Georgia plays a prominent, although louder, role at this convention, too

Posted on by Tammy Joyner

As the second of the two biggest political party events wraps up this evening in Chicago with Vice President Kamala Harris accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, all eyes in Georgia are turning to the grand finale — the Nov. 5 election.

“We are all energized because we know we are bringing back hope for our future,” political consultant Pat Pullar, one of 108 Georgia delegates at this week’s Democratic National Convention, told State Affairs. “We will register, educate and mobilize our voters because we must do the work to get the next POTUS — Kamala Harris.”

At the Republican National Convention last month in Milwaukee, Georgia’s delegates and Gov. Brian Kemp walked away inspired and ready to push toward November. 

“The conventions portrayed unified bases for both parties, more so than anytime in recent memory,” Georgia Republican strategist Brian Robinson told State Affairs. “Both parties telegraphed that they think working class voters will play a huge role in picking the winner and we saw overt appeals to that group.”

Continue reading “Georgia plays a prominent, although louder, role at this convention, too”

Lawmakers seek legislative-led budget process with overhaul

Posted on by Brett Stover

Lawmakers are weighing changes to how Kansas’ budget is developed with the aim of giving the Legislature time to dig deeper.

The Special Committee on Budget Process and Development met Thursday for the first of two meetings. The Legislative Coordinating Council established the interim body last month, with House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, calling the current process antiquated.

The Legislature is “on the precipice of a unique opportunity,” House Appropriations Chair Troy Waymaster, R-Bunker Hill, told the committee. The current process is compressed into only a few weeks, he said, advocating for systemic changes that would let lawmakers begin working on the budget prior to the start of session.

“I am very excited about the process. I have been frustrated the past few years,” Waymaster said. “We do have a very aggressive schedule. I don’t think it’s fair to our legislators.”

Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, have had conversations about the budget process over the past two years, and both leaders favor change.

“Just because we’ve always done something some way doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it,” Hawkins said.

Kansas, like most states, has a governor-led budget process, where the executive branch introduces a proposed budget that lawmakers revise during the session.

First Assistant Revisor of Statutes Jill Wolters shared the current budget development timeline with the committee: 

  • By Oct. 1, agencies file budget estimates for the next fiscal year.
  • By Nov. 10, the budget director notifies agencies of any revisions.
  • By Nov. 20, agencies may request hearings on revisions. 
  • By Dec. 15, hearings must be concluded.

After that, the governor submits a budget report by the eighth calendar day of the session or by the 21st day during the first year in office.

Some states handle the process differently, ​​said Dylan Dear, assistant director for fiscal affairs for the Kansas Legislative Research Department. He said 15 states take a hybrid or legislative-led approach.

Hawkins suggested empowering the Legislative Budget Committee to start developing a legislative budget in late October or early November and then bringing in the Ways and Means and Appropriations committees later in the year to flesh out the bill before the session starts.

“We’re going to have a big head start compared to where we’ve been since I’ve been here,” he said.

The budget process has changed over the past century since the Legislature created the office of budget director in 1925, Senior Assistant Revisor of Statutes David Wiese said.

In 1947, the Legislature created the Legislative Budget Committee, which met in the 1950s to analyze agency budget requests prior to the session.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve had these discussions,” Wiese said.

The Legislature updated the original schedule and structure in 1953, creating much of the system Kansas uses today. Wiese said that from the 1960s through the mid-1990s, the governor’s budget was introduced through separate bills, split between the chambers.

But in 1996, the governor’s budget recommendations were introduced through the omnibus appropriation bill for the first time. Over time, the number of appropriations bills has drastically decreased: from 83 in 1939 to 35 in 1969 to just two a year by the turn of the century.

“Maybe the timeline fit when the budget was the size it was in 1925, but when you look at our budget today, I’m not sure the timeline still fits,” Rep. Pam Curtis, D-Kansas City, said.

The Legislature has ceded its authority to the executive branch over time, Hawkins said, though he emphasized that the issue has nothing specifically to do with Gov. Laura Kelly.

Sen. Jeff Pittman, D-Leavenworth, disagreed with Hawkins’ assessment and said he doesn’t think the Legislature “has ceded control to anybody.” Pittman compared the executive branch to a company’s CEO and lawmakers to its board of directors.

“We are in full control of that budget bill,” he said.

The Legislative Budget Committee still exists, but Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, said it doesn’t regularly meet. Waymaster suggested expanding the committee’s role and asking it to develop a legislative budget during the interim period.

Nothing in statute would preclude the Legislature from developing its own budget the way the executive branch does, Waymaster said.

“We don’t have to overthink this,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be that complicated.”

Hawkins said he favors a change that requires provisos to go through a committee and not just be added through a conference committee at the last minute. He told lobbyists, who he said will be “chattering” about the proposed changes, that he’s serious about limiting provisos.

“I’m a man of my word,” Hawkins said. “And when I say I’m tired of provisos, they better be listening.”

Introducing a legislative budget bill on the second day of the session, based on the previous year’s budget, is the “skeleton” of the proposed change, Waymaster said. He asked lawmakers to come to the second of the interim committee’s two meetings — expected to be held in September — with “meat” to put on that skeleton.

Brett Stover is a Statehouse reporter at State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected] or on X @BrettStoverKS.

Security considerations evident in Trump’s return to outdoor rallies

Posted on by Clifton Dowell

ASHEBORO — Increased security measures were evident as Donald J. Trump and a crowd of thousands gathered Wednesday for the former president’s first outdoor rally since he survived an assassination attempt last month.

Much has changed behind the scenes since July 13, when Trump was grazed by a bullet at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attack killed a spectator in the stands behind Trump and seriously wounded two others.

A congressional investigation into security lapses has begun, the U.S. Secret Service detail assigned to Trump has grown in number and the agency’s director, Kimberly A. Cheatle, has since resigned.

“American presidential candidates must be able to campaign as they see fit and choose while remaining safe,” said Dallas Woodhouse, state director of American Majority and a former executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party. “The Secret Service has to make that happen.”

Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump addresses Asheboro supporters from behind ballistic glass in the wake of an assassination attempt at an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania in July. (Credit: Clifton Dowell)

Onstage at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame in Asheboro, the 45th president spoke from behind a barrier of  bulletproof glass. The Washington Post reported on Aug. 15 that the Secret Service had secured ballistic glass to use at future outdoor events as well. 

The bolstering of Trump’s protective detail came from shifting part of the team assigned to President Joe Biden, which became possible due to Biden’s reduced travel schedule after he ended his bid for a second term in office, an unnamed official told the newspaper.

Large storage containers and semi trailers were used to block distant views of the stage. The area directly behind the stage — an airport runway on which several vintage planes were parked, as well as the woods beyond — was not obstructed.

Portable storage units line the perimeter of an outdoor rally by Donald J. Trump to block distant views. (Credit: Clifton Dowell)

A man who lived nearby said the wooded area had drawn special attention by security officers leading up to the event. “There have been people in those woods for days,” Johnpaul Harris, a 79-year-old retired sculptor, said.

The area was also watched over by sniper teams posted on the roofs of the buildings on both sides of the stage. The threat to Trump in Pennsylvania ended with the shooter being killed by a Secret Service sniper. 

A security officer checks a rooftop prior to an outdoor rally by Donald J. Trump in Asheboro, North Carolina, on Aug. 21, 2024. (Credit: Clifton Dowell)

One perceived weakness of the Pennsylvania security plan — failing to use drones to watch nearby rooftops — was apparently addressed in Asheboro. A drone could be seen hovering to the northwest of the site for several minutes before Trump took the stage Wednesday.

The Secret Service declined to comment on any changes in its approach to outdoor security for Trump. “In order to maintain the highest level of safety, we simply can’t go into specifics on any enhanced security efforts or our protective means and methods,” spokesperson Melissa McKenzie said in an email to State Affairs.

A sniper-team spotter stands atop an airport building during an outdoor campaign rally by Donald J. Trump on Aug. 21, 2024, in Asheboro, North Carolina. (Credit: Clifton Dowell)

Unlike the Pennsylvania campaign stop, where onlookers outside the event could see the proceedings, Wednesday’s event could only be seen by attendees who had passed through metal detectors. With Trump scheduled to speak at 2 p.m., supporters began lining up at 7:30 a.m. 

Several hundred people were still working their way through security at 3:10 p.m., an hour into Trump’s speech. 

About an hour after the event concluded, local police cited a 79-year-old Hillsborough man for possessing a firearm at a parade. The man allegedly displayed the weapon during a traffic altercation, WCNC reported.

For questions or comments, or to pass along story ideas, please write to Clifton Dowell at [email protected] or @StateAffairsNC on X.

Tennessee deadline for RFK Jr. withdrawal passes without notice from campaign

Posted on by Erik Schelzig

While Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been widely reported to be planning to be preparing to withdraw from the presidential race, his campaign didn’t meet a Thursday deadline to pull his name from the ballot in Tennessee.

Kennedy had submitted the requisite 250 signatures of registered voters to get on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate in Tennessee. The deadline to be removed was noon on Thursday. 

As a practical matter, Kennedy’s inclusion is not expected to make a big difference in Tennessee, where Republican Donald Trump has pulled heavy majorities in both of his prior bids for the White House. In 2016, Trump won 61% compared with 35% for Democrat Hillary Clinton. In 2020, Trump topped Democrat Joe Biden 61% to 38%.

In 2020, Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen was the top independent vote getter with 1%, followed by Kanye West’s 0.3%.

In both of the last two presidential election cycles, Trump carried every Tennessee county except Davidson, Shelby and Haywood. The last Democratic ticket to carry the state was Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1996.

Confident in his GOP primary contest, Ragan spent part of election day in Nashville

Posted on by Andy Sher

On the day of Tennessee’s Aug. 1 primary election, state Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, spent part of his day in Nashville attending a joint House and Senate Government Operations Subcommittee meeting. 

Asked by The Tennessee Journal at the time why he wasn’t back home making last-minute voter appeals, Ragan voiced confidence his reelection was in the bag. Instead, GOP primary challenger and former Clinton Police Chief Rick Scarbrough won with nearly 53% of the vote. 

Ragan is challenging the results, saying the well was poisoned by Democrats who crossed over to vote for Scarbrough in the GOP primary. Ragan, a former Air Force pilot, has appealed that to the state Republican Executive Committee which is expected to meet on Monday evening as the state primary board to decide whether to take up the issue. The panel has been loath to do so in the past. A group of Republican elected officials in Anderson County released a letter urging the party not to take up the challenge.

“The Tennessee Republican Party should be in the business of governing and championing conservative values, not overturning election results because of disagreements and throwing out the votes of thousands of Republican voters,” according to the letter signed by a group of Republican officials who had supported both candidates during the primary.

Scarbrough has said he became aware of Ragan’s plans to challenge the outcome of the election as early as July 24.

Ragan was not the only incumbent who showed up at the Government Operations Subcommittee meeting on election day. Rep. Mary Littleton, R-Dickson, was briefly in attendance too. But once it was determined the panel had a quorum, she dashed home to hit polling stations, a lawmaker recalled. Littleton won her bid comfortably.

The lawmaker cast doubt on Ragan’s chances of prevailing within the Republican Party’s State Executive Committee. But he noted, “it’s the SEC so who the heck knows. They’ve been on a jihad for quite a while about closed primaries.” Moreover, the lawmaker said, Ragan “feels honor bound” to pull out all the stops in his effort to overturn the election.

“He genuinely feels like Democrats voted in his election and non bona fide Republicans. You know Ragan, he is ultra specific on things and ultra analytical.”

But the lawmaker predicted that the SEC “will gripe and moan and fuss and moan and say, oh God, we’ve got to close the primaries — and then turn him down. 

“By the way,” the Republican lawmaker added, “it wasn’t the best time to be having a GovOps meeting.”

Opinion: Tonal differences between DNC, RNC

Posted on by Jack Colwell

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — For many decades, a difference in tone of flag-waving patriotism was evident in the back-to-back national political conventions. Each party, then as now, stressed policies deemed best for America.

Democrats pointed more to problems — unemployment, health care, war in Vietnam. Republicans talked more, as Ronald Reagan did, about America as “a shining city upon a hill.” 

Patriotic music played for balloon drops at each convention. Republicans were just a bit louder in their cheers for the land of the free. Democrats cheered as well, but with just a bit more restraint as they fretted over restraints on freedom.

There still are different tones at the national conventions. More pronounced than ever. But it’s the reverse of what it was. 

The Democratic National Convention speech by Steve Kerr, coach of the USA Basketball Men’s Olympic Team and the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, exemplified the difference in tone.

 “USA! USA! USA!” delegates chanted again and again, loudly and proudly, hailing America’s dramatic wins in men’s and women’s basketball and other Olympic competitions.

Kerr praised American stars on his team in Paris for “putting aside rivalries to represent our country.” He looked to a future when all Americans would be on the same team — united, not divided. He also smiled and joked while delivering his message.

At the Republican National Convention, a glowering Donald Trump portrayed America as having become “a banana republic.”

Trump describes America not as “a shining city upon a hill” but as a nation in decline, “going down the drain.”

Kerr noted he had appeared before in front of a big crowd at Chicago’s United Center. He played there with the Chicago Bulls on championship teams. He said young people wondering about that could google the name “Michael Jordan.” 

He spoke “coach to coach” to Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, who was in attendance. He joked that Walz, as a high school football coach, once put “way too much reliance on the blitz in 1999 against Mankato East.”

Well, he said that’s the type of second guessing that he and other coaches face.

Walz laughed. He also likes to joke and laugh.

That’s a part of the difference in tone. Do you laugh if the theme is that the country is beset with problems, going down the drain?

Trump doesn’t laugh. He denounces the laugh of Kamala Harris.

The difference is also evident in the running mates. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, joins in glowering, warning that “childless cat ladies” lead Democrats with the intent to make America miserable.

Which approach will work? We’ll see. Historically, the “shining city” approach has worked, and so, at other times, has the warning of a nation in trouble. It depends on the times and the messengers.

A sports figure might not seem to be a very effective messenger. 

Kerr, however, long has been a thoughtful speaker on national issues, with his concern for matters beyond the basketball court going back to when he was 18. That’s when his father was assassinated in Lebanon in 1984 by militants while serving as president of the American University of Beirut.

He has spoken out passionately for gun control after school shootings.

Kerr told delegates that he believes leaders should display dignity, tell the truth, be able to laugh at themselves and care for the people they lead.

 “When you think about it this way, this is no contest,” Kerr said. He endorses Harris and Walz.

Closing with humor, not vitriol, Kerr said that after presidential results are tallied, “We can, in the words of the great Steph Curry, we can tell Donald Trump, ‘Night, night.’”

As Curry did, after hitting shots to doom France in the gold medal game, Kerr put hands to the side of his head to signal sleep time, next time, for Trump.

Jack Colwell has covered Indiana politics for over five decades for the South Bend Tribune. Email him at [email protected].

Opinion: Elections are more than politicians stumping for office

Posted on by Lee Hamilton

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — We’re almost to Labor Day and what is traditionally considered the heart of election season. It’s the moment, according to political lore, when most Americans start paying attention to electoral contests. That may or may not be true, but here’s one thing I think we can count on: This is when politicians seeking office are most eager to understand the mood and concerns of the electorate.

There’s a widely held belief that campaigning is a one-way street: Candidates for office tell us what they think, and voters either reward or punish them. It’s easy to see why so many people see campaigns that way. Candidates give stump speeches, flood the airwaves and online media with advertising, sometimes hold debates during which they try to sway undecided voters and in general are a ubiquitous presence in the run-up to voting. They fight for the media’s attention.

So, campaign coverage often makes it seem as though voters are an afterthought or, at best, a backdrop — unless something unusual happens as a politician is out campaigning. But let me assure you, however the media portrays voters, they are anything but an afterthought to a politician stumping for office.

I’m not just talking about polling here. Yes, an aggregate picture of what’s on voters’ minds does matter to candidates and their advisers. But so does what they hear from voters as they’re out on the hustings — in the VFW or union halls, at community suppers, in diners, at county fairs. Good politicians want to know what’s on their potential constituents’ minds. It helps them calibrate their own thinking, develop campaign strategies and, in an ideal world, become better representatives.

And there’s no question that people have a lot on their minds. Crime, immigration, the border, the economy, education, climate change, abortion, overseas conflicts — most voters possess a broad array of concerns. The best politicians understand that public sentiment is usually nuanced and that to strike a posture that all is rosy or that all is lost rarely fits with voters’ beliefs and experiences. The world is more complicated than that, and so are voters’ agendas.

To be sure, there will always be voters who care about a single issue more than any other. This year, as in the past, abortion and abortion rights appear to be big motivators for some people — especially because several states will have measures on the ballot focused on the issue. Similarly, I’ve no doubt that, after several years of increasingly damaging extreme weather, climate change will be top of mind for others.

There will be other important concerns. For some voters, it will be personal safety; for others, a sense that the borders are secure. For still others, it’ll be education. I think we can expect voters to pay attention broadly to whether inflation is, in fact, coming down and to any signs of an economic slowdown. And while foreign policy often takes a back seat to domestic concerns, I suspect voters will be looking closely at what this year’s presidential and congressional candidates say about the U.S. role in a world riven by conflict.

It’s true that sometimes, voters care less about public policy than they do about intangibles. I’m convinced, for instance, that likability matters a great deal when voters step into the polling booths, and though it might not override everything else, I’d argue that candidates who are positive, constructive, forward-looking and make us feel hopeful will always have a leg up over their opponents. Similarly, I’m convinced that Americans on the whole prefer candidates who display a basic sense of decency, who show compassion for others who are struggling and who show they understand the concerns of ordinary people.

Yet wherever your focus lies, this is the time when politicians at every level are listening. Even candidates who might not agree with you are still paying attention — as long as your interactions with them remain civil. So if you have a chance to hear candidates for Congress or your state legislature, give them a chance to hear what’s on your mind, too.

Lee Hamilton was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

Opinion: Hoosier female mayors have advice for Harris

Posted on by Brian A. Howey

CHICAGO — Until last November, Indiana was home to just one Black female mayor, Gary’s Karen Freeman-Wilson, who served two terms before she was defeated in 2019.

Last November, the so-called glass ceiling began cracking and falling away in earnest across Indiana. Democratic Vanderburgh County Councilwoman Stephanie Terry won the open seat in Evansville, the state’s third-largest city, while Democratic Councilwoman Angie Nelson Deuitch defeated Republican Michigan City Mayor Duane Parry with 60% of the vote the same day. In Lawrence, Councilwoman Deb Whitfield won the Democratic primary and then beat Republican Deputy Mayor David Hofmann. 

Last April, following the death of Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry, Councilwoman Sharon Tucker won the Democratic caucus to become the first non-white woman to serve in Indiana’s second-largest city. 

These four mayors have, thus, opened a new era in Hoosier politics.

Vice President Kamala Harris will take the Democratic National Convention stage tonight to accept the presidential nomination. She will become only the second woman to win a major party nomination in American history. The first, Hillary Clinton, told the DNC on Monday: “Together, we’ve put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling and tonight so close to breaking through once and for all.”

I asked Mayors Tucker and Nelson Deuitch this question at Indiana delegation breakfasts this week: If you were to have a conversation with Vice President Harris about what you’ve just been through and what is in front of her, what would you tell her?

“I would tell VP Harris the same thing she told me a month ago,” Mayor Tucker responded. “She grabbed my hands, imploring me to surround myself with people who believe in her and who want to make sure her vision and mission for these great United States is carried out.”

Mayor Nelson Deuitch added, “I’ve done the work already. I have the experience. I did two different terms on the council, but more than that, I was an engineer; I have a masters in public affairs, but people still questioned.”

Why is that? 

“I went into engineering school when there were no women engineers,” the Michigan City mayor said. “It takes time. Companies change; governments change. I just think it’s slower in government.”

Nelson Deuitch was president of the Michigan City Council when she ran in 2023. She operates I&D Squared, a consulting firm focusing on inclusion and diversity. Her leadership certifications, management experience and all-around tenacity allow her to reach, understand and meet people where they are without judgment.

Tucker’s community engagement has also been extensive. She’s a member of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Advancing Voices of Women and the NAACP. Tucker has also volunteered on the board of directors for the Allen County Public Library, Alliance Health Clinic and the Summit City Entrepreneur and Enterprise District. Before she was elected to the Fort Wayne Council, voters had sent her to the Allen County Council.

At March’s Democratic caucus, Tucker’s fiery speech won the room. 

“I’m the only candidate who stands before you who has all those boxes checked on her résumé,” Tucker said. “You see, as 6th District representative, I have had the pleasure of sitting at the table with developers and investors and telling them how great our city is and encouraging them to make investments. I fully understand government.”

The expectation is that tonight Harris will be in an energetic mode while offering a sharp contrast to Republican nominee Donald J. Trump. 

After she won the caucus on the second ballot, defeating Indiana House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta, a jubilant Tucker said, “Today you had the opportunity to make history by electing the first 5-foot-3 mayor. To be in a place where they’re fed, loved and cared for, that’s my vision for our community.”

She added, “As your mayor, I will create a new council where we can focus on mental health, because one of the things I know for sure is that individuals who are unhoused, many of them suffer from mental conditions. Instead of incarcerating them, let’s give them the care that they need.”

Mayor Tucker had this advice for Vice President Harris: “Enjoy the journey as she travels on. Being the first carries a lot of weight, but it also matters in all of the success of her activity and the things that she does day to day throughout the process.” 

I asked Tucker another question: What has it been like to break that glass ceiling in Fort Wayne, where you are not only the first female but also the first person of color to become mayor?

“It’s been both exciting and stressful,” Tucker replied. “I know there are a lot of people who are looking at me to see how I will respond and react to multiple things, where most of the time when there’s a man in charge, people can automatically assume the response. Coming from a female — an African American female — people are wondering what the responses will be until they get a chance to get used to me and how I serve. 

“And so Vice President Kamala Harris as president will have the same people looking at her to see what her responses and reactions will be,” Tucker continued. “But at the end of the day, she is a leader like I am, so I really believe she will lead us with grace and dignity.”

Mayor Nelson Deuitch added, “I’ve run departments, I’ve managed multiple units across multiple states, and yet it’s still one of those things where you have to prove yourself, even though I’ve already proved it. 

“All I can say is, as I watch the race, like last night when people lie or people try to discredit, you have to step up and support and tell the truth,” she continued. “You’ve got to make sure your team is ready to deal with those things, because as a Black woman in a nontraditional role there’s always a question.”

Has the Michigan City Council and her constituency been open to her leadership?

“Yes,” Mayor Nelson Deuitch responded. “Our council is one of the most diverse councils with all age groups. They understand I have an open door. I make sure they understand their roles and responsibilities and how to communicate.”

Mayor Terry told Evansville residents at her first State of the City address last winter: “One hundred days ago, we launched a new era in Evansville. We broke two glass ceilings, swearing in the first Black mayor and the first female mayor in the city’s 212-year history. The energy, the enthusiasm, the hope that I felt that day have carried us through these first 100 days as we’ve finished assembling our team and gone right to work moving Evansville forward.”

She added, “I knew I was going to be held to a higher standard, and I knew you were going to be watching. And I told you I was ready. I told you I was going to make sure Evansville is a city that works for everyone, and I knew you were going to hold me accountable for that. I knew I was going to hold myself accountable, too.”

Brian A. Howey is senior writer and columnist for Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs. Find Howey on Facebook and X @hwypol.

Come and knock on our door: GOP lawmakers get visits from Cothren investigator

Posted on by Andy Sher

In recent days, some Southeast Tennessee GOP lawmakers have been startled to find a private investigator knocking on their doors. Hired by the legal team of Cade Cothren, a former state House chief of staff, the investigator asked about their use in the past of taxpayer-funded correspondence and campaign services provided by then-Rep. Robin Smith.

Smith, a former state Republican Party chair, resigned from her House seat in 2022 after pleading guilty to a federal public corruption charge involving a kickback scheme that allegedly included Cothren and former state House Speaker Glen Casada, R-Franklin. 

Prosecutors say the trio used a political consulting firm, Phoenix Solutions, to illegally funnel money to themselves through both campaign and taxpayer-funded work, while keeping their involvement secret.

One lawmaker speaking on condition his name not be used, said the investigator came to his Southeast Tennessee home unannounced.

 “The whole idea was to catch whomever she could catch and say something they could use at trial. That’s my opinion,” the lawmaker said. “She said I’m working with so-and-so attorney and they represent Cade Cothren. I said, yeah, I know who he is.” 

The lawmaker said the investigator asked if he ever had any interaction with Cothren to which he said he replied, “not really, just in passing.”

Questioning then “turned and she started asking me just all kinds of questions about Robin Smith,” he said. “And I’m like, hmm, they’re trying to build a case and just pin this whole thing on Robin Smith because she’s turned state’s evidence. I said, well, I used her as a vendor one time, but I’ve used several vendors in my time.”

He said he was asked who paid the bill for work done for him. 

“I said what do you mean who paid the bill? She said when you did business, what kind of business, I said she did some printing and mailing for me. I said it’s a very common practice. She said who sent it, where did the invoice go. I said it came to me.

“She said: ‘Oh it didn’t go to your caucus? I said: ‘Why would it go to the caucus? It’s my campaign.”

Another lawmaker related a similar interaction with the investigator in which there were questions about not only the House but the Senate. He said it came off as a “search-and-destroy” effort.

“They want to show that this is a normal process and other people are just as guilty and they’re picking on [Cothren], that’s my guess,” he said. “That’s the way the questions were.”

Casada resigned from the speakership in 2019 following a racist and sexist text messaging scandal with Cothren and amid member discord over heavy-handed leadership tactics.

The trial is scheduled for Nov. 6. 

Previous investigator fired

A private investigator working for Cothren was fired last year for sending what a prosecutor called “threatening” emails to potential witnesses. Cothren’s attorney, Cynthia Sherwood, said in a court hearing in May 2023 that when the emails came to her attention, she fired the investigator within five minutes.

Sherwood described the investigator’s emails as more “unprofessional” than threatening, likening them to the style of an investigative journalist. While Sherwood stressed she didn’t stand behind the tone of the missives, she said the investigator was trying to raise “legitimate questions” about Casada’s successor — current House Speaker Cameron Sexton — including about alleged marital infidelity and whether Cothren had been “instrumental” in his rise to power.

Sherwood said the questions about Sexton are relevant because one of the government’s central theories is that Cothren engaged in the scheme to hide his involvement in Phoenix Solutions because House members wouldn’t want to do business with him due to his “behavior” when he was chief of staff. 

Cellphone fight

Smith is engaged in a legal fight with Casada and Cothren over cellphone data prosecutors inadvertently handed over as part of the discovery process. After investigators seized the mobile phone, they failed to apply filtering software to remove privileged correspondence between the former lawmaker and her attorneys before handing the information over to the defense team. 

When the mistake was discovered, prosecutors told Casada and Cothren attorneys to return the materials, but they refused. Smith argues in court filings that she never waived her attorney-client privilege. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson has yet to rule on the matter. 

Judges: Gerrymander case failed to prove racial motivations decided Tennessee maps

Posted on by Erik Schelzig

A panel of three federal judges dismissed a gerrymandering lawsuit filed by the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP and others on the basis that they failed to “plausibly plead that race predominated in the redistricting.”

“The complainant alleges facts that are consistent with a racial gerrymander,” the ruling said. “But the facts are also consistent with a political gerrymander.”

The judicial panel consisted of Eric Murphy of 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Benita Pearson of the Northern District of Ohio and Eli Richardson of the Middle District of Tennessee. Oral arguments over the motions to dismiss the case were held in Columbus, Ohio, in May. 

The complaint alleged that racial factors had predominated in Republican state lawmakers’ moves to redraw congressional districts in and around Nashville and a state Senate seat in Shelby County.

Under the old maps, the 5th Congressional District in Nashville had a Black and Hispanic voting age population of about 30%. When the General Assembly in 2022 split the city into three districts, the minority ratio dropped to 20% in the new 5h District, while it grew from 9% to 15% in the 6th District and from 14% to 22% in the 7th District.

The plaintiffs made a similar argument about state Senate District 31 in Shelby County, where the white voting age population increased from 58% to 70%. The district is currently represented by Republican Sen. Brent Taylor.

The plaintiffs noted that the “candidates of choice” for minority voters subsequently lost their campaigns in each of the newly drawn districts. 

Given Supreme Court rulings that have identified a “strong correlation” between race and politics, the opinion said, “a district that appeared to be drawn on racial lines instead might have been drawn to further a political objective.”

“The complaint must do more than plausibly allege that Tennessee’s legislators knew that their

Republican-friendly map would harm voters who preferred Democratic candidates — including the higher percentage of minority voters who preferred those candidates,” the ruling said.

The state was represented by four lawyers in Attorney General Jonathan Skremetti’s office and outside attorney Adam Mortara.

The ruling didn’t leave the state unscathed. The judges found the government had cited outside sources like recorded legislative hearings, news articles and a census official’s memo in its motion to dismiss, arguing the court could take “judicial notice” of them. 

“We are not so sure,” the judges said. “But rather than enter the debate, we will simply disregard the materials.”

Srkmetti’s office also criticized the challengers for failing to submit an alternative map that might have shown how political goals could have been achieved with less of a racial impact. The judges said the plaintiffs did not have to come up with an alternative plan.

The panel also rejected the state’s arguments that the plaintiffs waited too long to file their case — a frequent tactic by Skermetti’s office in defending state laws. The judges noted the challengers had disavowed any plan to seek relief before this year’s election, meaning there would be no undue burden on state officials.

The court dismissed Gov. Bill Lee as a defendant, noting that the law gives his office no “enforcement authority” to carry out elections under the redistricting plan. That power rests with the state election coordinator in the office of the secretary of state, who is appointed by the General Assembly. 

“The Challengers conflate the governor’s (non-mandatory) act of signing legislation into law with the governor’s duty (such as it is) to generally see to the enforcement of the law once passed,” the ruling said.

The dismissal was without prejudice, with the ruling saying it could be refiled if complainants can “plausibly disentangle race from politics.” The judges gave the plaintiffs 30 days to file an amended complaint.

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