Steve Cohen triumphs, but Memphis is the real winner

While TEP focuses mainly on local and state politics, I can't help but take a moment to recognize the significance of Congressman Steve Cohen's win in the 9th District Democratic Primary race. As many already know, the campaign got really ugly in the last week with race-baiting and anti-Semitic television ads from the Tinker campaign. So ugly that Tinker supporters like Emily's List and Harold Ford, Jr. publicly repudiated Tinker's tactics in the campaign's last hours.

Cohen offered these words of reflection at his victory party last night:

It says Memphis has come a long, long way and that people who were counting on racial voting to prevail are thinking of a Memphis that doesn't exist anymore. . . . The people of Memphis are more sophisticated voters that deal with issues and someone's record and not simply race.

Memphis, Tennessee has shown CNN and The New York Times and MSNBC and everyone else that we are united, we are moving forward and we are a bellwether for what is going to happen in America when Barack Obama is elected president.

As racially divided as Memphis can be, we can all take pride in the wisdom of Memphis voters. This election outcome may herald a new day in government and politics.

Gresham wins close victory, will face Camp in November

From the Commercial Appeal:

In a local state Senate primary, Rep. Dolores Gresham, 66, of Somerville won a tough challenge against two Republican opponents for the District 26 senate seat vacated by former Senate Speaker John Wilder.

With all precincts reporting, Gresham collected 4,899 votes, or 38 percent just ahead of Bob Shutt's 4,797 votes, or 37 percent. Tim Linder had 2,949 votes, or 23 percent.

TEP PAC congratulates Mike Stewart

Reports are that Mike Stewart has run away with the House 52nd District race. Congratulations, Mike.

Steine Resolution passes 25 to 8

Councilman Ronnie Steine's resolution requesting voters not sign the English-only petition and not vote for the ballot measure passed 25 to 8, but not before a little procedural drama. Councilman Foster, while disliking the language of Councilman Crafton's ballot measure, dislikes even more telling voters how to vote. So he not only spoke against the Steine resolution, but he moved to defer it. Steine countered with a tabling motion, which handily disposed of the resolution to defer. It passed 23 to 11.

More later.

10:24 p.m. And we're back. What surprised me was how small the crowd was. Three of us from TEP were there observing. Leaders of the Hispanic community were in attendance, but not in large numbers. The citizens on both sides must be saving their powder for the ballot measure. Council members Steine, Holleman, Barry, and Maynard spoke in favor of the resolution. Steine's first speech got quite a bit of applause, a reaction that also greeted passage of the resolution.

Voting in favor were Garrett, Barry, Tygard, Steine, Maynard, Matthews, Hunt, Murray, Jameson, Coke, Forkum, Ryman, Burch, Page, Moore, Durbin, Gilmore, Langster, Evans, Holleman, McGuire, Toler, Coleman, Todd, and Mitchell.

Voting against were Craddock, Bennett, Gotto, Claiborne, Baker, Crafton, Dominy, and Duvall.

Abstaining were Foster and Wilhoite.

Absent members were Harrison, Jernigan, Stanley, Adkins, and Hodge.

Time to change Don't Ask-Don't Tell

Here's my piece in today's Tennessean.

Shock and Naw

The folks at Emily's List are shocked by Nikki Tinker's campaign ads in the 9th District congressional race. You never know what your money's going to do when you turn it loose.

But at least they are distancing themselves from the ads. According to Mr. Kleinheider, not everyone has spoken up yet.

The Germans aren't the only ones coming to Chattanooga

The Latino population is growing quickly in the Chattanooga area:

According to 2007 population estimates released this morning, the Hispanic population of Hamilton County and the surrounding 20 counties has grown almost 60 percent since 2000, compared to 5 percent growth in non-Hispanic groups.

Here's how the region is adapting:

Responding to that trend, Erlanger [Health System] has introduced bilingual patient guides, patient’s rights forms and elevator signs, as well as adding interpreters to the staff, she said.

Other organizations and institutions are addressing the Hispanic growth as well, according to Ms. [Mirtha] Jones [director of Plaza Comunitaria].

“Nearly everywhere you go the signs are bilingual,” she said. “It’s more visible than it was five years ago.”

Dr. [Douglas] Bachtel [a demographer at the University of Georgia] said churches, public safety departments and businesses eventually must take notice of growing Hispanic populations. Law enforcement agencies across the South are recruiting Spanish-speaking officers, and many churches offer Spanish services or ministries, he said.

No mention of English-only ballot measures.

City Council resolution calls for audit of Memphis Police Department

In response to the police beating of transgender detainee Duanna Johnson, the Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee of the Memphis City Council approved a resolution calling for an investigation by the Internal Audit Department. The audit will review Memphis Police Department policies, procedures and the citizen complaint process.

The full council will likely vote on the resolution at its August 19 meeting. See WMCTV5 for more details.

Chair of Memphis City Council Resigns

City Council Chairman Scott McCormick announced that he will resign his position to become executive director of the Plough Foundation. McCormick was one of the few returning members of the previous City Council term that included two resignations from ethics scandals and criminal prosections. McCormick sought censure of then council members Rickey Peete and Edmund Ford, Senior after the two were charged in Operation Main Street Sweeper.

The City Council will appoint an interim replacement that will hold the seat until Memphians in Superdistrict 9 elect a new council member for Position 1 on November 4th. More on the story here and here.

Many of the following candidates who live in Superdistrict 9 and placed well in last year's council elections may decide to run for the open seat:

• Desi Franklin and Mary Wilder who placed second and third, respectively, to Reid Hedgpeth in Superdistrict 9, Pos. 3.
• Brian Stephens who placed a close second to Bill Boyd in District 2 (inside Superdistrict 9).
• Kemp Conrad and Joe Saino who placed second and third, respectively, in the Superdistrict 9, Pos. 2 race to Shea Flinn.
  

Carol Chumney who ran for City Mayor and formerly represented City Council District 5 and State House District 89 may also decide to run for re-election to the council.

Conservative is the word in Rutherford County

Just about everyone running for Legislature in Rutherford County is trying to claim the conservative mantle. That's what the quotations from the Daily News Journal would indicate. The paper talked to several of them at a candidate forum at the Rockvale Community Center on Monday.

Joe Carr, a Republican running for House District 48, is fiscally conservative and the same goes on moral issues. But he also wants term limits. "We need term limits in the Legislature," he said. "Almost 90 percent of incumbents out there keep getting re-elected because they use their money and power at the Legislature to help with their campaigns." Never mind that the voters picked them.

Jon Jaques, one of his primary opponents, thinks there's something to the fact that the "budget has grown four times faster than personal income." Even if that's true, I'm not sure what the connection is. In terms of immigration, "The problem is that we don't know who the people in our county are," he pointed out. I'd never thought of it that way...just like the budget analogy.

If Democrat Rick Parks is a conservative, the paper didn't note it. His wife, Lisa, was at the event, since Mr. Parks was working at the Fire Department at the time. She said her husband understands the needs of working families and knows what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck. Moreover, she said Rutherford County is a place Rick Parks is "proud to call home." Not much to argue with there.

Democrat Tim Tipps believes a power higher than the Speaker will be of help if he gets elected: his faith in God will help guide him to the House. But he also talked about the budget that was on everyone's mind, "We've got to deal with the economy and be fiscally conservative," Tipps said.

Republican Lou Ann Zelenik is running against the Governor. She criticized money being spent on the governor's mansion, "including an underground party room which is not a necessity," while "MTSU needs a new science building." No one asked whether she'd support a science wing of the Governor's mansion and an underground party room at MTSU. Someone ought to poll the students on that. I'll give her credit, though. Of all the Republicans running against the Governor from whom I've seen comment, she actually picks a vulnerable point of attack.

Down right Outright Libertarians!

Outright Libertarians, the GLBT division of the Libertarian party, has started a Nashville area provisional chapter. From their press release:

Unlike our friends in the Stonewall Democrats and Log Cabin Republicans, Outright Libertarians have broad based support in the our party and need not fight for basic recognition of our equal status in society. In the Libertarian Party, GLBTQ individuals start with the assumption of equal status and equality under the law.

In contrast to other parties, the Libertarian Party has included sexual rights, including equal marriage and adoption, equal military service, and the end of sodomy laws, ever since its first national platform in 1972. We're very happy with our party and its platform, our main job is to reach out to the LGBT community to explain why Libertarians offer better solutions to our community than any of the other political parties.

Alternative Energy Suggestions from Democratic Candidates in Senate race

There are three major Democratic candidates hoping to unseat incumbent Senator Lamar Alexander in November. Aside from the positions they might hold on LGBT issues, I am always interested hearing candidates' ideas for alternative energy resources. Before I entered social work and mental heath as a profession, I worked for the oil and gas industry in Texas and New Mexico for a year with degrees in geology. One of the reasons I left the industry is that I really did not want to be part of a corporation that wasn't addressing our nation's need to convert to greener energy resources.

In today's Commercial Appeal, at least two the Democratic candidates for Senate have some interesting ideas for alternative energies in West Tennessee:

[Mike] Padgett said Memphis "has a great workforce and the platform I stand on is bringing jobs there. We don't need to bring windmills to Memphis but we need to bring windmill manufacturers -- and manufacturing jobs for solar power.

"I think this new biological strand of highly cellulosic sugar cane -- once that develops as a renewable source of energy -- I think that's going to be the next cotton crop for the region around Memphis."

[Bob] Tuke said the city can build itself as alternative energy manufacturing center, using Sharp's Memphis plant and its production of photovoltaic cells for the solar power industry as a model. "One thing we're going to do for sure is focus attention and tax credits on solar and wind energy. With Sharp already having a major role in solar energy, that can be a big focus for Memphis.

"The other thing I think we need to focus on for Memphis is the now-commercialized cellulosic ethanol production." He said land in West Tennessee that is marginal for other farming is ideal for switchgrass and black cottonwood trees in ethanol production. "And a refinery can be built east of Memphis that will benefit from that and be a boon to the city, especially with the river and pipelines and the potential for shipping ethanol.

I really think that growing high-yield energy producing crops like corn and switchgrass on agricultural land that could be used to grow food is short-sighted. Ultimately we use more energy just to harvest and produce such crops. I do like the idea of embracing more solar and wind power. Democrats and Republicans also need to get on board with building more nuclear power plants in our country. Nuclear power is not renewable, but it certainly leaves the air a lot cleaner than fossil fuels. Nuclear technology is safer than it used to be. We just need to convince Nevadans that they will just have to bite the bullet and store the nuclear waste that results from power production at the long-studied Yucca Mountain facility.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn passes

Russian author, dissident, critic, and survivor Alexander Solzhenitsyn has died at 89. Most famous in the West for The Gulag Archipelago, which I read in amazement years ago, Solzhenitsyn's documentation of the evils of Soviet forced labor camps ultimately helped bring down the Communist regime.

A giant of human rights, he was paradoxically a critic of the West, too. And he saw it up close from his time in Switzerland and Vermont before he returned to Russia in 1994.

As a young man, he embraced Marxism, but the operationalization of its Soviet version was more than enough to provoke a lifelong repentance and embrace of Orthodox Christianity. In old age, he looked like a Russian holy man and was something of a staretz with few disciples in the 1990s. The Telegraph explains:

In 1990 he published a 16,000-word manifesto, entitled Rebuilding Russia, in which he advocated a return to a monarchic nation, "one and indivisible", with the emphasis on stern local government, by pre-Revolutionary-style zemstvos. With the "alien" Central Asian Muslim states cast off, there was to be a central role for the Orthodox Church. A democratically elected leadership, maintained the dissident, was not really desirable.

Solzhenitsyn will long be a hero to the West for showing the power of words and ideas to undo tyranny. His use of the same tools to build up authority will continue to confound and perplex us. But he reminds us of the mystery of Russian particularity, and that's a good lesson as Russia regains its footing in the world.

Memory Eternal, Alexander!

Campfield vs. Williams

Rep. Kent Williams (R-Elizabethton) is supporting Ron Leadbetter in the Republican primary against Rep. Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) with a check and quotation that appeared in a Leadbetter mailer, according to Tom Humphrey. There's been plenty of name-calling back and forth (in print and online, at least) between Williams and Campfield. Campfield attacks the conservative credentials of Williams, while Williams considers Campfield's legislative moves juvenile.

Rep. Campfield believes that the support of Williams for Leadbetter will actually help him:

"It just shows you who the conservative is in this race and who is going to support conservative ideals," said Campfield in an interview.

Ron Leadbetter isn't having any of that, though:

"Stacey and I don't have any major differences on big issues," Leadbetter said, but "the way we deal with people is dramatically different."

Leadbetter's website, which is basically a resume and a donation portal, doesn't mention his opponents in the race. Rep. Campfield's blog discusses the article and the controversy.

Pelosi wants Edwards for VP (no, not that Edwards)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gushes about Texas Congressman Chet Edwards on ABC's This Week:

Pelosi told ABC’s "This Week" that “for years, our colleagues have said to him, why don't you run for president? He is an extraordinarily talented person. He is a champion for veterans in the Congress. Under his leadership, we have passed, including just on Friday, the biggest increase in funding for veterans' health benefits and other benefits in the history of our country."

Edwards doesn't appear to be well known in Tennessee. I only found one contribution of $500 or above in the last few election cycles. While Tennesseans may not know him, Wal-Mart does. Despite the recent controversy about how their leaders may or may not be telling employees how to vote, Wal-Mart has given him $10,000.

Early voting turnout low around the state

That's what they're saying in Hamilton County. Just over 8000 took advantage of the opportunity. Low turnout in Knox County also seemed to be on the minds of the editors of the Knoxville News Sentinel as they wrote in yesterday's editorial about the last chance to vote early. In Madison County (Jackson), just under 3000 people had voted early. As of Wednesday, fewer than 1500 had voted in Putnam County (Cookeville). Fewer than 2700 had voted in Rutherford County by the same date. There was a "spike" in early voting in Shelby County on Wednesday, but only 3.5 percent of the county's voters had turned out by the end of the day Wednesday.

When I voted in Davidson County on Thursday, there were more people holding signs for candidates than there were voters.

The reason typically cited is the lack of hotly contested county-wide races around the state. One certainly cannot blame the candidates. In Davidson County, the school board candidates have worked hard at getting their message out. And I think the same is true in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. With many incumbents not seeking reelection in the Legislature, there were more than the usual number of competitive Republican and Democratic primaries--Rutherford County being a prime example. The Democratic primary in the 9th congressional district has also been lively.

But I think the media is ignoring its own lack of coverage of the election as part of the problem. Part of citizenship is finding out for yourself what is at stake in an election. But that's also the responsibility of the media, particularly the leading the newspapers in the state.

Messages matter

Wayne Besen has an interesting column on the subject of hate speech. He compares the desires of social conservatives to shut out speech about GLBT people and the harsh rhetoric leveled at liberals on cable and talk radio as a way of tracking the power of media messages. Can social conservatives have it both ways? In other words, how can they say discussion about GLBT issues in the media "promotes" homosexuality (which means the media have power) while simultaneously denying that their own hateful rhetoric influences tragedies like the one at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church?

What I find hypocritical is that the Religious Right will take any image it deems gay and claim it “promotes homosexuality.” This even extends to fictional characters such as Tinky Winky and Sponge Bob Square Pants. Yet, these same oversensitive preachers refuse to acknowledge that their mean-spirited sermons might lead to violence.

Safe to be a liberal? Knoxville News Sentinel looks at the discussion

A good set of questions are raised at the Knoxville News Sentinel's site about the connection between the coarsening of public rhetoric and the tragic shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. There is also a good set of links to editorials, videos, and blogs about the subject.

See also David Waters' blog at Washington Post.

Eaton and Alexander respond to Knoxville Church shooting (updated)

Since the original post, Senator Alexander has responded via Lee Pitts, his press secretary. This statement is to be attributed to Mr. Pitts:

“Senator Alexander was deeply saddened by last Sunday’s events. His thoughts and prayers are with the families, children and community affected by this tragedy."

---

Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Kenneth Eaton has responded to my questions about the attack on the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and the Matthew Shepard Act. The last part of his answer may be similar to the feelings of Bob Tuke, whose campaign has not returned my email asking him if he has a statement. But, like I said, the campaign hasn't returned my email, so it's impossible to know. Here is Mr. Eaton's email response in full, which he gave permission to be posted:

I do support the Matthew Shepard Act.

No matter your ideology, what happened in Knoxville is disheartening, and inexplicable. This is such a tragedy, our hearts and prayers go out to everyone involved, but my campaign is not going to use it for political gain.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Eaton

Conservatives draw on core values in response to Knoxville Church shooting

Greg Johnson has a thoughtful piece in today's Knoxville News Sentinel that discusses conservative responses to the tragic shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. He notes that many conservatives in East Tennessee have been "jarred" by the apparent anti-liberal motives of the shooter as well as the debate over the influence of prominent conservative authors. Johnson's column is part of the healing process, just as First Baptist Church's decision to host a prayer service for the Knoxville community. Regardless of whether there is agreement about the policy implications of this tragic event, it is helpful to have an honest dialogue that squarely confronts the questions. Johnson does so poignantly. In his own words:

Some prominent East Tennessee conservatives were wrestling with the question when I spoke to them earlier this week. One noted that a core conservative value is the sanctity of human life. Another spoke of the worth of the individual being a fundamental conservative concept. Both spoke of the need for vigorous yet civil and peaceful debate of important issues.

But some conservative commentators, especially those selling books or ad slots on television or radio, go too far to shock and awe. Our culture - from Hollywood to online communities to cable television to talk radio - has coarsened. Too many on both sides of the political aisle have forsaken dialogue and debate for diatribes.

By some accounts, the suspect despised those different from him, be they liberals, blacks or gays. Though the community has started down the road of healing, our differences will remain. Debate will - and should - continue. Regardless of ideology, though, one timeless truth will still apply: "In the essentials, unity. In the nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity."