If the state legislative races have accomplished nothing else, at least they’ve provided us with a fat file of curious letters. There was Republican Roy Dale’s letter pleading for contributions and encouraging potential supporters to give $100 or less. That level of contribution, of course, would bypass the state’s campaign finance requirement for disclosure of contributions of more than $100. And there was Republican Vic Varallo’s letter calling for the ouster of Democrat Lt. Gov. John Wilder as Senate speaker, even though Wilder enjoys strong bipartisan support, including that of Gov. Don Sundquist.
The latest letter fiasco boils down to a little bit of inside baseball, and the details vary slightly depending on who’s telling the story. It involves legislative hopeful Bill Boner and a political operative who may have felt pressured—justifiably or not—to give her public support to the former mayor.
The operative is Pier Briley, who is married to the grandson of former Nashville Mayor Beverly Briley. She is a young political activist who served as campaign manager and treasurer for Democrat Mike Stewart. Stewart, an attorney at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, lost to Boner in the crowded August primary election for the District 52 House seat that is being left vacant by the departure of House Majority Leader Bill Purcell.
Stewart’s campaign, which garnered 38.2 percent of the vote, gained a lot of momentum by harnessing anti-Boner sentiment, but it was hamstrung by the simple mathematics of the situation. Stewart’s constituency, predominantly made up of young professionals and progressives, was the same group being targeted by consumer advocate Brian McGuire, who was also in the race. The race was further complicated by the fact that a perennial was on the ballot along with a political newcomer, Lamar Jackson, who jumped in for a moment, only to get out in order to support Stewart. However, Jackson left the race after the deadline for withdrawing; so, in the end, his name was still on the ballot on election day, even if he did get less than 1 percent of the vote.
When the race was over and Boner had been given a new political lease on life, Briley applied for a job at the House Democratic Caucus. She got the job; around the same time, Boner approached her to make sure he could count on her support. Despite Briley’s efforts to defeat him in the primary, Boner wanted to know that she now supported her party’s nominee. Briley assured him that he had her support. Then, Boner asked Briley to sign a letter of endorsement for his campaign, to be mailed to voters in the 52nd District.
This is where the stories diverge a bit. Briley told people close to her that she was reluctant to sign the letter because it could potentially alienate Stewart and those who had joined her in the effort to defeat Boner.
For his part, Boner says he did not get the impression Briley was reluctant to sign. He says their discussions were amicable and that he had even recommended Briley for the House Caucus job. In the end, after talking with her colleagues, who encouraged her to make her own decision, Briley agreed to sign the letter, which was mailed last week. But, insiders say, she would have liked it better if her name hadn’t showed up on the campaign literature.
Bench marked
Davidson County General Sessions Court Judge Penny Harrington, one of the most reform-conscious, and controversial, figures on the local bench, is considering a run for the office of Davidson County District Attorney General in 1998, the same year her position on the General Sessions Court comes up for election.
While Harrington says she is interested in becoming the county’s top prosecutor, she acknowledges she would not run against current District Attorney Torry Johnson, a popular local figure, if he chooses to run again for the eight-year term.
“I do think it’s a terribly important job, and I would be interested in it,” says Harrington, who is perhaps best known for her work on the county’s environmental court. She has been known to slap large—some would say exorbitant—fines on people who allow their lots to grow wild or let their animals terrorize neighborhoods.
Harrington says she thinks the district attorney’s job would provide “an opportunity to bring about some real changes.” Specifically, she cites the need for a better relationship between the district attorney’s office and the Metro Police Department. “The overall flow of communication is not as good as it could be,” she says.
Whether Harrington runs again for the bench or throws her name into the district attorney’s race, potential opponents will surely bring up her public relations nightmare dating back to several months ago, when she excused some of her own parking tickets.
Harrington says she’s no fool; she knows that the episode would be used against her. In hindsight, she says she realizes she made a mistake by dismissing her own tickets. But she maintains that she felt she was doing the proper thing at the time.
“I invite all of those who’ve never made a mistake to please vote against me,” Harrington says.
Pride of position
There is rancor among the Republican troops at the prospect that Gov. Don Sundquist may replace Special Projects Assistant Billy Stokes, long rumored to be leaving the governor’s office, with one of his former congressional staffers from Washington, D.C.
Often accused privately of not throwing enough bones to loyal worker bees from the local GOP, Sundquist is considering Wendell Moore as a replacement for Stokes. Moore worked for Sundquist while he was in Congress. The Tennessee Journal reports that he is also is an investor with the governor and the first lady in the Red, Hot & Blue restaurant chain.
Party loyalists are not pleased at the prospect of Sundquist bringing in a Washington, D.C., outsider to fill one of the most important jobs at the state Capitol. Many local Republicans argue that those who worked hard to get Sundquist elected to the state’s highest office should reap some of the rewards. These are the same people who are baffled that Sundquist would have chosen Democrat Peaches Simpkins to hold the second most powerful job in the state. Some of them are even more baffled that he’s kept her on the job.
To some recognition-hungry Republicans, a little political patronage doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
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