Governor Phil Bredesen is undergoing rough treatment these days from
the legislature and elsewhere. Not only was the governor’s veto of the
guns-in-bars bill overridden handily by both the state House and the
state Senate, with some verbal abuse of Bredesen thrown in for good
measure (see Cover Story, “Mere Anarchy”), but last week the governor’s
much-vaunted “energy efficiency” bill — designed, among other
things, to establish uniform statewide building codes for residences
— ran afoul of an ambush in the House.
The bill was deluged with what seemed an endless number of
amendments offered by both Democrats and Republicans, many of them
attempts to exempt this or that county — usually rural —
from coverage. In the end, time ran out on legislators whose weekend
schedules depend on Thursday-afternoon departures from Nashville.
Sponsors resolved to try again this week.
As final deliberations on a budget loomed for this week and next,
Dave Goetz, Bredesen’s finance commissioner, had more bad news:
Sales tax revenues in May were disappointingly low and may require the
state to dip into its reserve or “rainy day” fund for an infusion of
$100 million to balance the budget. The governor also faced stiff
resistance from the Tennessee State Employees Association regarding his
plan to eliminate 717 filled positions by the end of the next fiscal
year.
Current expectations are that budget deliberations will keep the
legislature in session at least through next week.
• The abrupt departure of Bill Hobbs of Nashville from
his job as communications director of the Tennessee Republican Party
— announced last Thursday by new state party chairman Chris
Devaney — was probably inevitable once Devaney survived
intraparty intrigue and won out over two rivals to win the chairmanship
the previous week.
Before making his bid for the chairmanship (against opponents
Oscar Brock of Chattanooga and state representative Eric
Swafford of Pikesville), Devaney had served as state director for
U.S. senator Bob Corker, who had publicly objected to official
actions taken by Hobbs and the party chair he served, Robin
Smith.
Rightly or wrongly, Hobbs was widely regarded as a mentor and alter
ego for Smith, who resigned her chairmanship last month after
announcing her candidacy for the 3rd District congressional seat next
year. The two of them drew public rebukes from both Corker and the
state’s other GOP senator, Lamar Alexander, on two notable
occasions.
The first provocative act was a party press release circulated
during the 2008 presidential campaign, referring to then candidate
Barack Obama with pointed reference to his middle name of “Hussein,”
suggesting that Obama had anti-Semitic support, and misidentifying a
native costume worn by Obama during a visit to Kenya as “Muslim
garb.”
The other circumstance was a YouTube video prepared by the
Hobbs-Smith team that expressed skepticism about Michelle Obama’s pride
in being an American.
Besides their direct criticism on these two occasions, the two
senators, both famously urbane in manner, were thought to be generally
uncomfortable with the red-meat rhetorical approach favored by Hobbs
and Smith, though they gave pro-forma support to Smith’s continued
service as party chair.
More recently, there had been rumors in GOP ranks, denied by
Devaney, that he had been privately impugning Smith’s job performance
during her tenure as chairman. One of those making the charge was
Memphian Frank Colvett Jr., the state party’s finance committee
chairman, who said, “I can’t stand by and see a good chairman’s
integrity questioned in the name of winning a campaign.”
But Devaney did win, and the announcement of Hobbs’ departure was
one of his first official acts. Though the new chairman insisted that
Hobbs had not been dismissed and would maintain a connection with the
state GOP in some sort of consultantship, he was vague about the
question of a long-term relationship with the party for Hobbs. There
has been much speculation in state political circles of late about the
possibility of Hobbs serving as a campaign aide in Smith’s
congressional race.
If indeed Hobbs’ over-the-top polemical style figured in his leaving
his communications post, it would not be the first time his penchant
for extreme statements forced a job change. Before taking the state
party job, he had worked at Nashville’s Belmont University as a media
relations specialist and blogging coach.
That relationship came to an end in 2006 after Hobbs posted on his
personal website a cartoon caricaturing the prophet Mohammad that was
considered inflammatory to Muslims. Hobbs’ cartoon had been published
in the aftermath of worldwide Islamic resentment of a provocative
cartoon published in a Danish newspaper.
Hobbs later disavowed his own cartoon, calling it “appalling” and
something composed “in a moment of weakness.”
It should be noted that Hobbs had his admirers — including a
grudging sort from certain political adversaries — like Memphis
blogger Steve Steffens, a Democratic partisan whose “LeftWing Cracker”
site regularly took issue with Hobbs.
But, wrote Steffens/Cracker in a valedictory of sorts, appended as a
comment to Adam Kleinheider‘s Nashville Post report on
Hobbs’ departure: “Personally, I think this is a mistake. You can say a
lot of things about Hobbsie, and I’ve said most of them, but I would
never call him ineffective. He fired up the base and moved the message
in his direction, which is what a communications director is supposed
to do. They will regret this; as a Democratic partisan, I am relieved
that he is gone.”
• Bredesen isn’t the only chief executive forced recently to
bite the bullet. Formally, Memphis mayor Willie Herenton was a
co-equal partner with Shelby County mayor A C Wharton and other county
officials in Monday’s press conference announcing the transfer of the
Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center to the county’s jurisdiction.
But, aside from a few preliminary remarks, Herenton was an unwontedly
mute bystander as Wharton and Health Department director Yvonne Matlock
fielded media questions. One thing was clear: Unlike the recent trade
in which the city offered previously withheld funding for the Health
Department in return for the county’s relinquishing interest in the
Pyramid, there was no apparent quid pro quo for the city in the MSARC
matter.
• Still running alone as a candidate for county mayor in 2010,
Shelby County Commission chair Deidre Malone was the beneficiary
of two fund-raising events last weekend. Bank of Bartlett president
Harold Byrd is considered all but certain to oppose her in next
year’s Democratic primary but hasn’t yet made a formal announcement. As
Malone notes, it’s now less than a year before next year’s countywide
primaries. Republicans have been slower than Democrats to express
interest in the county mayor’s race, but Malone’s commission colleague
George Flinn has confided to her and others an interest in
running on the GOP side. Meanwhile, the other political Flinn, city
councilman Shea Flinn, has apparently resisted efforts —
from his father and from certain of his councilmates — to promote
him as a candidate for city mayor.
• City court clerk Thomas Long last week publicly
reiterated his intentions of switching venues as a candidate for county
clerk in next year’s elections. Long had previously considered a race
for mayor but discarded the idea. Though most observers reckon Long as
the favorite in the race, he may face a stiffer than expected challenge
in the Democratic primary from wrestling entrepreneur and former
grappler Corey Maclin, who has already formally announced and
held a series of fund-raising events. The clerk’s job has in the last
few months become a hot potato, with multiple indictments of office
employees for a variety of improprieties and illegalities, including
extortion. Incumbent Debbie Stamson, a Republican, has not been
implicated but has served notice that she isn’t running for
reelection.
