Oh, Well, If Rep. Mumpower Says It’s Fair

On May 28, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Today, Tennessee House Republicans won another round in their assault on free and fair elections in Tennessee. Take it away, Knoxville News Sentinel Nashville bureau chief Tom Humphrey:

The House’s 50 Republicans, including Speaker Kent Williams, united today to give their party control of the State Election Commission.

SB547, which has already passed the Senate, would add two Republicans to the commission, which now has a 3-2 Democratic majority. With the 50-45 approval of the House today, the bill now goes to the governor.

Democrats roundly criticized the bill. For example, Rep. Henry Fincher, D-Cookeville, said it was part of a Republican “assault” on the election process.

House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower, however, said the bill is fair. Republicans now have a majority of legislative seats and control all 95 county election commissions.

Why did they feel the need to change the makeup of the election commission, you ask? Well, because they can. And because they had the “leverage” to do so. Here’s a video of two State Senators threatening the House – either give us two more members and the majority on the State Election Commission or we will let the Election Commission die:

Senator Norris: Correct. It’s moved out of committee. I think it’s on the desk of the floor of the House. And that’s where it met it’s potential demise and I just think everybody should realize if it meets its demise there then the State Election Commission will meet its demise here [Senate Government Operations Committee].

Senator Jack Johnson (Senate Government Operations Committee Chairman): And so what I wanted Senator Norris to address in this committee is, uh, we will roll this for one more week – we hope that next week will be our last committee meeting for Senate Government Operations, so they essentially have 7 days to either deal with this issue or we will be more or less forced to allow the State Election Commission to sunset.

For those keeping score at home, here are the other weapons of mass election destruction in their arsenal this year:
1) The delay of implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (HB0614 / SB0872) State Election Coordinator Mark Goins is leading the fight to keep the paperless touch-screen voting machines we use now in 93 out of 95 counties because they a) can be easily manipulated to change vote totals and flip votes from one candidate to another, b) provide no mechanism for a meaningful recount in the case of close elections, and c) increase the length of time it takes for each voter to cast a ballot thereby suppressing the vote by allocating too few machines in certain areas and creating long lines and long waits.

2) The replacement of all county Election Administrators with partisan Republicans.

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As the House Turns

On January 28, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

TN House Ethics Committee streaming live right now (10 am Central). The members are moseying – Chairman Jones, Turner, Mumpower, Odom, Harwell, et. al..

Will What will happen to Speaker Kent Williams? Find out now on As the House Turns! Dun-dun-duhn!

UPDATE: TN House Ethics Committee just recessed at the behest of Rep. Gary “Swingset” Odom to try and decide if the complaint against Williams is in their jurisdiction. (Swingset. He likes recesses. Get it?) Reconvene at 1:00 PM.

UPDATE II: More deets from Kleinheider.

UPDATE III: Those intrepid correspondents on the scene are reporting that Rep. Brian Kelsey, who brought the ethics complaint against Speaker Williams, is none too pleased with the lack of action on the part of the committee. From Woods at Pith:

“This is a complaint about sexual harassment and about lying to cover it up. Clearly this committee came in here with the idea that they are going to cover up this whole issue and not even investigate this. It’s really absurd.” …

“I don’t know where this committee is going right now, but if they came in here not ready to investigate it then that’s the wrong attitude to have when you’ve got serious allegations of sexual harassment and of lying about it to the public.” …

“I came here ready to have a hearing. We’ve got several members who were witnesses to this. To deny them the opportunity to comment on this is a travesty. The reason Representative Lynn is not here is that she had major feelings of stress this morning and she is in the hospital and unable to make it here. This is a serious charge. This is not a joking matter.”

If Rep. Lynn is indeed in the hospital because of the stress, we hope she gets the pharmaceuticals she needs. But since neither her staff nor other House Republicans seem able to confirm Kelsey’s report, he has some explaining to do. Is he so consumed by his obsession with his personal vendetta against Speaker Williams that with all the eyes of Tennessee’s best political reporters on him he’s attempting to create his own own reality to further his case? Disingenuous at best, delusional at worst.

Oh, and remember that mysterious person that attempted to interrupt this morning’s proceedings? The one we couldn’t see if we were watching the live streaming? If you thought it was an unhinged spectator who doesn’t understand Robert’s Rules of Order and wasn’t mature enough to contain his or her emotions, well, you were spot on! From Punk Rock in the Whitehouse:

When that committee convened this morning, Chairman Rep. Ulysses Jones (D-Memphis) asked the legal counsel whether the committee had jurisdiction over the case. Staff attorney Doug Hines said that he did not believe it did and that the matter is the domain of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Tennessee Human Rights Commission.

The statement caused Kelsey to jump out of his seat and say that he had an avenue in which the matter could be heard, to which Jones quickly banged his gavel and said Kelsey was out of order and had not been recognized.

UPDATE IV: During their short 1:00 session, Rep. Beth Harwell (R) made a motion for the ethics committee to NOT go ahead with hearing Kelsey’s complaint. The motion carried unanimously.

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Perhaps Threats Don’t Work as Well as You Thought

On January 13, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

It’s always been impressive to watch Republicans fall in line – no matter what maneuverings might be going on behind the scenes, the unified front presented to the public is enviable. Democratic politicians, on the other hand, with their thinking for themselves and differences of opinion and not keeping a cork in it sometimes come across as disorganized and chaotic.

But today, with the election of Republican Speaker of House Kent Williams – nominated and seconded by Democrats – we see that the threats that often keep Republicans in line don’t work with everyone.

Since the elections we’ve watched as newly minted Tennessee Republican Senate and House Majority leaders have closed ranks and boasted of their unbreakable coalition. A coalition built on threats and hubris.

Some are warning liberals and progressives to be careful of celebrating the election of Speaker Williams. After all, he was nominated and put in power by the same “corrupt” Democrats who had no use for us and our progressive causes. Others say, well, he’s still a Republican, after all.

But what has happened in the Tennessee House today is historic and may mean a break with the politics of the past, similar to what’s happening on the national stage. What Tennesseans have in their new Speaker is a moderate Republican who, rather than fall in lock step, broke with his party and worked with Democrats to secure his leadership. And as such, he most likely won’t fall in lock step with House Democrats either.

Rep. Kent Williams may be the key to moving some progressive public policy forward while keeping the most divisive culture war legislation at bay.

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Voter Confidence Act Passes House 88 to 6

On May 13, 2008, in Uncategorized, by Mary Mancini

Thanks to your emails and phone calls, Representative Gary Moore’s HB 1256, the Voter Confidence Act, passed on the floor of the Tennessee State House today 88 to 6. Thanks also to all the bill’s co-sponsors – Rep. Janis Sontany, Rep. Mike Turner, Rep. Sherry Jones, Rep. Brenda Gilmore, Rep. Ben West, Rep. Mary Pruitt, Rep. Jim Coley, Rep. Hardaway, and Rep. Joanne Favors. Props also to Bernie Ellis, Deborah Narrigan, Martha Wetteman, Dick Williams, Thelma Kidd, and Alma Sanford, and all at Gathering to Save our Democracy*. They’ve been working since 2006 for this and even though there is one more hurdle to jump – it has to pass in the Tennessee State Senate this week as well – they should be given a standing ovation.

Again, it still has to pass in the Senate so it’s time to get on the phone one more time. You can find your State Senator here. Once again, the message is: “I am counting on you to vote in favor of SB 1363, the Voter Confidence Act, when it comes to the floor for a vote.”

Dear Senator ______________,

I am a constituent of yours, and I would like to ask you to vote in favor of SB 1363, the Voter Confidence Act. It is expected to be ready for a floor vote in the next few days. If passed, this bill will ensure that we vote on durable paper ballots that are tallied by an optical scanner, and retained in a locked ballot box. These paper ballots also become the ballot of record in case a recount is necessary.

This new system will replace the touchscreen electronic voting machines, offering us verifiable ballots, no long lines at the polls, and a system that is less expensive for counties to use.

The cost of changing our voting equipment will be met with federal funds already held by our state.

I look forward to your voting YES to SB 1363. Thank you for your attention to my views on this critical issue.

Sincerely,
Name
Address
Phone Number

Go Senate!

It also might be nice to drop a quick note to your representative thanking them for their vote!

*Not to mention Jim Jones out in Williamson County, Jane Hardy, Lynn Williams, Shannon Williford, Linden Williford, Ann Williford, Holly Quick, Joe Irrera, Phil Scoggins, Elizabeth Barker, Chick Westover, Barbara Jones, Joyce Kisner, Mary Louise Linn, and Dave Thomas.

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Voter Confidence Meeting

On January 16, 2008, in Uncategorized, by Mary Mancini

Tomorrow, Thursday, January 17, at 9:30 a.m., the legislature’s Voter Confidence Act Legislative Study Committee will meet to discuss SB 1363 (Senator Haynes), HB 1256 (Representative Moore) – legislation that will mandate that all voting equipment in Tennessee use or produce a voter-verified paper ballot and that statewide random post-election manual audits be conducted to verify the vote count. More information here.

Go to VoteSafeTN.org to find all the information you need to contact the members of the committee and urge them to take immediate action so Tennessee may have secure November elections. And if you can, please attend the meeting.

The agenda [pdf] is interesting. Chairman Burchett has asked that Common Cause of Tennessee, Gathering to Save our Democracy, Secretary of State Riley Darnell, and State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson be present for questions/clarification from the committee. Hijinks will surely ensue.

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