With the legislature still in low gear and the dynamics of new Gov. Phil Bredesen’s relationship with the General Assembly still developing, the question of who will be the governor’s key ally in the state Senate is still open. But, the early betting line is beginning to favor Memphis Democrat Jim Kyle.
Unlike the larger state House, where the governor can work through the established leadership structure headed by Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, the Senate has been fairly chaotic since 1987, when John Wilder broke up the partisan structure to hang on to his job as Senate speaker. Since then, the 81-year-old Wilder’s leadership has been increasingly focused on his own survival, and many of the other key leadership spots are held by superannuated members. Moreover, the departure of Bob Rochelle, who had been the de facto Senate leader for a decade, has also left a void.
Kyle holds no particular portfolio, other than as vice chairman of the finance committee, but he is an able, astute veteran senator with a moderate outlook in line with the governor’s views.
Of course, as long as the only thing Bredesen is doing is cutting the budget, as opposed to finding ways to raise more money, he’s getting along great with the Republicans. The area he’s having the most problems with now relates to setting up the state lottery, where Sen. Steve Cohen, who has worked on the issue for nearly 20 years, is eager to push ahead with the program, while Bredesen wants to take a more cautious approach.
Not incidentally, Cohen and Kyle may share a hometown, but they’ve been bitter foes for most of their careers.
Carp-free Tennessee
One dyspeptic voice that has gone silent of late is TaxFreeTennessee.com.
Run by former Tennessee Republican Party chairman Tommy Hopper, the site kept up a four-year broadside at former Republican Gov. Don Sundquist and his efforts to push through a tax increase. It even featured a clock counting down the amount of time left for the Sundquist administration.
But with the succession of Gov. Phil Bredesen, the site hasn’t been updated. Bredesen’s focus on balancing the state budget without tax increases obviously jibes with the Hopper agenda, although it’s also clear that Bredesen probably wouldn’t have been able to bring the budget under control without the tax increase engineered by Sundquist and House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh before he was elected.
So for the time being, the anti-tax site is quiet, although one suspects some similarity to the former longtime Republican Congressman Jimmy Quillen, who announced after settling a long feud with Winfield Dunn in preparation for Dunn’s 1986 gubernatorial bid, “I’ve buried the hatchet. But I remember where I buried it.”
Investor beware
Following the recent appointment of former vice president Al Gore to the board of directors at Apple Computer, BusinessWeek reached back to the tongue-in-cheek observation of shareholder activist/money manager Robert Monk, who said that investors should make it a rule to short sell the stock of any company putting a former Tennessee senator on its board.
Among the reasons: Gore’s father, Albert Sr., was a longtime member of the board of Occidental Petroleum during a period of corporate misdeeds; Howard Baker was on the board of Waste Management Inc., which has been beset by a history of deceptive accounting practices; and Fred Thompson was on the board of construction company Stone & Young, which declared bankruptcy during his tenure.
In a longer commentary, BusinessWeek questioned the appointment of Gore, noting that while he could bring a lot to the company in some other capacity, the principal responsibility of board members—to oversee the performance and compensation of company officers—is an area where former politicians generally fail to excel.
Still, Gore may be able to outperform his former Senate Democratic colleague Jim Sasser, who eschewed board memberships after his electoral defeat to accept the post of ambassador to China. While ambassador, the U.S. embassy in Beijing was sacked by a mob enraged over the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia during the Kosovo campaign.
Thompson, meanwhile, can take some comfort that the ratings are holding up for Law & Order.
One quiet election year
It’s easy to forget that this is an election year for Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell.
Nobody—but nobody—is even floating a trial balloon for a race against Purcell. At this point during his first term, Purcell’s predecessor, Phil Bredesen, had several Metro Council members muttering about taking him on—Gary Odom and and Horace Johns, to name a couple.
A legitimate campaign by any of those people against Bredesen would have been a manifestation of delusional thinking, but politicians always like to stir up any speculation that will get them attention. Theoretically, the difference this time around could be attributable to the seriousness of the current council. More likely, though, is that it takes some tenure to develop a big enough ego to challenge a mayoral incumbent, and since the advent of term limits, none of the current council members’ heads have grown quite that large.
Either that, or they’re all just cowed by Purcell’s legendary crankiness.
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