Mayor Phil Bredesen is planning a fundraiser later this year, presumably to help replenish his political fund, which is used to cover expenses that cannot appropriately be funded with taxpayers’ dollars.
Bredesen supporters who’ve heard about the upcoming event, which has yet to be scheduled, have been hoping the fundraiser would be a kickoff for a 1998 gubernatorial campaign. After all, Democratic candidates need to get started soon if they expect to catch up to Gov. Don Sundquist, who’s already amassed $3 million for his reelection effort.
But if Bredesen is planning a fundraiser, his contributors will have to be told whether the money is intended for Bredesen’s mayoral account or to help finance a statewide race. The state’s 1995 campaign-finance law says that, if elected officials have raised money for local purposes, they can’t use it to finance a statewide campaign.
When it was passed, the legislation was nicknamed the “Legislators’ Incumbency Act”; it was intended to keep powerful county executives and other local officials from using their own sizable local campaign accounts to challenge state legislators. But even if the Legislature had not passed the 1995 provision, it’s highly likely that Bredesen would still go ahead and make his intentions clear.
The mayor learned his lesson several years ago. Before he announced his intention to run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1994, and even before the primary race began, Bredesen held a mayoral fundraiser. When he decided to run for the governorship, he felt he should give the money back. After all, he figured, contributors had thought they were financing his reelection effort, not a governor’s race. Some contributors wrote new checks to support Bredesen’s first foray into statewide politics. Other Republican givers held onto their cash or gave it to then-Congressman Don Sundquist, the Republican nominee.
Bredesen clearly seems to be keeping his options open. The closer the 1998 governor’s race gets, however, the more he looks like a potential candidate.
State Democratic Party Chairman Houston Gordon says he doesn’t know for sure when fund-raising to finance the challenge to Sundquist will begin. But, he says, now is not too soon.
When it comes to fund-raising, Gordon says he’s “not sure there is such a thing as too early. If there is, then [U.S. Sen. Bill] Frist’s forum was a tad early.” The first-term U.S. senator recently staged a $500-a-head fundraiser at the BellSouth tower, even though Frist doesn’t face reelection until the year 2000.
Gordon also predicts that the Democratic primary race in next year’s election won’t be so crowded as the one in 1994, which started with 15 candidates. (Even when that number was whittled down, there were still so many candidates that they could scarcely fit on the same stage during the televised debate.) “It is my hope that we will not have a blood-letting primary,” Gordon says.
Instead, the state Democratic Party is interested in finding a single consensus-candidate around whom all Tennessee Democrats can rally. That sort of single-minded campaign would give the party better focus and would also contribute to a more concentrated fund-raising effort. Democratic contributors would not be nickel-and-dimed to death by a dozen-or-so candidates in the primary. Instead, they could direct their resources in one direction.
“I think the focus is on finding a consensus candidate, although I’m not sure there is one right now,” Gordon says. “The people who are being considered are obviously [Bredesen], Bill Purcell, Clayton McWhorter, Congressman Bob Clement, and John Tanner, to name a few.”
Gordon predicts that “there will be quite a bit of conversation and quite a bit of give-and-take among would-be candidates who have a real chance of winning.”
For the asking
While Democratic honchos weigh the party’s chances against Sundquist next year, less ambitious office seekers are mobilizing their forces for the local mayor’s race in 1999.
Former Nashville Mayor Dick Fulton, who wants just one more trip to the trough, is, to no one’s surprise, the most active of the bunch. Although he denies it, several people within Fulton’s close circle of supporters say the former mayor has already called on them, asking them to raise $25,000 each when the time comes.
Fulton downplays his efforts, stating—incorrectly—that organizing his fundraisers at this time would be illegal. “If we asked for commitments, we would be in violation of some of the state’s campaign finance laws,” he says.
Potential candidates can talk political strategy all they want and may solicit the help of their friends until the cows come home. What they can’t do is take a check from somebody until they file a formal report saying they plan to run for office.
Where’s Ray?
Middle Tennessee’s best-connected road contractor has a résumé that’s five pages long. Ray Bell, one of those guys people either love or hate, is often sought out to serve on various boards and commissions, not-for-profit or otherwise. He’s been very active, for example, in the Tennessee Arthritis Foundation and the Tennessee Society to Prevent Blindness.
But Bell also has his fingers in a variety of of government pies. And it looks as if—however harmlessly—he’s doing a little double-dipping.
Bell serves on Metro’s prestigious Sports Authority, a post which requires that he live in Nashville. And indeed he does own a home on Cleeces Ferry Road and is registered to vote in Davidson County.
Meanwhile, Bell also serves as a commissioner for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA). For TWRA he represents Williamson County, where his construction business is located.
If Bell’s addresses are causing any confusion, it should all be straightened out soon. He’s been appointed to a new term on the TWRA, this time as an at-large member.
Reach Liz at 244-7989, ext. 406, or e-mail her at liz@mail.nashscene.com.
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