The hot air is blowing on Capitol Hill again. This time the huffing and puffing surrounds the question of who will be Hardy Mays’ successor as Don Sundquist’s legal counsel. Now that Mays, 48, is moving up to replace Sundquist’s departing deputy, Peaches Simpkins, his position is open.
:In Nashville political observers tend to be insular, always assuming that cabinet-level replacements will come from Nashville rather than from other parts of the state such as Memphis, which is Sundquist’s home base. In this case, it may indeed turn out that the governor is planning to dip into the lawyer pool right here in the state Capitol.
Names that have been mentioned include Mays’ recently hired assistant, Natasha Metcalf, a young black woman who graduated from the University of Tennessee Law School. The rap on Metcalf, however, is that she is too young and too inexperienced for the job. If she were to be named the governor’s legal counsel, it’s likely she’d still be acting pretty much as an assistant to Mays, who would be doing a sort of double duty.
Local attorney Gif Thornton is another whose name has surfaced. A loyal member of the GOP establishment, Thornton is also a lobbyist and a member of the Davidson County Election Commission. Also mentioned is attorney Will Long, former chairman of the Davidson County GOP.
But perhaps the name most often mentioned around Nashville is that of Paul Ney, managing partner at Doramus & Trauger, a small but prestigious outfit with offices in the Southern Turf building on Fourth Avenue.
An aggressive Vanderbilt law school graduate, Ney maintains a Republican political ideology in an otherwise very Democratic firm—partner Byron Trauger is a heavyweight Democratic supporter, a Friend of Bill, and a crony of Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen. Ney has risen through the party ranks and has developed relationships with both Sundquist and Mays. Recently appointed to represent the state in an important court case, Ney would shake things up if he got Mays’ old job.
Nevertheless, despite the speculation, it’s still quite possible Mays will be replaced with someone from somewhere else. After all, just a few weeks ago, the governor did bring in a new cabinet member, Wendell Moore, from Memphis. Sundquist could do the same thing again—in which case we just wasted our breath.
Yellow dogs
:Failed U.S. Senate candidate Houston Gordon is sounding more and more like a future Democratic Party chairman all the time. With the end to Chairman Will Cheek’s tenure coming next month, Gordon has quickly become the leading candidate to replace him.
Gordon’s star has risen, at least in part, because outgoing state Rep. Bill Purcell recently announced plans to head up a center focusing on children’s issues at Vanderbilt University’s Institute for Public Policy Studies. It’s unlikely that Purcell would bite off the party chairmanship at the same time.
Although the party chairmanship is currently an unpaid position—it’s been a salaried job in the past—it is, at least at times, more than just a part-time job.
Gordon, an affluent Covington attorney who’s been mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate in 1998, stops short of saying he’s going to campaign for the post, but he makes it clear he’s interested in the job.
“I’m interested in helping the Democratic Party in any way I can,” he said, speaking from his law office. “If the [Democratic] executive committee feels like that, I wouldn’t rule it out.”
Nominee No. 3
:Continuing our pretentious, but nevertheless noble, quest for highly educated, qualified, and Scene-minded candidates for mayor, we nominate Nashville attorney Dick Lodge for the city’s most important job.
Lodge is a former chairman of the state’s Democratic Party. Taking the helm in the early 1980s through 1988, he was able to steer the party back to a moderate path, and he helped heal it after a number of setbacks that the party suffered in the 1970s. He even helped the party regain its dignity after the scandal-riddled administration of Democratic Gov. Ray Blanton, who was eventually convicted of selling liquor licenses.
More recently, Lodge abandoned his quest for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1994 when Mayor Phil Bredesen jumped into the race and took away much of his support. That said, Lodge has been a strong supporter of Bredesen and has been lauded for his work as chairman of the city’s Sports Authority, which oversees the goings-on of the massive $300 million football stadium project.
A likable guy, a sturdy Episcopalian, and the husband of the well-respected education activist Gina Lodge, he is an attorney and lobbyist with Bass, Berry & Sims, one of the most well-regarded law firms in the state. Mayoral aide and former Scene columnist Phil Ashford once described the hoary law firm as the “champion of the overdogs.”
Lodge has strong connections to elite establishments—Bass, Berry & Sims, Vanderbilt Law School, and the University of the South. But he has also been a part of more modest and broad-based interests and efforts. In 1990, when he still had children in the public school system, he was an active member in the group, Parents for Public Education, which unsuccessfully supported a referendum for a tax increase to be used to support education.
And through his affiliation and leadership with the Democratic Party, Lodge has also taken an interest in those less fortunate than himself. In short, Lodge is well educated, successful, and smart. And he’s cool too. Conversation with him over a beer is comfortable. What more could you want in a mayor?
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