Gilmore Goes With the Flow

On Monday morning, At-Large Metro Councilmember Erica Gilmore, a candidate in Nashville's unexpected mayoral race, announced that she had changed her mind on the transit plan that's up for a vote on May 1. Although she'd entered the race only two weeks before as a supporter of the plan, conversations with citizens about their concerns had convinced her, she said, that she could "no longer support" it. 

A few hours later, Gilmore was on hand at the Tennessee Supreme Court for arguments in the case about whether the mayoral election should be held in May or August. She told reporters that she felt the election should be held in August. (And there's reason to believe that would be advantageous for the council member. Her mother, state Rep. Brenda Gilmore, will be on the ballot then too, for a state Senate seat.)

A transcript:

Gilmore: I think it would cause a burden on the election commission. [To have the election in May.] I do disagree with that part. And I do think it could confuse the voters, even though they're saying it's an appropriate amount of time, just because I'm thinking about the quick turnaround and what has to be published and getting the information out and the printing and things of that nature.I do think it would be burdensome in terms of cost. So I do disagree with some of those points that were made. I think we want to hold the integrity of elections, but we do want it to be done in a way that is non-chaotic, and I do think that would cause a little bit of anxiety amongst voters to hear, right after we have one election that we would go right into another one, when it had been decided Aug. 2 at first, to move it up. I don't know how you get that messaging out through media clearly enough to let people know that, hey it's not going to be Aug. 2 but that it really will be May 25 or May 21.

Reporter: So you think it should remain in August?

Gilmore: I do, in terms of to maintain the integrity at this point, not turn it into something very chaotic. It's not clear to me how do you get that messaging out to the voters when we're going into a May 1 election. There's a lot of noise out there. And I don't know how you get that message back out there again.The election commission, even though they can do it, sometimes those ballots are printed months ahead, so we're talking about squeezing something that's usually done in months into weeks. What I heard was that the conversation was around the general election and what is really a general election, so they offered up their interpretation of what they thought the general election was and they took it from there.The election commission has always operated in integrity and honesty. They're a neutral body, and so to make it look otherwise I think causes distrust and confusion among the voters, which is something that we don't need at this time. 

Welp, the Supreme Court

that the election must be held in May and Gilmore's position seems to have evolved. 

A statement released to media last night:

As I said when I launched my campaign — I’m running this year, rather than next year, because of what Dr. King called "the fierce urgency of now." Nashville needs a mayor with a strong mandate from the voters. The sooner Nashvillians can have an elected mayor, the better.

This election is larger than any one individual. Nashvillians want a champion for the middle and working class. As I travel our great city, I see a rising tide – a vast movement – of Nashvillians who can’t wait. I’m running to be their champion. There’s a hunger and a yearning for bold, visionary leadership to ensure Nashville has a large, vibrant, and growing middle class. This agenda is too important to wait.

A fundraising pitch sent to supporters included the same "the sooner, the better" bit. 

"The Tennessee Supreme court has ruled that our election date will be at the end of May and I'm all for it," she said.

Curious.

Through spokesperson Charles Badger, the campaign says we're totally wrong about this in a statement: 

There’s no daylight between those two statements. The Councilwoman’s position remains the same; it has not changed. These are two separate issues that must be distinguished.

First, it is vital that the man or woman who occupies the Mayor’s Office be elected to that office. This is why we have elections. We currently have an acting mayor who was not elected to that office by the voters. It is urgent we fill that vacuum, because as the Councilwoman said when she announced — she’s running this year because a city Nashville’s size needs more than temporary placeholder mayor to just keep the seat warm. The scale of challenges that confront our great city cry out for mayoral leadership. This is why — as she’s also said from Day One — it’s imperative that we have a mayor with a strong mandate from the voters. We need a leader with a vision, and a mandate to enact that vision.

Second, it is also obviously true that holding an election this fast poses various logistical challenges. Asking the election administrators to run two elections with two sets of ballots in less than a month is hard. Plus, there is added cost to the city. And transparency requires that adequate notice must be provided to the voters so they’re informed. Furthermore, asking our citizens to go to polls twice in less than 30 days runs the risk of depressing turnout. And everyone in a democracy should want more rather than fewer people to vote. As one example, lots of middle and working class folks have to take off work to vote. It’s a burden to ask them to do that twice back-to-back, and on short notice.

Thus, there are both pros and cons to holding the election sooner rather than later. It is possible to want the election to be soon, while — at the same time — acknowledging the challenges posed by doing so. There is no contradiction whatsoever there.

In any case, as we blog the Davidson County Election Commission has set the official date of the mayoral election.

.