Tag: David Kustoff

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Politics Politics Feature

There’s an 8th District Congressional Race!

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Yes, yes, in the wake of the Iowa caucuses, it would appear that the forthcoming March 1st Super Tuesday presidential primary in Tennessee is going to be hard-fought in both parties. And the down-ballot primaries for the one local race, that of general sessions clerk, will no doubt pick up some extra votes from the overflow.

But another political contest, involving any number of prominent local politicians, came out of nowhere on Monday to loom as this year’s feature race-to-be on the August 4th state primary ballot.

The outlook for this year’s race for the 8th District congressional seat transformed itself from a ho-hum incumbency-reelection effort into what is certain to be a hard-fought, free-for-all, with the surprise announcement that incumbent Republican congressman Stephen Fincher of Frog Jump, in Crockett County, would be bowing out after completing the present term, his third. Fincher’s stated reasons were of the sort that could certainly be taken literally, though they hinted at unsaid reasons that the state’s political class will doubtless spend a good deal of time guessing about.

Jackson Baker

Five hopefuls: (from l) Flinn, Kustoff, Kelsey, Leatherwood, and Basar.

“I have decided not to seek re-election to the 8th Congressional District seat this year,” the Republican congressman and well-known gospel singer said, in a prepared mid-morning news release. “I am humbled by the opportunity to serve the people of West Tennessee, but I never intended to become a career politician. The last six years have been the opportunity of a lifetime, and I am honored to have been given the chance to serve.”

But, while political observers were still scratching their heads in amazement, a small host of ambitious Republican politicians swung into action. Almost instantaneously came an announcement from radiologist/radio magnate George Flinn, who has sought the seat before, that he would be a candidate in the 8th again this year.

Flinn, a former Shelby County commissioner and frequent candidate for several other positions, suggested he had intended to challenge for the seat even before Fincher’s announcement and, by implication, might have influenced the incumbent’s decision: “I have been traveling in West Tennessee for the past few months and listening to citizens talk about their lives,  what is happening in our community. The overwhelming facts are that Congress has not been doing enough to address our needs. I have heard all of our concerns, and I am convinced that we must act. We are headed in the wrong direction, but we can fix things. That is why I am running for U.S. Congress in the 8th District of Tennessee.”

In rapid-fire order came announcements from other hopefuls, most of them clearly ad hoc statements prepared in haste.

There was this from former U.S. Attorney David Kustoff, who had previously run for Congress in the 7th District, much of which is now in the 8th District: “I want to thank Congressman Fincher for his service to our country and for fighting for conservative values in Washington. I strongly believe our state deserves a congressman who will continue the fight for Tennessee values and principles, and that is why I will be candidate for the 8th Congressional District. ”

And, not long after that, came word from Shelby County Register Tom Leatherwood, who had also previously sought election from the 7th. Said Leatherwood, who was already trying out the rudiments of a campaign speech: “I am throwing my hat into the ring for the 8th congressional seat. I believe I have a very strong, proven conservative record which will resonate in the district, having served two terms in the state Senate, where I helped kill a state income tax twice. I also served on the Senate Finance Committee, where we had to tell people no in order to balance the budget. This is the type of discipline I can bring to Washington.”

Virtually back-to-back announcements then came from state Senator Brian Kelsey and Shelby County Commissioner Steve Basar that they intended to seek the 8th District seat as well.  

Kelsey, who has long been expected to seek an open congressional seat, wasted no time in picking up a petition for the 8th District race at the Shelby County Election Commission and featured a photo of that act on his Twitter page. Basar, who had already floated a trial balloon for a candidacy in the 9th District against Democratic incumbent Steve Cohen, said a race in the 8th, where his domicile is, seemed a more obvious route to Congress. 

Neither Flinn’s entry nor Kustoff’s nor Leatherwood’s might have been unexpected, given their prior attempts at congressional service. Besides running in the 8th District in 2010, when he finished third in a three-way GOP primary race, Flinn ran unsuccessfully in 2012 as the GOP nominee against 9th District incumbent Cohen. He is well-known for his almost Trump-like willingness to self-fund his political races to the tune of millions.

Kustoff sought the 7th District seat in a four-way GOP primary in 2002 that also included then county commissioner, now state Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris and then City Councilman Brent Taylor. That race was won by current incumbent Marsha Blackburn. Reapportionment after 2010 resulted in the transfer of most of the east Shelby County portion of the 7th district into the 8th, which already included a generous section of northern Shelby County.

Leatherwood pointed out that he won 62 percent of the Shelby County vote in a 2008 direct primary challenge to Blackburn and that his Senate district included Tipton and Lauderdale counties, which also are contained in or overlap the 8th District. The county register also notes that Shelby County has accounted for as much as 55 percent of the total 8th District vote since the new district lines were established after the 2010 census.

That fact, the prominence of Shelby County in the 8th District, and especially of the Republican-dominated portions of Shelby County, may well have influenced Fincher’s decision not to seek reelection this year. He might have had thought processes similar to those of Blackburn, who did well in Shelby County against three natives of the county in the 2002 GOP primary but, as noted, lost the county to Leatherwood in 2008, and subsequently lobbied to move the western boundary of her district out of Shelby County.

Several Shelby Countians, including current Memphis City Council Chairman Kemp Conrad (who may yet be heard from this year), had in previous years thought out loud about a challenge in the 8th District, and have become a crowd, now that the district is an open seat.

Deadline for the Republican and Democratic primaries is April 7th. The Democratic front has been quiet apropos the 8th, but don’t expect that to last.

Jackson Baker

STANDARD BEARERS  — On exhibit at a fund-raiser at the James Lee House last month was an advance model of what will be sculptor Alan LeQuire’s permanent memorial to the Tennessee suffragists who fought for and won the vote for women in Tennessee — the decisive vote for the 19th (or Universal Suffrage) Amendment. The inset shows (l to r) Adrienne Pakis-Gillon, vice president of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument, Inc. board; Perfect 36 member Jocelyn Wurzburg; and board president Paula Casey.

Categories
Opinion

Politics and Prosecutors

Former United States attorney David Kustoff says politics did not influence decisions made in the Memphis office during his 26-month tenure, despite an inspector general’s report that criticizes a Bush administration appointee in Washington for applying a loyalty test to job applicants.

Kustoff resigned in June to enter private law practice with city councilman Jim Strickland. Kustoff previously ran for the Republican nomination for the 7th District congressional seat and was Shelby County Republican Party chairman and director of George W. Bush’s campaign in Tennessee in 2000 and 2004.

“There are no political considerations made involving the investigation or prosecution in any case,” Kustoff said in an interview Tuesday.

A harsher view of the U.S. Justice Department under former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, however, is contained in the inspector general’s report released last week. It says that White House liaison Monica Goodling routinely asked potential federal prosecutors such questions as “What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?” and “Why are you a Republican?” and “Aside from the president, give us an example of someone currently or recently in public service who you admire.”

She also asked 34 job candidates for their views on abortion and 21 candidates for their views on gays, according to the report.

Kustoff was one of three candidates for the job in 2006, after United States attorney Terry Harris resigned to take a job with FedEx. Kustoff said he was interviewed in Washington by career Justice Department employee and former organized-crime prosecutor David Margolis and three others.

“I think Monica was in part of one of the interviews, but she did not ask any questions,” Kustoff said.

He said he was asked about his ethics and priorities but was not asked about Operation Tennessee Waltz, which had received national media attention by then.

In the Flyer interview, Kustoff would not comment on specific cases during his tenure, but he said he was involved in “any and all major and minor decisions.” He did not personally try cases, leaving that job to career prosecutor Tim DiScenza and others. The Tennessee Waltz indictments had already been handed up and some of the defendants had been prosecuted or pled guilty when Kustoff took over the office.

Kustoff also oversaw the investigation known as Main Street Sweeper, which resulted in a split decision. Former city councilman Rickey Peete pleaded guilty, but former city councilman Edmund Ford Sr. went to trial and was acquitted days before Kustoff left office. After the trial, a separate indictment against Ford and former MLGW chief executive Joseph Lee was dropped.

All of the Memphis public officials indicted in Tennessee Waltz and Main Street Sweeper were Democrats.

Asked if the feds’ credibility has been damaged by reports of political interference in the hiring and firing of prosecutors, Kustoff said, “In the Western District of Tennessee it did not affect morale within the office or anyone’s job performance. From a national perspective, no doubt it did not look good, but it did not affect our operation.

“We have the best law enforcement in this district,” he said. “I base that not only on working with all facets but in talking to my fellow United States attorneys. They would talk about problems and issues they would have with law enforcement or local district attorneys. We had none of those issues here. [We] really came together to effectuate some really good investigations like Main Street Sweeper and Operation Last Call.”

Kustoff said he hired “three or four” assistant prosecutors, but they were only interviewed locally, not in Washington. He recalled his own decision to apply as being influenced by extensive conversations with Harris and Shelby County district attorney general Bill Gibbons. The president appoints U.S. attorneys based on recommendations from the state’s senators and governor if they are from the same political party. If not, then congressmen could have a voice.

There is likely to be a new U.S. attorney in Memphis next year no matter which party controls the White House. Career prosecutor Larry Laurenzi has the job on an interim basis for the second time.

Kustoff said he has no immediate plans to reenter politics.

“I am very happy practicing law and raising my family,” he said.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Where the Buck Stops

It turns out that District Attorney General Bill Gibbons and U.S. Attorney David Kustoff are in the habit of talking daily. And, though some small talk gets in once in a while (the two are longtime acquaintances who share a background as Republican activists), most of their conversations involve decidedly serious matters — such as who gets to handle which cases.

The fact is, several of the high-profile recent prosecutions of prominent political figures involved potential violations of both state and federal law and could have been investigated and gone to grand jury and subsequently to trial either way. One such is the ongoing case of former MLGW president Joseph Lee and retiring councilman Edmund Ford, charged with trading political and financial favors. Another is the forthcoming prosecution of former county commissioner Bruce Thompson for allegedly doing something similar in lobbying the Memphis school system on behalf of a high-stakes contractor.

In one sense, there is no mystery as to why both these cases are scheduled for federal court. The preliminary investigations were done by the FBI, in tandem with the U.S. Attorney’s office, and the normal handoff is from one set of feds to the other. But that’s not the only consideration, according to Gibbons, who has at least a nominal claim to prior intervention and ultimate jurisdiction on these and other prominent cases that end up being dealt with at the federal level. The D.A. says there’s another issue involved: the well-known fact that punishments in federal court, subject to fixed sentencing guidelines, tend to be more severe.

For one thing, Gibbons notes, there are fewer sidetracks like early parole or even outright diversion, both of which are available in the state system. As Atlanta Falcons quarterback and dog-murderer Michael Vick discovered only this week, the maximum early release he might expect from his federal sentence of 23 months incarceration is fixed by established practice at 15 percent of that time — three months. Had he been tried in state court in Virginia, where his crimes were committed, Vick might somehow have wangled a way to cop a plea and get suited up for the current football season. And that, given widespread public revulsion to Vick’s deeds, would not have gone down well.

Conversely, we suppose, there are instances in which the wider discretions available to jurists in state prosecutions might be more suitable to a specific kind of crime by a specific kind of criminal.

An instructive saga is that of the late Mafia chieftain John Gotti, who escaped conviction several times before finally being nailed — at least partly because New York and federal courts competed for the honor of trying him and got in each others’ way. So if our two chief local prosecutors do in fact coordinate policy on criminal prosecutions — if each occasionally, and for good reason, agrees to pass the buck to the other, as it were — the ends of justice will presumably end up being well served. But it is an aspect of the judicial process that bears continued scrutiny.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

From the 2007 Campaign Annals: The Case of the Horrified Partisan

Bob Schreiber, the financial professional and environmental
activist who just finished a remote second to winner Jim Strickland in the
District 5 city council race, says that he nevertheless enjoyed the experience,
even the daily grind of going door-to-door to promote his candidacy.

He tells this story: At one house, the occupant who
answered his knock, “this lady who was 55 or 60-ish,” immediately demanded,
“What are you, a Republican or a Democrat?” Schreiber says he told her he tried
to be independent, making up his own mind about issues, regardless of party
considerations.

The woman was skeptical and responded tersely, according to
Schreiber. “She said, ‘I am a Republican, and I never in my life voted for a
Democrat! What’s more, I early-voted, and I didn’t vote for you!’ Just
like that. So I said, ‘Well, who did you vote for?'”

Schreiber says the woman immediately answered: “David
Kustoff told me who to vote for.” and that he responded, “Did you by any
chance vote for Jim Strickland?” to which the voter replied with a satisfied nod
and the firm answer, “Yes!” He waited a beat and then said, “Do you realize you
just voted for the past chairman of the Democratic Party?”

The woman, said Schreiber, responded with open-mouthed
shock, as if she’d swallowed poison unknowingly.

As it happens,
Strickland, who indeed was chairman of the Shelby County Democrats a decade or
so back, is the law partner of Kustoff, a former Republican chairman who, as a Bush
appointee, is serving these days as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of
Tennessee.

And, for the record, Strickland clearly had ample support across party lines, polling 73 percent of the District 5 vote.