Voting for Equality in Shelby County on August 5 (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this series, I reviewed the known positions on LGBT equality and campaign outreach to equality voters of candidates for Shelby County government. Part 2 is devoted to Primaries for the Tennessee House of Representatives and Governor.

TENNESSEE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

The Grand Prize for the Democratic and Republican Parties in Tennessee in this election year is the House of Representatives. The Senate will likely remain in Republican control in 2010. In the 2008 election, the Republicans won a one-seat majority that gave them control of the House of Representatives. The Republican leadership of the House thought their day had finally arrived. However, 49 Democrats voted for Republican Kent Williams of East Tennessee as Speaker of the House in exchange for a power sharing arrangement on House committee assignments. The surprise election of Williams upset the Republican House leadership.

The stakes are even higher in 2010. The 2011-2012 General Assembly will use the results of the 2010 U.S. Census to reapportion election districts for U.S. Congress, the State House and the State Senate. If you are a Democrat, there is a real concern that districts redrawn by a Republican controlled House and Senate will reduce the number of districts that elect Democrats in the State House, State Senate and U.S. Congress for an entire generation.

My read on either side of the partisan aisle is that most of the incumbent House Representatives and Senators from Shelby County are in relatively safe districts without primary opponents. I'll limit my comments to a few exceptions in Democratic Primaries.

House District 85

Johnnie Turner (D). Turner was appointed to replace her husband Larry Turner after his death by the Shelby County Commission. Both have been friends to the LGBTQ community. When Johnnie Turner served as the Executive Director of the Memphis office of the NAACP, she spoke in favor of the Shelby County Employment Non-Discrimination Ordinance mentioned above. The LGBT policy positions of her fellow Democratic opponents, Edgar A. Babian and Eddie Jones, are not known.

House District 87

Incumbent Karen Camper (D) is an equality advocate who co-sponsored a house bill that would add gender identity to Tennessee's hate crime law. The views on LGBTQ policy of opponent Justin Settles are not known.

TENNESSEE GOVERNOR

The Republican primary for governor includes 5 candidates, three of them are competitive. Check out their views on adoption of children by gay and lesbian couples.

Congressman Zach Wamp (R) has served 8 terms from Tennessee's Third District (Chattanooga, East TN). In those 8 terms, Wamp has earned a consistent 0% rating on the HRC Score Card. Wamp is also a member of The Family, the fundamentalist organization that helped set up the proposed Ugandan death-penalty for gays law. Wamp has little to offer LGBT equality voters.

Senator Ron Ramsey (R) is currently Tennessee Lt. Governor and leader of the Senate. In 2006, he supported the anti-marriage amendment that was approved in 2006 and prohibits recognition of civil marriage of gay or lesbian couples.

Bill Haslam (R), Mayor of Knoxville, appears to be the most moderate of his peers. Haslam has not publicly supported or opposed any LGBT legislation, but he did offer the following response to the fatal shooting at the LGBT-friendly Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville:

It is often easy to make these tragic events, which are far too frequent, about the community in which they occur. Knoxville is a caring, compassionate city where diverse viewpoints are shared and respected. Every person, regardless of race, religion, age, sex, or sexual orientation is a person of human dignity and a valued member of our community.

Democrat Mike McWherter has no opposition in the primary, but be sure to note his responses on the adoption issue. When he was first asked about the issue, McWherter said he opposed adoption by gay couples, but he later changed his position to say:

My personal preference is to see children placed in the care of loving, traditional families, but I do respect our current system that allows for judges and other authorities to make the final determination on what’s in the best interest of a child.

Do you have any additional information about the LGBT policy positions of any of the above candidates? If so, please share in the comments. We can’t vote for equality if we don’t have all the facts.

Part 3 of Voting for Equality in Shelby County will cover the races for the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Congressional Districts.

- Jonathan Cole

House Speaker Williams assigns new committee chairs

House Speaker Kent Williams took a bipartisan approach in selecting chairs for the 13 standing committees in the TN House today. He appointed 7 Republicans and 6 Democrats to chair the committees. The committee chairs selections will impact the success or failure of many bills that affect LGBT citizens of Tennessee. Here's the breakdown from the Commerical Appeal:

For the next two years in the House, Republicans will head the Commerce, Conservation and Environment, Consumer and Employee Affairs, Education, Government Operations and State and Local Government committees, plus the all-important Calendar and Rules Committee, the gateway to the House floor through which every bill must pass and which has authority to kill legislation.

Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, is Calendar and Rules’ new chairman, replacing Rep. Larry Miller, D-Memphis.

Democrats will chair the Agriculture, Children and Family Affairs, Health, Judiciary and Transportation Committees, plus the all-important Finance Committee, where Rep. Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, will continue to preside. All bills that spend money must flow through Finance.

In the last session, a bill that would have prevented any discussion of homosexuality in public schools was defeated in an Education K-12 Subcommittee. I'm not sure if a Democrat was allowed to chair the K-12 subcommittee. If the K-12 subcommittee is chaired by the same party as the larger Education committee, that may make it easier to advance anti-LGBT bill to the floor for a full house vote.

The Children and Family Affairs Committee will again be headed by a Democrat. An anti-gay adoption bill never made it out of this committee last session while under Democratic control. This may be good news if similar legislation is introduced.

Germantown lawmaker calls for new Tenn. House speaker to resign

It's getting nasty on the Hill in Nashville. Following Rep. Kent Williams (R-Elizabethton) election as House Speaker, Republican Rep. Brian Kelsey of Germantown has called for him to resign:

I do feel that a falsehood was perpetrated on members of this body, to the people of Carter County (Williams' home), to the people of this state. The Lord admonished but selected capable men from all the people, men who fear God, truthful men who hate dishonest gain. . . .And Mr. Speaker, I feel personal ambition was put ahead of the state of Tennessee. It was done by a member of this body. . . .Mr. Speaker, that member is you and I call on you to go back and run as an independent or Democrat.

Williams upsets House Speaker race

Today in the State House of Representatives, Republican Kent Williams upset fellow Republican Jason Mumpower to win election as Speaker of the House. Williams signed a pledge in the Republican Party Caucus prior to the opening session that he would vote for a Republican for Speaker. He did. He voted for himself. That's all he needed with the house split between 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats.

I know Chris Sanders will want to add more to this since he was present during the proceedings. Boy, would I have liked to have been a fly on the wall.

UPDATE: The devil may be in the details:

Williams said that legislation Republicans have long sought to pass, including an anti-abortion constitutional amendment and more lenient gun bills, will make it to the House floor for votes under his tenure.

“I’m not going to stack committees against anything,” he said.

I worry about other conservatives bills like anti-GLTB measures on adoption and education will also make it to the House floor.