Friday, September 14, 2012
Politics State Democratic Leaders Try New Strategy: Expect Defeat and Hope for the Best
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 9:04 AM
Another speaker, state House caucus leader Mike Turner (D-Nashville), made no effort to gild the lily, telling the Tennesseans that the twin catastrophes of the 2010 results plus adverse redistricting this year meant that, even in best-case scenarios, Democrats would be at a 3-to-1 disadvantage in the House. Even more explicit was state Democratic chairman Chip Forrester, who said the de facto legislative makeup in the wake of redistricting, with this year’s general election races yet to be run, is 24 Democrats in the state House, out of 99, and 8 in the state Senate, out of 33.
This isn't the first time Forrester has delivered this startling news to the party faithful. He got himself into trouble with Democrats by doing it in The City Paper a few months ago in an interview with Steven Hale. They were upset because they thought it meant Forrester was writing off a bunch of Democratic candidates as losers in November — all of them, in fact, except the few remaining incumbents. Even House Democratic leader Craig Fitzhugh didn't like it. Forrester insisted he was merely explaining the lay of the political landscape after redistricting. It sounds to Pith like he's also engaging in a little CYOA so as not to appear like a colossal failure on the day after the election. We don't think it's going to work.
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