Tag: Mary Mancini

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Musical Chairs

Hendrell Remus (Photo: Tennessee Democratic Party)

“Shock waves” is too strong a term for the reaction, but a fair number of eyebrows have been raised by the surprise action of state Democratic Party chair Hendrell Remus in removing from power local Shelby County party chair Lexie Carter.

The action took place Thursday following a Zoom call between Carter, Remus, and others. Invoking what the state chair said was the absolute authority of the state party over local parties, Remus said Carter had not measured up to the needs of a coordinated Democratic campaign for the fall election.

He mentioned specifically the campaigns for District 97 state representative of Jesse Huseth, who opposes Republican incumbent John Gillespie, and that of Gloria Johnson of Knoxville against GOP U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Remus said he had sent a questionnaire to Carter asking for details of the local party’s readiness for election activity and received insufficient information in response.

Carter professed to be taken by surprise by her removal, having just, as she maintained, presided over the local party’s annual Kennedy Day banquet on September 5th and grossed upwards of $40,000 for party coffers.

She alleged that a number of disagreements and confrontations had occurred between herself and Remus at the recently concluded Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Remus had apparently been considering the removal action well in advance, having discussed the possibility with potential ad hoc successors to Carter the previous week. 

He said he would appoint four temporary co-chairs to guide the Shelby County Democratic Party (SCDP) until December, when a local party election would be held. The Flyer has learned that two of those invited to serve in that capacity are outgoing state Rep. Dwayne Thompson and City Council Chair JB Smiley. 

Former local party chair and ex-County Commissioner Van Turner, who had assisted Carter in answering Remus’ questionnaire, raised concerns about due process in Carter’s removal and likened his action to the state Republican Party supermajority’s attempt to dominate over the actions of local government.

The new developments recalled the situation of 2016 when then-state Democratic chair Mary Mancini disbanded the Shelby County party following years of local controversy, including charges of embezzlement.

The local party was reconstituted in 2017 with Corey Strong as chair. So far, no names have surfaced as potential local candidates for the permanent chairmanship of SCDP.

As it happens, Remus will be giving up his own chairmanship in January, when his elected term ends. So far the only known candidate to succeed him is Rachel Campbell, chair of the Hamilton County (Chattanooga) Democratic Party and vice chair of the state party.

• Sarah Wilkerson Freeman, the Democratic nominee for the 8th District congressional seat, confirms that Susan Boujnah, a videographer who accompanied her to last month’s Democratic National Convention, is hard at work on an official campaign video, which will be released (presumably via social media) within the month.

Though Freeman has issued no formal debate challenge to Republican incumbent David Kustoff, Freeman observed that the NAACP will be holding an open forum for area candidates in Collierville on October 8th and that Kustoff is among those invited to participate.

Freeman, a resident of Germantown, likes to say she lives “within spitting distance” of her opponent.

• Former U.S. Senator Jim Sasser died at his North Carolina home last week. Sasser represented Tennessee in the Senate from 1977 to 1995 and later served as ambassador to Japan.

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Tennesesee Democrats Prepare to Select New Chair

Even as outrage mounts among Tennessee Democrats regarding the Republican state government’s involvement in a suit to overturn the presidential election, the Tennessee Democratic Party (TDP) is preparing to select a new leader for itself.

At least nine hopefuls have announced their candidacy for the chairmanship of the TDP in an election tentatively scheduled for mid-January, on the weekend after the state’s legislature reconvenes in Nashville.

Mary Mancini, who has guided the TDP for the past several years, has announced her retirement from the party helm, and the state Democratic executive committee will name a successor from the nine.

The contenders are: London Lamar, Theryn Bond, Wade Munday, Hendrell Remus, Frank Hundley, Robin Kimbrough Hayes, Jane George, Civil Miller Watkins, and Kate Craig.

The first five of those participated Wednesday night in a candidate forum sponsored by The Tennessee Holler on Zoom. Lamar, a state Representative from House District 91, and Bond are from Memphis, and Remus is a former Memphian.

A second forum is scheduled for Thursday night involving the other four candidates.

Wednesday night’s participants in party chairmanship forum

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Proposed Tennessee Senatorial Debate Gets Quashed

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

For a time, it seemed that there would be one major statewide political debate this year — for U.S. Senate candidates — to be held under the auspices of the NEXSTAR network, which includes WREG-TV News Channel 3, locally.

The debate was scheduled for Wednesday, October 14th, in the studios of WKRN in Nashville.

The NEXSTAR invitation to participants cited a lengthy list of prerequisites, including one that candidates “must have reported, on the most recent official forms filed with the appropriate election authority, accepting at least $50,000 in monetary, as opposed to in-kind, campaign contributions, at least 25 percent of which must be raised from in-state constituents.”

Clearly, Republican Senate nominee Bill Hagerty, who reported upwards of $12 million in receipts on his last filing, in July, easily qualified. Surprise Democratic nominee Marquita Bradshaw of Memphis had reported contributions in the neighborhood of $22,000 as of that reporting date, though presumably she has raised considerably more than $50,000 since, and would have filed reports indicating as much, and would also have qualified to take part in the debate.

Jackson Baker

Reflecting a confidence that the U.S. Postal Service is equal to the task, District 83 state House candidate Jerri Green oversees a postcard-writing party.

Nobody else was even close to the $50,000 threshold. That would include another Memphis candidate, Aaron James, one of nine independents running. Responding to WKRN general manager Tracey Rogers, James cited a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation requiring that “if a station allows a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use its facilities … it must give equal opportunities to all other candidates for that office to also use the station,” contending also that “the minimum bar for being recognized as an official candidate by the Federal Election Commission is only $5,000.”

Therefore, said James, given the strictures of the two cited federal commissions, he had a right to insist on inclusion; he maintains that he has a campaign fund of at least $5,000, consisting of his own money, and he filed an informal complaint this week regarding his exclusion from the debate.

Then the whole matter has become moot. Rogers announced that the debate event had been called off, and viewers in Memphis and elsewhere in the state will not, after all, have an opportunity to witness an exchange between major-party candidates Hagerty and Bradshaw, much less one involving James or any of the other eight independent candidates.

Bradshaw engaged in an interesting exchange of another kind last week with state Democratic chair Mary Mancini. In an online interview, the Democratic nominee, largely an unknown statewide but a familiar presence in environmentalist ranks, gave this account of her coming of political age:

“Right across the street from my elementary school was a Superfund site. And we didn’t learn about the dangers of this Superfund site until it closed down in 1995. … [T]hat was the year that I gave birth to my son, at the age of 21. I watched my great grandmother die of cancer. And after she died, many people in the community began experiencing sickness and death, also at alarming rates higher than the national average. And so that was when I got involved in a political process beyond voting.”

• In these pandemic times, the number of public assemblies of any kind has been drastically reduced. But on Monday night, there were doubtless many people who wanted to take part in two simultaneous events and had to choose. One was a memorial service at the D’Army Bailey Shelby County Courthouse in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Organized by Assistant County Attorney Jessica Indingaro, it drew numerous legal and political eminences.

Simultaneously, members of the Coalition Get Out the Vote 901 group, including some key Democrats, were participating in a Zoom meeting, co-hosted by state Senator Raumesh Akbari and TaJuan Stout-Mitchell, to discuss pre-election strategies.

In it, local Democratic Party chair  Michael Harris cited District Attorney General Amy Weirich as a target for defeat. That’s called looking ahead. Weirich isn’t up for re-election until 2022.

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Justice Ginsburg Succumbs to Pancreatic Cancer

CREDIT: Official Photo

Official Photo

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg

As the weekend began, amid what was already a smoldering political landscape, the nation got the sad and long-dreaded news that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, aged 87, had died, a victim of recurrent pancreatic cancer.

Justice Ginsburg, who had been the leading liberal light on the Court, leaves behind a tribunal dominated by conservative jurists, and speculation inevitably ensued as to what comes next.

Meanwhile, the immediate reaction, transcending partisan divisions, was simply one of sorrow. Among the early reactions:

“I’m very sad to learn of the passing of Justice Ginsburg. She was a marvelous lady who valued justice and nurtured justice and loved life to the fullest. She made a major difference in the lives of all Americans, but particularly in the lives of the young women who just want a chance to compete on a level playing field and pursue their dreams. Hers was a life well-lived. Thank you, RBG.” — 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen

“Justice Ginsburg brought decency, intelligence, and principle to the Supreme Court. Her life inspired many Americans, especially young women. Her service to our country deserves great respect.” — Senator Lamar. Alexander

“We are heartbroken to hear of the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a towering jurist and an empowering figure for the most vulnerable. She was a kind and gentle soul who never shied away from a fight for what’s right. The country was fortunate to have Ruth Bader Ginsburg for as long as we did. Her contributions made the United States a more just and equitable place.

“Today we lost the best of America. But it’s not just the nation that is forever changed by her service and her commitment to uphold our Constitution and the progress it demands. Every day we see women stepping up to stand on her shoulders and continue her fight. We honor her legacy, we are grateful for her work, and we are fortunate to watch the impact her life has had, and will have, on future generations. L’Shana Tovah, Justice Ginsberg, and may God rest your soul.” — Mary Mancini, Chair, Tennessee Democratic Party

“Justice Ginsburg was a smart, talented trailblazer who paved the way for women in the judiciary. She worked hard to achieve prominence on her own merit, and I thank her for her service to our country. My condolences go out to her family and friends in the wake of this loss.” — Senator Marsha Blackburn

“Justice Ginsburg was a pioneer for gender equality and an American hero. There’s so much at stake with the selection of her replacement — the fate of the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights are just two issues among many. We’ve got to vote like our lives depend on it because it’s true.” — Ashley Coffield, Tennessee Planned Parenthood

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Justice Ginsburg’s family and friends during this difficult time.” — 8th District Congressman David Kustoff

Beyond the condolences, there were immediate indications of the political undercurrent to Justice Ginsberg’s passing. The obvious question, crucial to both Democrats and Republicans: Would President Trump attempt to appoint a successor either before the November 3rd election or in the interregnum between then and January, when either he for Joe Biden would begin the next presidential term along with a new Congress?

More, as the story develops. 

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It’s No Go for Three Democrats Appealing Ban from Primary Ballot

M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams

Oh-for-three. That’s how things turned out Wednesday Night, April 15th, as a trio of would-be penitents — most notably 13-term State Representative John DeBerry — pleaded in vain for the members of the state Democratic executive committee to restore them to the positions on the August 6th primary election ballot from which they were purged last week.

In the course of a virtual meeting of the state committee that was conducted by telephone and sprawled for nearly four hours, DeBerry’s pleas were rejected for reinstatement in the House District 90 race, as were those of Michael Minnis for House District 93, and M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams for the 9th Congressional District. All the appellants were from Memphis.

Although the cases against DeBerry and Minnis were of a radically different nature — DeBerry’s consisting of alleged anti-Democratic votes and actions, Minnis essentially of not meeting the requirement of having voted in 3 of the last 5 Democratic primaries — the votes against them were remarkably similar — DeBerry’s appeal falling short by a vote of 24 Yes to 40 No, with one abstention, while Minnis’ failed 24 to 39 with two abstentions. Alexandria-Williams went down 8 to 34, with 14 abstaining.

Although DeBerry’s chances for reinstatement on the primary ballot were not regarded as strong (he had been voted off the week before by a vote of 41 to 18 with two abstentions), he probably did not help them much by declining, unlike Minnis and Alexandria-Williams, to take part in a pre-vote Q-and-A with state committee members.

In the five minutes granted him by state party chair Mary Mancini to make a verbal appeal, DeBerry talked about his past chairmanships on legislative committees and his efforts on behalf of civil rights. He asked that committee members look at “my record in toto, my character, the way I carry myself, and my ability to build a consensus when Democrats are a super-minority.”

Among the minority of yes voters were state Senator Raumesh Akbari of Memphis and Representative Mike Stewart, the House minority leader, both of whom said the question of DeBerry’s party bona fides should be settled by the voters in a primary. The nay-voting majority coalesced around complaints about DeBerry’s seconding Republican positions on abortion, vouchers, guns, and much else; his acceptance of support from GOP financial sources; and his participation in the right-wing ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council).

Committeeman Will Cheek of Nashville said his vote of no was not predicated on matters of party “loyalty” but on Democratic “resemblance.”

Though several members commended Minnis for his involvement with a nonprofit working on behalf of criminal justice, the outcome for him, as indicated, was similar to that for DeBerry.

The debate over the appeal of Alexandria-Williams was both the strangest and the lengthiest. At root the issue with the candidate (formerly known simply as M. LaTroy Williams) was his historical involvement with pre-election sample ballots from the “Shelby County Democratic Club,” a shell organization unaffiliated with any organ of the actual Democratic Party and the occasion of several lawsuits pitting Williams against the Party.

Though, as was attested to in the debate, these “ballots” — many of which have favored the candidacies of Republicans as well as Democrats — bore his name as “coordinator,” Williams persisted in denying any ownership of involvement in them. Unspoken to in the committee’s discussion was the fact that the favored candidates featured on them pay considerable sums to have themselves so listed.

Besides denying his central relationship with the sample ballots, Williams mentioned his alleged past association with the athletes Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and, strangely, conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. “Nobody’s done more for the Democratic Party than I have,” Williams insisted. To no avail.

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DeBerry, Four Others Dumped from Democratic Ballot

John DeBerry

State Rep. John DeBerry, who has represented District 90 in the state House of Representatives for 26 years, has been voted off the August party primary ballot by the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. The committee, meeting online in virtual mode Wednesday, voted 41 to 18, with two abstentions, to oust DeBerry.

The board also acted to remove four other candidates from the party’s primary ballot. They were: William Frazier, in State House District 84 seat; Michael Minnis, state House district 93; M. LaTroy Alexandria-Williams, 9th Congressional District; and Tharon Chandler, U.S. Senate.

DeBerry’s comeuppance was long in coming. Democrats, including local ones, had been vocal for years about the businessman/minister’s tendency to vote as a de facto ally of Republicans on a variety of issues, notably on bills to outlaw abortion and to legalize taxpayer-supported private-school vouchers.

Michael Minnis, who filed to run for the Tennessee State House District 93 seat, was removed without a vote of the board.

The now ex-Democratic candidate expressed himself stoically about the ouster vote: “The Tennessee Democratic Party has decided that a 26-year representative that spent 12 years as a committee chairman, conducted himself with integrity, served the party well, sponsored meaningful legislation, and built bridges across the aisle to get bills passed is no longer a Democrat. And so, I’m not,” he said.

Since the two major parties have control over their own primary ballots and the deadline for filing, even as an independent, has passed, DeBerry’s only option for re-election is via a write-in campaign, a very long shot. The remaining Democrats on the ballot are Torrey C. Harris, Anya Parker, and Catrina L. Smith.

State Democratic chair Mary Mancini of Nashville said, apropos the ouster of the five candidates from the party’s ballot: “After a long meeting in which we heard challenges and evidence, we did what we thought was best to protect the Tennessee Democratic Party and the values we stand for.”

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Shelby County Commission Ponders Matters of Time

CREDIT: Reginald Milton

Toward the end of Monday’s meeting of the Shelby County Commission, second-term member Mark Billingsley, looking out from his seat on the stage of the Vasco Smith County Administration Building, swept an arm out toward the auditorium’s row of seats, all virtually empty, as Billingsley pointed out, save for a few isolated staff members.

Billingsley went on to suggest  to his colleagues that the commission’s recent decision to change the start time of its meetings from 3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. — ostensibly, on the initiative of new member Mick Wright, to enable more members of the general public to attend meetings — had failed, and that maybe the commission ought to revert to its previous start time.

A couple of things struck at least one observer as unusual: 1) that the effective half-hour difference did not seem all that consequential; and 2) that it had been Billingsley himself, at the beginning of his first term, four years ago, who had moved for a change in the body’s start time, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. And his reasoning back then? That such a change would enable more members of the general public to attend meetings.

In one sense, given the number of reasonably significant matters that have occupied this commission in its first couple of months, the matter of starting time might have seemed relatively unimportant. But is it? Commissioner Wright, who represents Bartlett, had originally suggested an even later start time, 6 p.m., but that was shaved back during later consideration, on the grounds that, while the public might indeed be freer to attend in the evenings, staff members — whose presence on many matters is essential — would be inconvenienced by having to stick around.

There is no perfect time for a public body to meet, of course. The Memphis City Council’s start time for its Tuesday public meetings has, for several years, been 4:30 p.m., a time that strikes something of a mean between the needs of public and city government staffers, but seems mainly to be of advantage to the 10 o’clock newscasts of local television stations, by providing them with relatively fresh newsbreaks.

On Monday, Wright earned a bit of teasing from colleague Edmund Ford Jr., who noted that several of Wright’s initiatives involved clock time, including another matter up for discussion on Monday — that of Daylight Saving Time. Wright had suggested that the back-and-forth shifting — back an hour at one time of year and up again later on — creates unnecesary dislocation in people’s lives.

Wright first proposed including the state’s abandonment of Daylight Saving Time as an item in the commission’s recommended legislative package for the General Assembly but later said he’d be satisfied with the imposition of year-long Daylight Saving Time. The idea in either case, with or without DST, was to maintain a year-long consistency.

Ultimately, the commission approved an amended version of Wright’s resolution, one that would urge the General Assembly to reconsider the issue of Daylight Saving Time without recommending a particular course.

• As befits a local legislative body, perhaps, the incidence of partisan disagreements is not large, but it does exist. It showed itself on a few matters Monday.

One instance concerned the meaning of a resolution asking the General Assembly to amend the state’s Basic Education Program (BEP) “to fund additional school Resource Officers, Social Workers, and Counselors.”

A debate of sorts erupted over the meaning of the term “Resource Officers.” Amber Mills, the resolution’s original sponsor and a Republican, wanted the term construed to denote security officers. Or, at least, she accepted commission Chairman Van Turner‘s paraphrase of her intent to mean something such-like.

Other commissioners, including the body’s Democrats, wanted a looser definition, and they prevailed in a party-line vote, in which Wright, Billingsley, and Brandon Morrison, all Republicans, sided with Mills on the losing side. The final  resolution, with the looser definition intact, then passed 12-0.

Another Mills resolution asked the General Assembly “to avoid the adoption of Legislation, Policies, Rules of Regulations requiring the implementation of unfunded mandates.” This one, arguably reflecting a traditional Republican concern, was approved unanimously once it was reworded to specificy “unfunded education mandates” — which Mills accepted as expressing her basic intent.

A third matter reflected this commision’s apparent inclination to skirt possible divides in the interests of unity. This was regarding an ordinance, up for the second of three required readings, to amend the requirements of the Shelby County Minority and Women Business Enterprise Program (MWBE).

As outlined by Shep Wilbun, chief county diversity officer, the ordinance went into minute detail defining the terms, numerical and otherwise, that either permitted or encouraged the awarding of contracts in greater numbers to firms owned by women and/or African Americans. In the end, there appeared to be general agreement on the commission that the accretion of new detail was such as to make an already abstruse process even more “cumbersome” — an adjective supplied by Commissioner Morrison.

And thus the ordinance was routed back to committee to undergo a process of simplifcation.

• Last weekend saw a visit here by Tennessee Democratic Party chair Mary Mancini, one of several planned for statewide under the head, “Analyze, Organize, Mobilize,” to discuss party affairs and strategy. A group of 30 to 50 local Democrats met with Mancini at the headquarters building of U.S. Pipefitters Local 614 in Arlington.

On hand to assist in the process, in the wake of what has been a highly successful year or two for the party, was Shelby County Democratic Party chair Corey Strong, who confided that he intends to focus on his job as special project director at Shelby County Schools and does not plan to seek reelection in March, when local Democrats meet in convention.

The forthcoming convention will re-inaugurate a cycle that was interrupted when the Shelby County party, having fallen into disunity and ineffectiveness, was dissolved by Mancini in 2016.

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Democrats Showcase 2018 Candidates at AFSCME Event

CREDIT: JB

JB

Sharing a laugh at Thursday night’s Democratic/AFSCME meet ‘n greet were (l to r) David Weatherspoon, who is eyeing a race for state Senate District 31; Allan Creasy, candidate for state House district 97, and John Boatner Jr., candidate for U.S. Congressional District 8.

For local Democrats, the timing worked out pretty well for Thursday night’s well-attended party Meet ‘n Greet at the Association Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union building on Beale. This was the week, after all, when Democrats on the national level won important elections in states like Virginia and New Jersey.

And the presence at the event, which was co-sponsored by AFSCME AND the Tennessee Democratic Party, of ranking party officials at the local, state, and federal levels could not fail to reinforce the sense of a renascent political organization (the Shelby County Democratic Party was reborn recently after a year of enforced decertification).

On hand to address the troops were SCDP chairman Corey Strong, TNDP chair Mary Mancini, and special guest Jaime Harrison, associate chair of the Democratic National Committee.

All the speakers, clearly encouraged by the week’s electoral successes, were, in the lexicon of the Obama era, fired up and ready to go. Harrison paid tribute to Shelby County as “the heart of the Tennessee Democratic Party,” but, as he also noted, in candid acknowledgement of past under-achievements and setbacks, “there have been some problems with the heart.”

All that could change, Harrison said, echoing previous upbeat remarks by Strong and Mancini. Like them, he foresaw an energized party effort behind a new crop of Democratic candidates for major offices like Governor and Senator, as well as for legislative races and key local offices like Sheriff and Shelby County Mayor.

Reinforcing that prospect were a goodly number of local candidates in attendance, including Chief Deputy Sheriff Floyd Bonner (now aiming for the top job with an endorsement from current Sheriff Bill Oldham) and state Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris, who now seeks the office of County Mayor.

There were enough local officials and candidates fora variety of offices on hand that listing them all would incur the same difficulty that afflicts Academy Award winners at thank-you time on stage. The impressive thing about the turnout was that, besides the candidates running in the inner city for seats customarily held by Democrats, there were an unusual number of political newcomers on hand seeking to displace Republican incumbents in the suburbs — a la state Rep. Dwayne Thompson of District 96, who turned out an over-confident GOP predecessor last year.

Not bad as a warm-up event for the political battles of 2018.

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It’s Alive! Local Democrats Resuscitate the Official Shelby County Party

CREDIT: JB

JB

State Democratic chair Mary Mancini was on hand Saturday to re-christen a new SCDP to replace the old ‘dysfunctional’ one she decertified a year ago.

Several hundred Democrats gathered in (and filled) a cavernous meeting space in the even more cavernous Missisissippi Boulevard Christian Church on Saturday to elect members of the newly revived Shelby County Democratic Party.

Given that the last group that went by that name numbered only in the scores and was split into irreconcilable squabbling JB

Ex-Nashville Mayor Karl Dean (here chatting with process co-host David Cocke) was there….

factions, there would seem to be ample room for optimism by party members, especially since a significant number of the attendees on Saturday for Part One of a convention process were bona fide new faces.

One old face was conspicuously missing —- that of Del Gill, a long-term party member who had been a principal in Democratic Party wars as far back as the ‘80s. Gill was known either as a stickler for the rules or as an obstructionist pedant, depending on one’s point of view. The latter attitude may have predominated on Saturday, to judge by the reactions of other party veterans asked on Saturday about Gill’s absence.

Few of them were shedding tears over his widely reported refusal to involve himself in a local party whose decertification (on grounds of dysfunction) was declared in August 2016 by state Democratic chair Mary Mancini and whose rebirth was substantially midwifed by the selfsame Mancini, who was on hand Saturday to cheer on and effectively re-christen the new version of the SCDP.

Gill was not alone in having taken umbrage at what several JB

…So was House Democratic Leadert Craig Fitzhuigh, like Dean a gubernatorial hopeful.

 former SCDP executive-committee members saw as Mancini’s having dictated a setllement to resolve former local chairman Bryan Carson’s questionable accounting of missing party funds. Rick Maynard, a Gill ally in that stand-off, was also unreconciled and said so to numerous bystanders during his brief early attendance at Saturday’s convention.

But most of the other former members who thought Carson had been let off easy or who had other grudges had sucked it up and participated in Saturday’s convention one way or another. There was, all things considered, a general sense of harmony to the event, the end point to a series of countywide reorganizational forums presided over by ad hoc co-chairs David Cocke and Clarissa Shaw, with considerable input as well from Danielle Inez, the Young Democrats’ new local chair.

Among the onlookers Saturday were several distinguished party figures with a vested interest in a newly revived, aggressive, and well-functioning local party. Two — former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and current state House Democratic Leader Craig Fitzhugh of Ripley — are probable opponents in the forthcoming 2018 Democratic primary for Governor, with Dean having already announced.

Another dignitary was 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen, the ranking Democratic Party figure in Shelby County, who hailed the reborn local party in a brief but spirited address.

After the speeches, attendees to Saturday’s convention broke off into 13 caucus groups, each corresponding to one of Shelby County’s established County Commission districts. They proceeded to elect 150 members to a new Democratic Grass-Roots Council, which will meet on a quarterly basis to discuss issues and policy and to generate momentum. Two members — one female and one male from each district caucus — were then elected from the larger groups to form a new party executive committee, which, like the old executive committee, will hold monthly meetings and formally execute party business.

All the elected members will gather again on August 5 at a traditional party venue, the IBEW meeting hall on Madison, to elect a new party chair. Several aspirants to that position were nominated from the floor on Saturday, but more nominations can be made as late as August 5, from the floor of the IBEW meeting itself.

(More details to come both here and in this week’s “Politics” column in the print edition of the Flyer.)
JB

Caucus participants in District 6 vote their choices.

LIST OF NEWLY ELECTED MEMBERS TO SHELBY COUNTY DEMOCRATIC  ‘GRASS ROOTS’ COUNCIL, WITH MEMBERS OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE LISTED IN BOLD:

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Scrum for Corker’s Seat?

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

As of the 4th of July weekend, there was no significant change in the prospective lineup for next year’s race for governor to succeed the term-limited Republican incumbent Bill Haslam.

The two definite Republican entries — former state Economic Development Commissioner Randy Boyd and Nashville businessman Bill Lee — are still the only formally declared candidates on the Republican side. Fourth District U.S. Representative Diane Black, state House Speaker Beth Harwell, and State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris of Collierville are still the main GOP figures on the maybe list. (Norris also remains one of the serious maybes to fill a vacant federal judgeship.)

Former Nashville mayor Karl Dean is the only Democrat to have made a 2018 governor’s race official, but state House Democratic Leader Craig Fitzhugh of Ripley is considered a likely candidate, as well.

All that is same-old, same-old. Where there is renewed speculation on the statewide political scene is in regard to the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Bob Corker. The Senator is chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and is also an important and active member of the Senate’s Banking and Budget committees.

Since his election in 2006 in a close race with Democratic nominee Harold Ford Jr., Corker has steadily become one of the more prominent GOP voices in Congress. In 2016, he was seriously considered by then-candidate Donald Trump as a possible vice-presidential running mate. And there have been off-and-on rumors that Corker wants to run for president at some point.

It has long been assumed, and still is, that Corker will be a candidate for reelection to his Senate seat, which comes due again in 2018. But other scenarios have been floated — including a possible Corker race for governor in tandem with a Haslam race for the Senate seat that would then be open.

Whatever the case, other candidates are eyeing a race for Corker’s seat next year. At least one Democrat, Nashville lawyer and Iraq war vet James Mackler is already running and has sent out an elaborate mailer statewide boosting his candidacy.

And there are also Republicans who are looking covetously at Corker’s Senate seat — especially on the GOP’s right wing and in its Tea Party constituency, where Corker’s oft-professed readiness to work across the aisle with Democrats on various issues has aroused suspicion.

The senator may also have raised hackles on the Republican right with recent statements expressing concern over actions by Trump, such as the Senator’s statement, in the wake of his firing FBI Director James Comey in May, that the president seemed to be on a “downward spiral.”

More recently, Corker has vowed to block arms sales by the administration to member nations of the Middle Eastern Gulf Cooperation Council, including feuding U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

UPDATE: Senator Corker’s office has forwarded this comment on the Senator’s proposed block on the arms sale:

Just wanted to note that the senator spoke with Secretary Tillerson in advance of sending the letter regarding future arms sales and that his goal is to give the administration leverage as it works to resolve the dispute.

The White House press secretary also made positive comments about the senator’s efforts, noting the administration shares his goals…

:

White House response:

Q: Senator Corker says he will use his authority as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to block the sales to Saudi and Qatar until that crisis is resolved. Is that a constructive step in your view?

Sean Spicer: I think we share Senator Corker’s goal on two fronts. One, obviously we want to resolve the situation. I know that the states that are involved are viewing this as a family matter and Secretary Tillerson is helping to facilitate some of the that. We believe that is positive. We share that concern. We also share the concern about terror financing that Senator Corker has, and I think we can work together on both those goals.

Seventh District Congressman Marsha Blackburn is said to have considered a Senate race, and other names mentioned as possible Republican opponents for Corker include Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, State House Representative Andy Holt, and Americans for Prosperity Tennessee state director Andrew Ogles.

Another possible GOP challenger is Mark Green, the state senator from Clarksville who was recently nominated by President Trump to become Secretary of the Army but had to withdraw from consideration amid objections to his ultra-conservative social views from Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Previous to that, Green had been considered a prominent prospect to run for governor, but he has since said no to resuming that quest. A brand-new website boosting his possible candidacy for the U.S. Senate has appeared under the auspices of Nashville activist Rick Williams, however, and it is known that Green has ambitions to serve on the federal scene.

• Shelby County Democrats, whose squabbling and ineffective local party organization was decertified as dysfunctional by state party chair Mary Mancini two years ago, are about to rise again.

David Cocke and Carlissa Shaw presiding, bylaws will be adopted and representatives will be elected to serve on two distinct local bodies — a county committee and a new group to be called the Democratic Grassroots Council.

The county committee will function as the party’s executive arm, while the new council will deliberate on policy, discuss possible projects, and in general serve as a sounding board for party objectives.

• No rest for the weary department: The Shelby County Commission, having punted on approval of a budget at its June 26th meeting and thereby having missed the traditional July 1st deadline beginning the new fiscal year, was scheduled for another try at resolving differences during committee meetings this Wednesday.