Runoff Shifts Further Toward O’Connell

On Election Day, the top two mayoral candidates — runner-up Alice Rolli and vote leader Freddie O’Connell — were separated by 7,012 ballots. With six more weeks of campaign time before the Sept. 14 runoff election, Rolli and her people likely sketched out a path to victory that banked on low turnout in left-leaning Davidson County, reactionary energy from suburban Nashville and voters splitting right from losing centrist campaigns. They did not plan on a toxic scandal broken by the Nashville Banner that aligned Rolli with the Proud Boys, an emblem of the Trump right, or O’Connell’s nearly complete consolidation of support among the race’s former candidates — two developments that have defined runoff August and put O’Connell in the catbird seat heading into early voting.

At campaign events, views on taxes (Rolli has pledged not to raise them) and city bureaucracy separate the candidates. Joint appearances lack any interpersonal attacks between Rolli and O’Connell, and even policy critiques between the two come out politely oblique, leaving political junkies nostalgic for the nonstop condescension of 2019’s Cooper-Briley runoff. The two candidates have met publicly at three forums since the general election.

“At two of the three, we were offered rebuttals — neither of us felt particularly compelled to jump in,” says O’Connell on the extremely staid nature of the runoff. He speaks to the Scene by phone following an inopportune COVID diagnosis that the District 19 councilmember shares with at least seven chamber colleagues. “We’ve been comfortable enough with our own ideas to put them forward and allow voters to choose without trying to take a swing or tear down the other’s platform.”

In the background, the race has shifted neatly for O’Connell. A couple weeks after Election Day on Aug. 3, Matt Wiltshire, Heidi Campbell, Jeff Yarbro and Jim Gingrich had all lined up behind O’Connell with their own cute endorsement messages. Together these four candidates accounted for 40,000 votes in the general election — a solid center still big enough to be the foundation of city politics. Kept intact, it could have delivered a runoff spot to Wiltshire, Yarbro or Campbell. Split, it leaves the race for O’Connell, who reports “productive ongoing conversations” with Councilmember At-Large Sharon Hurt and Davidson County Property Assessor Vivian Wilhoite, the race’s two leading Black candidates.

Rosetta Miller Perry, publisher of The Tennessee Tribune — a historic and influential newspaper focused on Nashville’s Black community — endorsed O’Connell (and opposed Rolli) in a staunch Aug. 14 editorial. O’Connell also took the firefighters’ endorsement. FW Publishing owner and 2015 mayoral candidate Bill Freeman (who owns the Nashville Scene) endorsed O’Connell on Aug. 17.

The Central Labor Council of Middle Tennessee, the Service Workers International Union (which represents Metro employees) and the Nashville Business Council all announced support for O’Connell in the past two weeks. Rolli holds support from the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police. Fran Bush and Stephanie Johnson — who finished 10th and 11th out of 12 mayoral candidates, respectively — have lined up behind Rolli.

While O’Connell was winning the center, Rolli was losing it. A few revelatory Google searches prove that McShane LLC, the political consulting group that messaged and ran Rolli’s campaign, has pretty strong ties to the most vile elements of the nation’s far right. Rolli flyers were obsessed with Nashville crime and spun protests as riots, blasting provocative headlines on images of Nashville burning. McShane employees have contested the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, as have its clients, including U.S. Reps. Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs and Bob Good, who voted against certifying its results. Earlier this month, the Rolli campaign parted ways with Woodrow Johnston — her McShane campaign consultant who previously worked with the Proud Boys, a far-right pseudo-militia. Three weeks after Aug. 3, more than a few thousand votes separate the two campaigns.  

Early birds can head back to the polls starting Friday, Aug. 25 — about when O’Connell will emerge from CDC-recommended isolation. Early voting ends Sept. 9, while 2023’s protracted campaign season will end Sept. 14, when runoffs for three council districts, four at-large seats and the mayor’s office will, finally, produce our final victors.