Tag: State Rep. John DeBerry

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Senate Vote Gives Rep. DeBerry New Opportunity to Run for Reelection

The Tennessee legislature may not have seen the last of Memphian John DeBerry. The longtime state representative from state House District 30, whose bona fides as a Democrat were formally denied by the state Democratic executive committee in April, thus disqualifying him as a candidate in the party primary, has now been enabled to run for reelection as an independent.

The state Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a House amendment to a vaguely related Senate measure on the tenure of General Assembly members, the effect of which was to reopen the opportunity for DeBerry to file to run for his office as an independent on the November election ballot.

As stated, the amendment “[a]uthorizes an incumbent member of the General Assembly who has filed a petition for reelection to file a new petition as a candidate for another political party no less than 90 days before a primary or general election if the incumbent is disqualified from candidacy by the current affiliated party’s executive committee.”

DeBerry expressed gratitude at the outcome and indicated he would indeed take advantage of the opportunity to run again for the seat he has held for 13 two-year terms. “There are some nice new people running, but I think the people of my district know me well, and I want to continue to serve them,” he said.

Three candidates — Torrey Harris, Anya Parker, and Catrina Smith — will vie on the August primary ballot for the Democratic nomination and the right to oppose DeBerry in November.

DeBerry, who had always previously been elected as a Democrat, had filed to run in the party primary but was disallowed by a majority of the party’s state executive committee in response to complaints from Democratic activists regarding what they saw as DeBerry’s over-cozy relationship with legislative Republicans and his habit of voting for GOP-sponsored initiatives.

Among other matters, DeBerry has consistently voted for anti-abortion measures in the legislature, has supported private-school vouchers, has received significant financial support from Republican sources, and, in general, has been regarded by the complaining activists as being as a sort of GOP fellow traveler. DeBerry has always contended that he merely represents the interests of his district and votes his conscience.

The vote in the Senate Thursday was 29-1, with the only nay vote coming from state Senator Jeff Yarbro of Nashville, the Democrats’ Senate leader. Yarbro contended that the bill amounted to “enacting a protection for incumbents” and was backward-looking in its import. Other Democrats approved the measure — including state Senator Raumesh Akbari of Memphis, who as a member of the party executive committee had voted in DeBerry’s favor back in April.

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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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Rep. DeBerry to Appeal Removal from Democratic Ballot, Has Black Caucus Support

CREDIT: JB

JB

Rep. DeBerry

It ain’t over yet. Apparently, state Rep. John DeBerry, who was voted off the August Democratic primary ballot by the state Democratic Committee on Wednesday, has legal recourse against that action, as well as support for his intended appeal from within party ranks, notably from the legislative Black Caucus.

DeBerry said Thursday he had not yet, as required by statute, received a formal letter from the committee notifying him of its action and of his right to appeal but that he is already busy preparing that appeal, which apparently would need to be completed and submitted to the committee by Thursday of next week.

The 13-term legislator said he had been “ambushed and blindsided” by the action against him, which had been “timely done” from the standpoint of his critics, put before the committee “after the filing deadline and in the middle of a pandemic.”

DeBerry said he had received no advance notice and learned of the pending removal action only on Monday night, not in any official way from the committee itself, but from his House colleague G.A. Hardaway, chair of the Back Caucus, which would go on to send the committee a letter of support for DeBerry as someone who had “faithfully served his constituents in the 90th House District” and “had earned the respect of his Democratic colleagues and the respect of other lawmakers across the aisle.”

Opponents of DeBerry had cited a pattern of his votes they declared to be in violation of the party’s interest, on such subjects as abortion and private-school vouchers, of receiving significant financial support from Republican sources, of voting for Republican Glen Casada over Democrat Karen Camper in the 2019 House Speakership race, and of making a substantial cash contribution to an election campaign of Republican state Rep. Bill Sanderson.

The case against DeBerry had been formally submitted to the Democratic Committee in an April 1st letter by Memphis activist Janeita Lentz. The letter said that DeBerry had “utilized the power of his office to work against the constituents in which he serves, undermining the voice of the people and the ‘vision’ of the Tennessee Democratic Party.”

The committee would end up voting to oust DeBerry in a virtual session on Wednesday morning by a vote of 41 to 18, with two abstentions. Among those publicly opposing the ouster move were members of the Back Caucus, including the aforesaid Camper, as well as Hardaway and state Senator Raumesh Akbari, both of whom were no votes on the committee.

Echoing an accusation made by another Black Caucus member, state Rep. Joe Towns, DeBerry said the case against him was supported by “a group of people who don’t look like us,” suggesting that there was an element of racial bias in the removal action.

He denied absolutely the alleged financial contribution to Sanderson and said his 2019 vote to make Republican Casada Speaker of the House was in conformity with an arrangement made between Democratic leaders and Casada in which House Democrats were promised a number of perks. The arrangement was later disavowed by the party caucus, which opted to support Camper, “but I had already given my word to Casada,” DeBerry said.

As for his votes on various subjects, DeBerry defended those as expressing the wishes of his constituents. On the voucher issue, he added that he had himself, as a high schooler in Crockett County, had the opportunity to attend a school previously reserved for whites, had profited from the experience, and thought vouchers would open such opportunities for others.

Aside from his formal appeal of the committee’s action, which he seeks to have reversed, DeBerry said he was also interested in investigating whether the Anti-Skulduggery Act of 1991, sponsored by then state Senator (now Congressman) Steve Cohen, might apply to his situation. The Act was prompted by a last-minute withdrawal of candidacy in 1990 by then state House incumbent U.A. Moore of Millington, whose friend, then Millington alderman Ed Haley, became an automatic primary winner by virtue of being the only remaining candidate on the ballot.

The purpose of the Act, which allows a seven-day grace period for new filings past the withdrawal deadline, was to prevent such de facto prearrangements. Whether the act applies to this week’s committee action, which theoretically might favor one of the remaining Democrats on the primary ballot, would have to be adjudicated.

DeBerry said that he had no intention, however, of spending months before the election researching other legal loopholes that might invalidate his removal from the ballot.

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John DeBerry: An Outlier on Vouchers

State Rep. John DeBerry

Interviewed by WATN-TV, Local 24, in Memphis on Thursday for a segment to be broadcast on Sunday, State Rep. John DeBerry (D-Memphis) predicted that the forthcoming House vote on school vouchers will be “close” because of exaggerated criticism from opponents, including many of his Democratic colleagues, forecasting ill consequences: “…apocalypse, the zombies are coming, everything is going to fall apart, and so forth.”

The long-serving DeBerry, a businessman and minister whose sprawling, ethnically mixed District 90 takes in much of Midtown, along with large expanses of North and South Memphis,  has long endorsed the voucher concept, whereby public funds can be set aside in selected cases as tuition support at private educational institutions. That sets him apart from most other Democrats and African Americans in the legislature.

DeBerry characterized himself as an early advocate of a vouchers system: “Myself and a few others, we were talking about vouchers before it was cool.” He suggested that a vouchers approach to education was “just another tool in the toolbox, just another innovation” at a time when the state has been “involved in educational innovation for at least 10 years.”

As he put it, “We created this [public education] system, and we have a right to re-create it for today.” Downplaying the potential shock effect of vouchers on public school systems, DeBerry said, “The number of parents who would use vouchers has shrunk because of [the superfluity] of choices.”

The Memphis legislator argued that the main vouchers bill, sponsored by state Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) and defined so as to be a de facto pilot program in Memphis, is limited to 5000 students, eligible for stipends of no more than $7000 each. Acknowleding that such a sum would be insufficient to cover tuition at numerous private institutions, he noted that the bill stipulates that “private schools participating have to accept students at the amount of money allocated for the student.”

The program would depend on “parent initiative,” DeBerry said. “The state’s not going to put somebody in a school. The parent will.”