TNDP Chair Chip Forrester's Latest Video Address

Here you go:

In A Cold Gray Winter, Glimmerings of Hope for the TNDP

After years of losing ground across the state, and after suffering a crushing defeat of historic proportions in the November general election, it seemed that the Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) was headed for a bitter winter of discontent in January of 2009.  Worse yet, there was no sign of a 'son of York' to brighten the long dark winter ahead.  Then, surprisingly, in the midst of one of the coldest, grayest winters in decades, hope for Tennessee Democrats flickered from at least four different directions in the bleak winter of 2008-2009:

1. In a Byzantine coup d’état, Tennessee House Democrats succeeded in electing a rogue Republican (St. Rep. Kent Williams) to the position of Speaker of the House. This in spite of the fact that Republicans had just won control of the TN House for the first time since Reconstruction and in spite of the fact that the Republicans had settled on their leader, ultra-conservative St. Rep. Jason Mumpower, to become the new Speaker. It was no doubt a back-room political deal of the 19th century kind, but it showed that all 49 House Democrats working with only one off-the-reservation Republican could still wield real political power in Nashville. It was an ice-cold shower for TN Republicans... and it got the TNDP out of the  political intensive  care unit.

2. The defeat, by a large margin, of the English-only amendment to the Nashville city charter. Supported by a wide range of Democratic elected officials, religious organizations, business groups and progressives of all stripes, the anti-English-only campaign crushed the far-right effort to make English the only language used in Music City government. Although credit for this progressive victory truly belongs to many people, the lion's share of the praise goes to Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and - most especially - to long-time Democratic Party organizer, Jim Hester. Many Democrats, and probably most progressives, thought the effort to stop the English-only madness would be nearly impossible. Instead, a broad coalition of Nashville groups, under the masterful leadership of Mr. Hester, made it look easy.

3. The election of Chip Forrester as Chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party. Although he was a long-time member of the Democratic Party establishment, Mr. Forrester's run for Party Chair was accompanied by an acknowledgment of the Party's failures and a sincere effort to reach out to all of the Party's base. He travelled the state to seek support from all elements of the TNDP and made numerous pledges to take the fight into enemy (Republican) territory. Chip's vigorous and inclusive campaign quickly garnered the necessary votes to assure him of election to the the post of Party Chair. Bizarrely, only after he had wrapped up the election, did many elected Democratic officials announce their discomfort with Chip and threw their support to another candidate.  It was totally strange, especially since the reasons offered by establishment Democrats for opposing Forrester were weak at best. Maybe it's one of those Paul Harvey 'page two' kinda of things - you know, 'the rest of the story'. Maybe in time we will find out the true reason(s) for their dislike of Forrester, but no statements yet made in public sufficiently explain the top Dems opposition to Forrester. We hope they'll get over their resistance to the new Party Chair and move on.

4. The announcement by State Senator Andy Berke (D-Chattanooga) that he is considering a run for Governor in 2010. Sen. Berke is one of the most able and appealing elected officials in the state.  A gubernatorial run by him would give the Democratic Party the chance to nominate a candidate for governor who could connect with all segments of the TNDP.  Berke would, in our opinion, stand a very good chance of winning the state house. A potential Berke for Governor campaign could well be the brightest hope Tennessee Democrats have seen in a period where we've already gotten more than our share of good news. Run Andy run!

A Few Words About Our New Look

As a follow-up to my post yesterday, I wanted to take a couple for minutes to point out several changes in the look of ElectBlue's home page. We have:

- Made modest changes in the top banner, reflecting the numerous Democratic victories in November;

- Changed the Obama campaign direct-link icon to that of the White House website. How sweet, that!

- Removed all direct-link icons to the 2008 campaign websites of the US Senate candidates we supported. All of those contests are long ago decided, with the exception of that of Al Franken in MN. However, we expect Franken will eventually be declared the winner there. He at least has sufficient funds to pay for the remaining required legal efforts;

- Removed the direct-link icon to Nashville For All of Us, following the thrashing of the English-only crowd's effort to amend Music's City's Charter.  Another sweet victory!

- Retained the direct-link icon to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and added a direct-link icon to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). After all,  November 2010 is just around the corner!

- Most importantly, we have added a direct-link icon to the Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP). We are very encouraged by the recent selection of Chip Forrester as State Democratic Party Chair. He and the TNDP are going to need a lot of funding to bring the party back from the wilderness. Given the inexplicable resistance to Mr. Forrester by some of TN's highest elected Democrats, it's particularly important for progressives to donate as much as they can to the TNDP. This direct-link icon provides an easy and totally secure way to do that.

All previous posts remain easily accessible from the archive, where they are sorted by year and month on the left-hand side of the home page. An index by topic of the entire blogsite can be found in the lower left portion of the home page. Readers wanting to know more about ElectBlue, or wishing to contact us, can always click on the appropriate icon  on the left-hand side of the home page.

No Harmony in Music City

On the heels of their most crushing election defeat since Reconstruction, you'd think that the (few) Tennessee Democrats remaining in elective office would try to make nice -- at least to each other, at least in public. 

Think again. 

Both Sean Braisted and The Nashville Scene's Jeff Woods are reporting that Democratic Governor Phil Bredesen is letting it be known that he doesn't trust TN State Representative Gary Odom (D-Nashville). Odom is fighting to retain a key leadership position (which will now be Minority Leader) of the Volunteer State's House Democratic caucus. Bredesen is seen as a supporter of soon-to-be-former Houser Speaker Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington) for the Minority Leader job since Naifeh will lose his Speaker of the House position when the GOP takes control in January.

News of this discord came to light in a story by the Associated Press, citing emails from the governor's office expressing "trust issues" with Odom. Sending an email to the AP was a sure-fire way to keep the dispute out of the public eye - not!  Bredesen and Odom apparently have long standing bad blood between them, dating back to the days when both served in Nashville's Metro Government.

Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way, but having a public food fight between Tennessee's Democratic Governor and a top-ranking Democrat in the state legislature just doesn't seem like a good plan.

Update (Nov.21): According to The Nashville Tennessean, State Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley) will challenge Odom for the Minority Leader post. Fitzhugh appears to have the support of Gov. Bredesen. Rep. Naifeh's plans, if any, for a leadership position in the new TN House are unclear at this point.

h/t: PostPolitics