtorff’s somewhat diffident career, during which she has nevertheless voted controversially enough to be targeted at election time by her party’s arch conservatives.

Rendtorff’s surprise weekend announcement that her “hat is in the ring” was bad news for both Loeffel and Thompson and left the way open for both herself and Moss as fallback choices.

< p > F o r a w h i l e i t l o o k e d a s t h o u g h t h e r a c e f o r M e m p h i s m a y o r m i g h t t h e o r e t i c a l l y b e i m p a c t e d b y r e a c t i o n h e r e a n d t h e r e t o t h e d a m a g e s a n d o t h e r c o n s e q u e n c e s o f t h e G r e a t W i n d s t o r m o f 2 0 0 3 . T h o u g h h e a v i l y f a v o r e d i n c u m b e n t t W i l l i e H e r e n t o n c o u l d d o l i t t l e t o o f f s e t t h e s i t u a t i o n , h e h a d n o t e x a c t l y b e e n f r o n t a n d c e n t e r i n t h e G i u l i a n i m o d e , a n d t h a t r a n k l e d w i t h s o m e .

< p > B u t t h a t w a s t h e n , t h i s i s n o w , a n d t h e i s s u e , l i k e t h e s t o r m i t s e l f , s e e m s t o h a v e s u b s i d e d , e v e n a s a n o t h e r m a t t e r t o u t e d b y H e r e n t o n ‘ s m a j o r o p p o n e n t , S h e l b y C o u n t y C o m m i s s i o n e r J o h n W i l l i n g h a m – t h a t o f l e g a l i z e d c a s i n o g a m b l i n g f o r M e m p h i s – w a s n e u t r a l i z e d i n i t s t u r n b y t h e m a y o r ‘ s r e n e w e d e s p o u s a l o f t h e s a m e g o a l .

< p > G i v e n t h e f a c t t h a t b o t h m a j o r c a n d i d a t e s w e r e o n t h e s a m e p a g e a l s o w i t h a n o t h e r p r o b a b l e w i l l – o ‘ – t h e w i s p , t h e i s s u e o f c i t y / c o u n t y c o n s o l i d a t i o n , t h e r e d i d n ‘ t s e e m t o b e g r a p h i c d i f f e r e n c e s i n p o i n t o f v i e w .

< p > G r a n t e d , t h e r e a r e m a t t e r s o f p e r s o n a l i t y a n d d e m o g r a p h i c s t h a t c o u l d m a k e a d i f f e r e n c e . W i l l i n g h a m m u s e d a l o u d t h e o t h e r d a y o n t h e m o m e n t w h e n , h e s a i d , h e m a d e a d e c i s i o n t o r u n a g a i n s t t h e s e e m i n g l y i m p r e g n a b l e H e r e n t o n .

< p > T h a t w a s b a c k i n J u n e , d u r i n g a m e e t i n g o f t h e m o n t h l y D u t c h T r e a t L u n c h e o n , a t w h i c h a r e a c o n s e r v a t i v e s g a t h e r t o h e a r t h i s o r t h a t s p e a k e r o n a p u b l i c t o p i c . B a c k t h e n i t w a s H e r e n t o n ‘ s t u r n , a n d , b y a n d l a r g e , t h e a c q u i t t e d h i m s e l f s k i l l f u l l y b e f o r e t h i s a u d i e n c e – c r a c k i n g j o k e s a n d m a k i n g a p l a u s i b l e c a s e f o r h i m s e l f a s a g u a r d i a n o f p u b l i c s o l v e n c y .

< p > T h e r e w a s o n e e e r i e t u r n , h o w e v e r , w h e n H e r e n t o n g o t l o c k e d i n t o a v e r b a l b a c k – a n d – f o r t h w i t h C h a r l e s A v e r y , h u s b a n d o f c o u n t y c o m m i s s i o n e r J o y c e A v e r y – o n e w h i c h e n d e d w i t h t h e m a y o r s a y i n g , “ Y o u k n o w , t h e w o r l d g e t s b e t t e r w h e n p e o p l e l i k e y o u l e a v e . h e r e ! ” T h e m a y o r w o u l d l a t e r e x p l a i n t h a t h e t h o u g h t h e d e t e c t e d r a c i s m i n A v e r y ‘ s a t t i t u d e , s o m e t h i n g s t o u t l y d e n i e d b y A v e r y a n d h i s t a b l e m a t e s , o n e o f w h o m w a s W i l l i n g h a m .

< p > “ T h e r e w a s h a t r e d o n d i s p l a y , b u t i t w a s n ‘ t C h a r l e s ‘ , ” s a y s t h e c o m m i s s i o n e r , w h o c l a i m s t h a t h i s m i n d w a s m a d e u p t h e n a n d t h e r e t o o p p o s e w h a t h e s a w a s a “ h i g h – h a n d e d n e s s ” o n t h e p a r t o f t h e l o n g – t e r m i n c u m b e n t .

< p > W i l l i n g h a m k n o w s h e h a s a n u p h i l l s t r u g g l e o n h i s h a n d s , h o w e v e r . T r u e e n o u g h , t h e c i t y ‘ s d o m i n a n t b l a c k p o p u l a t i o n d i v i d e d a l m o s t e q u a l l y b e t w e e n H e r e n t o n a n d m a j o r o p p o n e n t J o e F o r d i n 1 9 9 9 ( w i t h t h e m a y o r r e a p i n g a f a r g r e a t e r s h a r e o f t h e w h i t e v o t e ) , b u t i t i s h i g h l y d o u b t f u l t h a t a c o n s e r v a t i v e w h i t e R e p u b l i c a n – e v e n o n e w i t h m a v e r i c k t e n d e n c i e s l i k e W i l l i n g h a m – – c o u l d d o a s w e l l .

< p > N o r c a n t h e c o m m i s s i o n e r c o u n t o n w a l l – t o – w a l l s u p p o r t a m o n g t h e c i t y ‘ s w h i t e s – n o t e v e n a m o n g h i s f e l l o w m e m b e r s o f t h e l o c a l G . O . P . , w h o s e c h a i r m a n , K e m p C o n r a d , a n d o t h e r i n f l u e n t i a l R e p u b l i c a n s a r e p u b l i c l y d u b i o u s a b o u t W i l l i n g h a m ‘ s c a n d i d a c y .

< p > M e a n w h i l e , o t h e r m a y o r a l c a n d i d a t e s – o f w h o m B e a l e S t r e e t e n t r e p r e n e u r R a n d l e C a t r o n i s p r o b a b l y t h e m o s t a c t i v e – a l s o s t r u g g l e t o g e t t r a c t i o n .

< p > < p > O T H E R R A C E S , I N B R I E F :

< p > < L I > C i t y c o u n c i l , D i s t r i c t 9 , P o s i t i o n 1 : T h e o u t l o o k f o r i n c u m b e n t P a t V a n d e r S c h a a f c o n t i n u e s t o i m p r o v e a s c h a l l e n g e r s l i k e b u s i n e s s m a n L e s t e r L i t a n d R e p u b l i c a n a c t i v i s t s B o b M u r p h r e e a n d A r n o l d W e i n e r m a k e i n r o a d s t h a t w i l l c o m e l a r g e l y a t t h e e x p e n s e o f h e r m o s t d a n g e r o u s o p p o n e n t , G O P e n d o r s e e S c o t t M c C o r m i c k .

< p > < L I > C i t y c o u n c i l , D i s t r i c t 5 . L a w y e r J i m S t r i c k l a n d h a s b e e n h e l p e d b y a s l i c k n e w T V a d , w h i c h c u l i m i n a t e s w i t h a n i m a g e s o f S r i c k l a n d a t w o r k i n a d e s k i n h i s f r o n t y a r d a n d i s b a s e d o n o n e w h i c h p r o v e d s u c c e s s f u l f o r c u r r e n t N a s h v i l l e m a y o r B i l l P u r c e l l , b u t S t r i c k l a n d s t i l l m u s t c o n t e n d a g a i n s t t h e e s t a b l i s h e d c o n s t i t u e n c i e s , l i b e r a l a n d c o n s e r v a t i v e , r e s p e c t i v e l y , o f o p p o n e n t s C a r o l C h u m n e y a n d G e o r g e F l i n n .

< p > < L I > T h e s c r a p b e t w e e n i n c u m b e n t C i t y C o u r t C l e r k T h o m a s L o n g a n d c h a l l e n g e r J a n i s F u l l i l o v e c o u l d c o m e d o w n t o a m a t t e r o f l a t e e n d o r s e m e n t s , w i t h c a s h – s t a r v e d B e t t y B o y e t t e ‘ s c h a n c e s d e p e n d e n t o n t h e d e g r e e o f s u p p o r t s h e g e t s f r o m t h e G O P .

< p > < L I > T w o r a c e s i n D i s t r i c t 1 – f o r t h e c o u n c i l b e t w e e n i n c u m b e n t E . C . J o n e s a n d G O P e n d o r s e e W y a t t B u n k e r a n d f o r t h e s c h o o l b o a r d b e t w e e n m a j o r c o n t e n d e r s J a y B a i l e y a n d W i l l i e B r o o k s – r e m a i n c l o s e .

We’ve all had moments of personal history that are indelibly linked to this or that piece of music. One of mine, back in the late Ô80s, involved a vacation trip from Memphis to Topeka, Kansas, where I was driving my newly reconfigured immediate family to spend some time with my mother and sister, who lived there.

Early in the trip, I plugged a casette into the dashboard that featured an assortment of oldies, including Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London,” arguably the greatest novelty record ever made and one of the better rockers, too. The bottom line: no other song on the cassette made it into play, as, taking time out here and there for conversation, we kept reversing “Werewolves” and replaying it and singing along with it — notably the “Owooo!” chorus — over and over.

All the way from Memphis to Topeka.

Better yet, I got to meet Zevon later on, in Los Angeles during the 2000 Democratic convention, and tell him how much pleasure — before, during, and after that episode — this and other songs of his had given me.

The celebrated singer/songwriter/producer went bashful and blushed. He clearly enjoyed being enjoyed.

The man who made the introduction that summer day in L.A. was Memphis state senator Steve Cohen, who had become one of Zevon’s closest friends and would remain one right up through last week, when he telephoned Zeon, who was rather publicly dying from a rare form of lung cancer, and promised to send him some portions of a white aparagus-and-mayonnaise concoction that the artist fancied.

“Send it on,” said an enthusiastic Zevon, who was obviously having trouble breathing but who had “looked good” only two weeks before when Cohen had visited him in L.A. and watched a showing with him of the VH1 television special on the making of “The Wind,” Zevon’s last album and one whose selections consciously reflect his sense of oncoming death.

“He’d always been concerned with life-and-death matters, his own and everybody else’s,” said Cohen, who noted that an unusual number of Zevon’s compositions concerned such cutting-edge issues as the death penalty, racial hatreds, Middle Eastern discord, and threats to the environment — all without losing that characteristic Zevonian edge of whimsy.

“He wasn’t political in the usual sense, but he didn’t hesitate to get involved in a cause that meant something to him,” said Cohen.

One of the causes that came to mean something to Zevon was Cohen’s own political career. The two first met in 1994 when Zevon, then appearing at the old 616 Club on Marshall, agreed to do a special concert to a group of Young Democrats on behalf of Cohen’s candidacy that year for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Cohen’s long-shot campaign try fell short, but the friendship endured. Zevon would be back to assist Cohen many times thereafter, notably during the state senator’s race for Congress in 1996. And they often got together for purely recreational purposes as well — the Lewis-Tyson heavyweight championship bout of a year ago being a case in point.

The last time Cohen checked in on his friend was Sunday night, when the NFL’s Tennessee Titans were playing Zevon’s beloved Oakland Raiders on ESPN. The senator called to see if Zeon was watching and learned that his friend had passed. A life that had often been characterized by that exuberant chorus of “Owooo!” had ended quietly.

Cohen will go to Los Angeles this week to attend a public memorial service for Zevon.

AT THE LEWIS-TYSON FIGHT, 2002: (L TO R) IRVIN SALKY, JULIAN BOND, STEVE COHEN, MICHAEL WOLFF, AND WARREN ZEVON

Alexandra Pelosi, who draws mention in this week’s Flyer cover story as the video documentarian who, having done a celebrated portrait of presidential candidate George W. Bush from his 2000 campaign, is now at work for HBO on a fully-fledged look at the 2004 presidential race, offered some thoughts last week on a subject closer to home. (Ours, not hers.)

Pelosi’s mother, as it happens, is Nancy Pelosi, the member of Congress from San Francisco who was elected Democratric leader in the House of Representatives last year to succeed Dick Gephardt of Missouri, who resigned the post and is now a candidate for president.

It will also be remembered that Nancy Pelosi, a member of her party’s liberal wing, was unsuccessfully opposed in her quest by U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Memphis, an African American whose “blue dog” tendencies and membership in the Democatic Leadership Council provide him credentials as a Democratic moderate.

Alexandra Pelosi’s own political profile is not what one might expect. Though she grants that Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, whom she was shadowing last week, is making a lot of fuss and could well end up as his party’s nominee, she is dubious about the appeal to a larger nat

ional audience. The problem? He’s “too liberal.”

More surprisingly, Alexandra Pelosi’s attitude toward Rep. Ford’s erstwhile challenge to her mother’s political orthodoxy goes beyond tolerant. “Good for him,” she said. “The Democrats need all the help they can get.”

Generation gap?

Candidate Dean, like other presidential wannabes, is focusing his efforts on Iowa and New Hampshire, though, more than most, he is active elsewhere. (His last week’s “Sleepless Summer” tour, subject of this week’s cover story, which took him cross-country to 10 cities, is a case in point.

One place he’s looking at down the line is Tennessee, which holds its presidential preference primary on February 10th of next year, just after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and a week after a pivotal South Carolina primary, first in the South.

“Tennessee’s tough,” Dean said frankly aboard his campaign plane last week. The candidate, who is establishing a headquarters in Nashville this week, quietly visited the state last year, “to check it out.” He’ll be buttressing his forces in recognition that the Tennessee primary, which occurs the same day as one in Virginia, will further clarify any picture left opaque by the preceding week’s South Carolina results.

A regular part of his stump speech had him promising to speak this line below the Mason/Dixon line: “You’ve been voting Republican for 30 years, and what has it got you?”

Dean maintains that when he was governor of Vermont he was active in recruiting Democratic gubernatorial candidates in the South — among them Ronnie Musgrove of Mississippi, who is being challenged this year by Republican Haley Barbour.

Some of the others — notably former Governor Jim Hunt of North Carolina — have since fallen by the wayside. the mistake of Democratic candidates, says Dean, has been to play to an imagined “swing” vote, arguably Republican or independent in sympathy. “We’ve gone so far to the right that we’ve got to reactivate the base. We’ve really got to stick to core Democratic principles,” he argues.

Alexandra Pelosi, who draws mention in this week’s cover story as the video documentarian who, having done a celebrated portrait of presidential candidate George W. Bush from his 2000 campaign, is now at work for HBO on a fully fledged look at the 2004 presidential race, offered some thoughts last week on a subject closer to home. (Ours, not hers.)

Pelosi’s mother, as it happens, is Nancy Pelosi, the congresswoman from San Francisco who was elected Democratric leader in the House of Representatives last year to succeed Dick Gephardt of Missouri.

It will also be remembered that Nancy Pelosi, a member of her party’s liberal wing, was unsuccessfully opposed in her quest by U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Memphis, an African American whose “blue dog” tendencies and membership in the Democatic Leadership Council provide him credentials as a Democratic moderate.

Alexandra Pelosi’s own political profile is not what one might expect. Though she grants that Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, whom she was shadowing last week, is making a lot of fuss and could well end up as his party’s nominee, she is dubious about the appeal to a larger national audience. The problem? He’s “too liberal.”

More surprisingly, Alexandra Pelosi’s attitude toward Rep. Ford’s erstwhile challenge to her mother’s political orthodoxy goes beyond tolerant. “Good for him,” she said. “The Democrats need all the help they can get.”

Generation gap?

n Candidate Dean, like other presidential wannabes, is focusing his efforts on Iowa and New Hampshire, though, more than most, he is active elsewhere. Last week’s “Sleepless Summer” tour, which took him cross-country to 10 cities, is a case in point.

One place he’s looking at down the line is Tennessee, which holds its presidential preference primary on February 10th of next year, just after the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and a week after a pivotal South Carolina primary, the first in the South.

“Tennessee’s tough,” Dean said frankly aboard his campaign plane last week. The candidate, who is establishing a headquarters in Nashville this week, quietly visited the state last year “to check it out.” He’ll be buttressing his forces in recognition that the Tennessee primary, which occurs the same day as one in Virginia, will further clarify any picture left opaque by the preceding week’s South Carolina results.

A regular part of his stump speech had him promising to speak this line below the Mason/Dixon Line: “You’ve been voting Republican for 30 years, and what has it got you?”

Dean maintains that when he was governor of Vermont he was active in recruiting Democratic gubernatorial candidates in the South — among them, Ronnie Musgrove of Mississippi, who is being challenged this year by Republican Haley Barbour.

Some of the others — notably former Governor Jim Hunt — have since fallen by the wayside. The mistake of Democratic candidates, says Dean, has been to play to an imagined “swing” vote, arguably Republican or independent in sympathy. “We’ve gone so far to the right that we’ve got to reactivate the base. We’ve really got to stick to core Democratic principles,” he argues.

from The Nashville Scene:

With the legislature still in low gear and the dynamics of new Gov. Phil Bredesen’s relationship with the General Assembly still developing, the question of who will be the governor’s key ally in the state Senate is still open. But, the early betting line is beginning to favor Memphis Democrat Jim Kyle.

Unlike the larger state House, where the governor can work through the established leadership structure headed by Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, the Senate has been fairly chaotic since 1987, when John Wilder broke up the partisan structure to hang on to his job as Senate speaker. Since then, the 81-year-old Wilder’s leadership has been increasingly focused on his own survival, and many of the other key leadership spots are held by superannuated members. Moreover, the departure of Bob Rochelle, who had been the de facto Senate leader for a decade, has also left a void.

Kyle holds no particular portfolio, other than as vice chairman of the finance committee, but he is an able, astute veteran senator with a moderate outlook in line with the governor’s views.

Of course, as long as the only thing Bredesen is doing is cutting the budget, as opposed to finding ways to raise more money, he’s getting along great with the Republicans. The area he’s having the most problems with now relates to setting up the state lottery, where Sen. Steve Cohen, who has worked on the issue for nearly 20 years, is eager to push ahead with the program, while Bredesen wants to take a more cautious approach.

Not incidentally, Cohen and Kyle may share a hometown, but they’ve been bitter foes for most of their careers.

from Nashville Bureau Report:

After flirting with the idea of a big gubernatorial press event to announce his own proposal for the lottery, Gov. Phil Bredesen retreated to the role of benevolent CEO and lobbed his wish list to his board of directors, the General Assembly.

On Tuesday a press conference had been scheduled to unveil the governor’s ideas for the lottery, after a week of executive trial balloons about cutting the anticipated lottery revenue in half and not enacting scholarships until 2004.

The press conference was canceled at the last minute and the governor used the Wednesday leadership conference to “make suggestions” to the Democratic leadership of the legislature. By Thursday afternoon even Sen. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), the godfather of the lottery, had gotten the word.

Bredesen’s original disagreement had been over who gets to appoint the lottery board. In Georgia it’s the governor, in Tennessee it was to be the legislature. Bredesen wanted to appoint the board himself.

“I’ve been up here since Ray Blanton,” Cohen said last week, “and I feel like it’s similar to Ray Blanton in the matter of administrative arrogance and power. It’s something this lottery should not be exposed to. It should be fairness and fair play and a level playing field and be beyond politics.”

The governor’s target income for the first year, $100 million, was about half of Cohen’s guess. Cohen responded, “I don’t want to scale it back at all, but the governor’s talking about $100 million total [net proceeds available for scholarships], which might mean that kids only get two-thirds or three-fourths of a scholarship.”

By Thursday Cohen had his punch line down pat. “I look forward also to hearing from the governor – 741-4108 [Cohen’s office number].” It had gotten a laugh at Senate State & Local earlier in the week.

The governor “obviously is learning,” Cohen said. “We’ve been working on this, Jimmy [Naifeh] and I, for at least 18 years. So there is a learning curve. He’s catching up. I think some of his proposals aren’t ripe yet.”

“We’ve got a duty to provide scholarships, and ‘excess’ goes to other areas. Scholarships come first.That’s why I personally put the words ‘excess funds’ in there, so there would have to be an adequate scholarship program like Georgia’s because that’s what we’re patterned after. Not two-thirds scholarship program, whittle it down so you’ve got money for other things, possibly pork,” Cohen said.

“One hundred million dollars is unrealistic, that’s unrealistic. Two hundred million dollars is conservative.”

But finally on Thursday afternoon, the two appeared to reach a tentative agreement on a scholarship amount slightly higher than Bredesen’s original $100 million.

Cohen suggested Bredesen may be willing to use a first year estimate as high as $117 million. And scholarships may be authorized in the 2003 session and the amount set in 2004. Bredesen (according to reports) now favors a lottery board of three gubernatorial appointees and one each from the speaker of each house, rather than three appointments each.

All sides agreed the amount granted to public school students and private school students should be equal.

At a legislative press availability Thursday, representatives went to some trouble to remind the governor, long distance, of the rules of the legislative game – if it ain’t on paper, it ain’t happening.

House Majority Leader Kim McMillan (D-Clarksville): “The governor is beginning to make some suggestions about some ideas that he has. …He has enumerated some of those suggestions. They are not in a bill, they are not in writing at this point, he is just making suggestions for us to start beginning to consider.”

“We will consider those options, and when he comes forward, if he does, with a formal amendment, I’m sure that Rep. Newton will consider that and we’ll look at it through the committee process.”

Since McMillan would carry the governor’s program on the floor, her choice of terms is instructive.

Bredesen and the legislators “did talk about the ethics problem, and that there not be a revolving door” for legislators to serve on the lottery board, said House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington). Naifeh said they talked as well about “the procurement process and the different annual reviews.”

State Rep. Chris Newton (R-Turtletown), said, “I welcome any comments, any suggestions, as the House sponsor. I look forward to seeing if there’s something in writing. I look forward to seeing that. I am not going to criticize; I’m not going to make any kind of judgment or outright opposition to anything until I see something in writing.

“I spoke to a couple of representatives from the governor’s office yesterday and kind of highlighted a couple of items that are concepts – there is nothing in writing, and until I see something in writing we’re going to move forward.”

The lottery setup bill advanced in both House and Senate, and the scholarship bill (HB 0787 Newton/SB 0437 Cohen) was on notice for Tuesday in House Government Operations.

The lottery setup bill picked up baggage as it moved. In Senate State & Local Government, Chairman Cohen wasn’t able to stop Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) from hiking the base commission to ticket-sellers to 6.5% from 5%.

In the House State Government Subcommittee the same relief for retailers was sponsored by Rep. Harry Tindell (D-Knoxville). Tindell argued that although the amount is “higher than the regional average” that in fact “the average retailer just makes a few thousand dollars a year at this.”

Cohen said the increase would take more than $15 million out of the lottery corporation administration and would directly affect the ability to advertise lottery games.

Sen. Rosalind Kurita (D-Clarksville) added an amendment (already on the House bill) that would bar stand-alone ticket dispensing machines and ban the purchase of tickets with debit cards. Credit cards were already barred.

Cohen said the change would cut lottery proceeds by as much as $20 million, directly affecting scholarship funding.

Rep. Jim Vincent (R-Soddy-Daisy) added a bizarre amendment in the House subcommittee to allow legislators to seize an estimated $9 million in annual unclaimed winnings, divide it 132 ways (99 representatives, 33 senators) and pump it back into their own districts.

“It cannot be pork because it’s not tax money,” Vincent argued.

“We’ll be roundly criticized for pursuing this,” said Rep. Harry Tindell (D-Knoxville), with foresight. “It will be seen as more of a pork barrel or a Christmas tree vehicle.”

Vincent defended the idea with verve and aplomb. “Last week we discussed how the other states done this,” he said. “I’ve changed it twicet to make sure it’s legal.”

In any case, the sponsors decided to ask the Attorney General to rule on it.

NASHVILLE– Gov. Phil Bredesen says he wants to take a larger role in establishing and managing a state lottery.

A legislative committee laid out plans Tuesday for setting up a lottery, which would be managed by a seven-member commission. Speakers of the House and Senate would appoint three members, and the governor would get one appointment under the proposed legislation.

That’s not good enough for Bredesen.

“This goes against the norm. In the majority of states with lotteries, the governor appoints these boards,” Bredesen said Thursday night in remarks prepared for the Tennessee Press Association.

He noted that governors appoint lottery commissions, with legislative approval, in Georgia, Virginia and Louisiana.

“These states have healthy systems of checks and balances. While the legislature sets standards and provides oversight, the executive branch executes. No one branch of government has a disproportionate influence,” Bredesen said.

“I’d like to see Tennessee’s system set up with a similar set of checks and balances.”

State Sen. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, and Rep. Chris Newton, R-Cleveland, the two prime lottery sponsors, split their legislation on Tuesday with a 73-page amendment that lays out their lottery plans.

In his speech to newspaper executives, Bredesen said the governor has three main responsibilities concerning a lottery. He said the state should not have to foot the bill if lottery proceeds fail to live up to the college scholarships it was intended to finance.

“Second, we must be careful not to damage our higher education system with the lottery,” Bredesen said.

He said lottery legislation should ensure higher education is not burdened with more students than it can handle as a result of lottery-funded scholarships.

“Third, I believe I have a real obligation as governor to ensure a governance structure for the lottery that is effective and that clearly assigns responsibility for managing it well,” he said.

“I’m concerned about what has been proposed this week in the legislature. For one, it assigns the governor and the executive branch here in Tennessee the weakest role of any state in the nation in managing the lottery.

“I’m concerned because if something goes wrong, Tennesseans Ð including many of you Ð will be standing at my door demanding to know what happened.”

Bredesen said TennCare, which has had eight directors in nine years, could be better managed through a joint operation, such as the University of Tennessee and Battelle Corp.’s management of Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

“A similar arrangement could provide the sophistication, depth and stability that TennCare so desperately needs,” he said.

On another front, Bredesen said he is working on ways to equalize teacher pay between small, largely rural school districts and their wealthier neighbors.

He said that once the equity issue is resolved, then he can begin work on ensuring that all teacher salaries can be raised.

Cohen said Thursday night he was “really surprised” at the governor’s opposition to the legislative formula for appointing lottery-commission members. “The reason we set it up like we did is that it is a creature of the General Assembly,” Cohen said. “II think he [Bredesen] is making a mistake. I just want it to be fair.”

The Memphis senator, who spent 16 years spearheading the lottery issue through the legislature, said when he attempted to talk with the governor about the issue before the session, Bredesen professed no interest in the mechanics of the lottery and seemed to be totally preoccupied with TennCare and the budget. “I think that’s changed now that lobbyists have gotten involved,” Cohen suggested.

After speaking to the TPA, Bredesen elaborated on his sentiments, saying that he had also been told by Cohen that the lottery in Tennessee would operate the same way as the Georgia lottery. “This is nothing like that,though,” the governor said of the legislative plan formulated Tuesday.

Cohen and Bredesen had evidently met behind closed doors to discuss the lottery issue Wednesday and were unable to agree on a format. The senator was reported to have been loquacious about the disagreement in conversations on Capitol Hill Thursday morning and made a floor speech to his Senate colleagues about it.

Following is the text of the governor’s remarks to the Tennessee Press Association Thursday night:

Let me begin by saying a “thank you” to my hosts. First of all, TPA President Mike Pirtle. Your leadership and the work of your predecessors have helped foster a strong, independent press in Tennessee. We’re better for it. To TPA Foundation President Joe Albrecht–thank you for the work your group does. Thanks to Hershel Lake, president of Tennessee Press Service. And thanks to John Shumaker and others from the University of Tennessee for their support of this Press Institute. A special thanks to the TPA staff, including Greg Sherrill and Robin Gentile, for their help.

Most of all, to the members of the Tennessee Press Association, thank you for inviting me here tonight and thank you for serving as a vital information source for countless Tennesseans. I’ve just come off of eighteen months on the campaign trail. I was reminded virtually every day of how hard you work to deliver the news fairly and impartially. You are part of a hardnosed, honorable profession. I salute you.

More than most Tennesseans, the people in this room tonight have witnessed a lot of jarring things in our government, particularly in the past few years. Our recent legislative sessions had everything a good reporter could wish for: A willful governor, an angry and divided legislature, citizens who know how to use their car horns. Plenty of conflict. Plenty of personalities.

As journalists, I’m sure it was a fascinating scene to watch unfold. As citizens who care about the state in which they live, you probably felt like the rest of us: Bewildered. Concerned. A little saddened. Most of all, a feeling of “Wait a minute, we’re better than this.”

Tonight, I am here to say I will end the long franchise on stories about dysfunctional state government.

I especially want to end the hand-wringing about the problems and get us focused on solutions for the future. I had my first meeting as governor with the legislative leadership yesterday morning, and I am most proud that we spent one minute acknowledging the problems we face–Tenncare, education, the budget–and 59 minutes talking about solutions.

We’re not going to bat a thousand, but I assure you that state government is going to change the way it does business.

During my inaugural address last month, I spoke at length about the need for a different approach to governing that sets aside partisan bickering and concentrates on finding straightforward solutions to our shared problems. I referred to it as the “Third Way” of running government. That wasn’t just a passing remark. It’s a mantra that I’m going to repeat over and over again in the coming months–in cabinet meetings, in budget hearings and throughout state government.

The Third Way really is all about common sense. It is about making sure that government fully leverages its existing resources to do as much as it can for as many people as possible. It’s not about bigger government. It’s not about smaller government. It’s about more disciplined government.

At a break in my first round of budget hearings Tuesday, a reporter asked a question–a very well-meaning question. It underscored just how much I need to change the way people look at these issues.

The question came after I had asked the Arts Commission for a 7 % reduction in their budget. The question was: “Are you saying there is 7 % fat in their budget?”

I was a little taken back by the question because I just don’t think of these things in terms of fat and lean. These issues involve something entirely different. They involve choices. The key is figuring out how much we can spend in a given area, then deciding how we spend it.

I can imagine the Arts Commission spending a million dollars promoting the arts, or two million, or the four million they now do, or even 10 million for that matter. It’s not about fat and lean. There’s not some magic number to spend if you had perfect efficiency.

That element of choice is obvious when it comes to funding for the Arts Commission. But the same choices exist at every level in state government, whether it’s the Department of Children’s Services, TDOT or Economic and Community Development. The third way is about making choices with discipline and then managing our operation to get the biggest bang for our buck.

TennCare is a great place to begin the third way approach. My first days in office have been spent dealing with TennCare. I don’t need to reiterate how many problems that program has. While there are cost pressures in all federal healthcare programs, TennCare’s failures are in part a reflection of a flawed management structure.

TennCare has had eight directors in nine years. There is certainly a need for stability. One of the more frequent questions I get is: “Who will be your TennCare director?” More and more, I’m feeling the name game is a losing game. It is unrealistic to invest so much in a single individual who might quit, get fired, get run over or get a better offer. When the captain leaves, you have a six billion dollar rudderless ship. And we all know that rudderless ships quickly end up on the rocks.

We don’t have to look far to see alternative models that work. Take a look at the joint venture between the University of Tennessee and Battelle to manage Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Under this structure, two major institutions–not a single person–manage a complex endeavor. A similar arrangement could provide the sophistication, depth, and stability that TennCare so desperately needs. This is the third way of doing things in TennCare.

There are plenty of other areas where the third way can help. Another one is the lottery. Its design is very much in the mind of the General Assembly right now, and its implementation will very much be an issue throughout 2003.

Let me say at the outset that I’m somewhat of a latecomer to this issue. Senator Steve Cohen and others in the General Assembly have worked for years to make the lottery a reality. I have great respect for their views on the subject. But as the governor who will be responsible for making sure it runs properly, I have definite opinions on how it should be structured.

There are issues related to the lottery in which the governor has a special role to play and a special responsibility as the chief of the executive branch of government. There are three of them.

First, we must avoid promising more in new programs than we can deliver through lottery proceeds. The General Fund cannot be left on the hook for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. We need a conservative approach at the outset. We must establish reserves and be careful that we don’t create unrealistic expectations or entitlements that we can’t support. In other words, don’t promise $200 million in benefits until you’re sure you have $200 million in lottery proceeds.

That will mean considerable restraint in what we promise on the front end. What we need is some kind of mechanism that allows us to manage our commitments if revenues are not up to expectations. These are things I’ll be looking at as governor to protect our state.

Second, we must be careful not to damage our higher education system with the lottery. A number of people are very worried about this. I have also spoken with educators from Georgia who are very concerned about what has happened there.

Here’s the problem: Tuition provided by the lottery will cover only a fraction of the full cost of educating a student. That’s about 40% at the University of Tennessee, and even less at other institutions. If large numbers of new students enter our system–which I hope will happen–we run the risk of damaging the quality of our institutions by not covering the full cost of those students.

We must carefully consider this issue during the design of the lottery. It’s something I will be closely monitoring as governor.

Third, I believe that I have a real obligation as governor to ensure a governance structure for the lottery that is effective and that clearly assigns responsibility for managing it well.

I’m concerned about what has been proposed this week in the legislature. For one, it assigns the governor and the executive branch here in Tennessee the weakest role of any state in the nation in managing the lottery. I’m concerned because if something goes wrong, Tennesseans–including many of you–will be standing at my door demanding to know what happened. As well you should.

As it stands, the proposal in Tennessee calls for the governor to appoint one member of the governance board and calls for the legislature to appoint six. This goes against the norm. In the majority of states with lotteries, the governor appoints these boards.

For example, in Georgia the governor appoints the members of a seven-person board approved by the Senate. In Virginia, the governor appoints five board members who are approved by the legislature. In Louisiana, the governor appoints 9 members confirmed by the Senate. And the list goes on.

These states have healthy systems of checks and balances. While the legislature sets standards and provides oversight, the executive branch executes. No one branch of government has a disproportionate influence. I’d like to see Tennessee’s system set up with a similar set of checks and balances.

There’s one more issue that I’d like to touch on tonight. It’s an important issue that, like the lottery, also deserves a little clarity. I’m talking about teacher pay. It’s a confusing subject in Tennessee right now, and I’d like to do what I can to clear it up.

We actually have two teacher pay issues in Tennessee that are distantly related but still separate. I need your help to help our citizens distinguish between the two.

The first issue involves Tennessee’s average teacher salary. Our average teacher salary–approximately $37,000–is low relative to neighboring states such as Alabama and Georgia. That is a longstanding problem that I plan to address, given time. Addressing this issue was a campaign promise of mine.

Yet before we can address this first issue, we must resolve a second issue: Basic equity in teacher pay between our rural and urban school districts.

Our financing system for K-12 education in Tennessee is split, with the state providing 75% of the total and local governments providing 25%. However, the level of teacher pay outlined in our Basic Education Plan is unrealistically low. The result is a system where richer cities and counties supplement teacher pay with local tax monies beyond the 25% they are required to provide. And while it makes them more competitive in terms of teacher pay, it leaves the poorer districts behind.

For years, rural school districts have argued the state must increase its financial commitment to them so they can hire the same quality of teachers that big-city and suburban school districts can hire. The issue reached a boiling point last fall when the Supreme Court agreed that the state’s formula for achieving equity in teacher pay falls woefully short.

What I’m saying–and what educators, parents and concerned citizens need to know–is this: Only after everyone has been elevated to a level playing field within Tennessee can we begin working together to raise all of our teachers’ salaries to make us more competitive with other states. All this can happen, with time. I am already working with all the interested parties–including the rural and urban school districts and officials at our state Department of Education–to begin the repair process.

Before I conclude, I want to say once again how pleased I am to join you here tonight. I encourage you to continue your daily quest for truth. Our state is better for the accountability you help provide.

I also want you to know how much I am enjoying this job.

When I was sworn in as Mayor of Nashville back in 1991, I have to admit to you that I felt for several weeks like a bit of an outsider who had somehow taken over but didn’t really belong in this nice palace. I secretly wondered if the real mayor would come back from vacation one day and call the police.

Being the new governor is totally different. I feel at home, as though I was destined for this job. This is where I am meant to be. I find it challenging, but also invigorating. Above all, I look forward to producing real results. I’m going to do it by finding a third way. It’s not just rhetoric, you just watch. Thank you for listening.

TEST CASE

In contemporary politics, nobody in either major political party owns up to the label of “liberal’ any more, and that term’s second cousin, “moderate,” has scarcely many more takers, though more Democrats than Republicans are willing to be called by the name.

If there is a moderate among the newly sworn-in class of Republicans, however, Tennesssee’s junior U.S. senator Lamar Alexander certainly is that person — at least on the issue of race. Alexander’s vote percentages among African Americans — variously estimated at between 10 and 20 percent in the election just concluded — are unrivaled among his partymates and contributed heavily to his margin over Democrat Bob Clement.

Alexander claims to have supported the 1961 Nashville sit-ins and the desegregation of Vanderbilt University, where he was a student political leader, a year later. And, as governor during the ’70s, Alexander earned much credit among Tennesse blacks by the appointment of an African American, George Brown of Memphis, to the state Supreme Court and by naming several blacks to top administrative positions at state colleges and universities.

How then has Alexander reacted to his party’s Trent Lott debacle and to two controversial recent moves by George W. Bush — the president’s insistence of renominating U.S. Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi for a federal appeals courts position and Bush’s declared opposition to a University of Michigan affirmative action policy now being adjudicated?

Pointedly, Alexander spent the whole of Monday — the Martin Luther King national holiday — in Memphis, holding a press conference at the National Civil Rights Museum and touring the facility during the morning . Later, along with J. Pitt Hyde, AutoZone founder and chairman of the museum’s executive committee, Sen. Alexander attended the afternoon’s nationally televised Grizzlies-Portland Trailblazers National Basketball Association game, whose halftime ceremonies honored several black pioneers in the NBA. Each of the ex-athletes was accompanied into the arena by a local civil rights figure, and the most moving episode of the evening involved NBA great Bill Russell guiding local University of Memphis basketball legend Larry Finch, recently felled by a stroke and heart attack, onto the floor in a wheel chair.

Interviewed at courtside after the halftime ceremony, Alexander gave these reactions to the above-mentioned situations:

On change in Memphis: “The whole day has been — it was a sight seeing how many principals of the civil rights movement of the 60s are still here. I mean, there’s Ben Hooks, there’s Maxine Smith. It’s a …. To think of what’s happened in Memphis in the last 35 years is very positive. It takes a long time to get a big freight train moving, but after it gets going, it’s hard to stop, and Memphis is like a big freight train. The Grizzlies coming, the new arena coming, I just think so much good has happened the last 20 years.”

On Judge Pickering, whose prior nomination by Bush was turned away last year by Senate Democrats on grounds of possible racist decisions by the jurist: “The Democrats are being…There are lots of my former colleagues at Vanderbilt University who are very good people who voted to keep it segregated in 1962 and who are now distinguished judges and lawyers and reformers, and Judge Pickering was way out ahead of them. In the late 1960s he was active in his own community in support civil rights, and he had his own children in public schools in the late 1960s in northern Mississippi. I think the greatest suggestion that there’s an unfair smear is when William Winter, the former [Democratic] governor of Mississippi, attests to Judge Pickering’s credentials. I think that’s a great statement. I think we should quit trying to look back into the past and characterize people who lived in a different era. I think we need to look ahead and think about how we can respect each other as individuals… I’m for Judge Pickering. I said that in the campaign. I ‘ve known him for 25 years. I would not want to vote against [him]….He has a better record than many people who have already been confirmed, some of whom are Democrats.”

On Mississippi’s Lott, recently replaced as Senate majority leader by Tennessee’s other senator, Bill Frist, after Lott’s remarks praising the 1948 segregationist presidential campaign of retiring Senator Strom Thurmond: “I don’t condemn Trent Lott as a person, I’ve known him a long time. I condemn his words. Those are the wrong words, the wrong attitude for our countrymen and for the Republican Party. But I don’t condemn him.

On Bush’s opposition to the Michigan affirmative action program: ” I worked hard as a student at Vanderbilt University in 1961 to support sit-ins. And in 1962 to integrate the student body because I didn’t…I thought distinctions based on race were wrong. And I think they’re wrong today. I think they’re poison to our country, and that we need to reach out and help everyone who needs help without regard to race. So you might say I’m for affirmative action without regard to race. I’m for for college scholarships for Cambodian Amnericans and African Americans and Scotch-Irish Americans, and I don’t see how in our country we can have admissions policies and college scholarships that are solely based on race. It may take a while for us to move away from that, but I think we’ll be a beter country when we make our distinctions based on almost any thing other than race….[I]t’s hard for me to support the government making distinctions based on race for any reason, even if it’s to be helpful.”

NASHVILLE — A newly inaugurated Gov. Phil Bredesen said Saturday he will seek a common-sense middle ground between higher taxes and spending cuts to solve problems as governor.

Bredesen, 59, took the oath of office as Tennessee’s 48th governor before a chilled gathering of about 3,000 people on the sun-splashed Legislative Plaza.

With the state Capitol as a backdrop, Bredesen took the oath of office administered by Tennessee Chief Justice Frank Drowota. He was honored by a 19-gun cannon salute.

In his speech, Bredesen noted that other states are grappling with financial problems that Tennessee has been battling for the last few years. But, he said, in Tennessee there have been only two approaches.

“One way is the expansive view — more revenue, more responsibilities for government. The second is a more restricted view — cut expenses, fewer services,” Bredesen said in his eight-minute inaugural address.

“The third way is common sense, and it’s already the way that families across our state are managing their own affairs and lives.”Budget battles have marred the last two legislative sessions, with crowds of angry protestors converging on the Capitol in protest of income tax proposals backed by former Gov. Don Sundquist and House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh.

To ringing applause, Bredesen said public officials should “stop arguing about money like some dysfunctional family and start setting priorities and bringing the ingenuity and focus that America is famous for in its businesses to the world of serving the public.”

Bredesen called for setting priorities in dealing with the state’s problems.

“We have to get control of the budget and TennCare, and the work of the next few months will largely be achieving this. We have to get our economy growing and creating more and better jobs,” he said.

“We will accomplish these goals.”

Still, as he noted throughout the gubernatorial campaign, “I want you to know that the first priority for me — what I want to be remembered for as governor — is educating our children.”

Bredesen said a lack of education held back his “Uncle Ozzie,” who worked as railroad baggage handler, milkman and bookkeeper.

“But he never graduated from high school, never attended college, never got all the tools that he needed to complement his God-given talents. I learned from Uncle Ozzie,” Bredesen said.

Among the dignitaries on the podium with Bredesen and his family were Tennessee’s living former governors, Winfield Dunn, Lamar Alexander, Ned McWherter and Don Sundquist.

Also on hand were the state’s congressional delegation, including new Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, state Supreme Court justices and members of the state Legislature.

VIPs sitting on the platform received thermal blankets, a welcome gift given the 23-degree temperature during the noontime event. Following the ceremony, legislators returned to the House and Senate chambers to adjourn the organizational session of the 103rd General Assembly.

Lawmakers return for the regular legislative session on Feb. 3.

Sundquist, whose two terms in office was marred in the final two years by fights over a state income tax, has bought a pickup truck and a new car, planned to drive to his retirement home in Townsend on Sunday.