Chris Crofton
Twenty-one candidates qualified to run for at-large seats on the Metro Council.
The campaign for at-large is unique. Because the top five vote-getters win, candidates typically remain positive, and surprising candidates can sneak into the winners’ circle.
Early voting for Metro Council and mayoral elections starts July 14, with Election Day following Aug. 3. A runoff, if needed, would come in September.
Our latest Q&A with an at-large candidate features Chris Crofton, a comedian, writer and musician. For many years Crofton also wrote the Scene's Advice King column, though that has been discontinued during the election.
Previously, we spoke with candidates Burkley Allen, Russ Pulley, Quin Evans Segall, Marcia Masulla, Jeff Syracuse, Zulfat Suara, Delishia Porterfield, Jonathan Williamson, Indrani Ray, Howard Jones and Arnold Hayes. This interview has been edited for length.
When you announced your candidacy, you said, "This is not a publicity stunt." When you have to say that to start the campaign, why should people take it seriously?
Anybody who’s been paying attention to me the last at least eight years, maybe 10, pretty much since I've been sober, it's been an evolution. People — sometimes innocently and sometimes on purpose — will use the fact that someone has been a comedian — which I consider the best comedians to be social critics. "Comedian" will be used as a slur in a political space. It will be used as a way to diminish somebody. I like to have fun, and I am an artist. There's a long history of people doing political runs as stunts, and this is not a stunt. This is coming from righteous anger I feel. This is coming from genuine outrage with the state of Tennessee politics.
You have outrage and righteous anger. But how do your skills and background apply to the position?
I moved back last year from Los Angeles. I lived here from 2001 to 2014, so I've watched this city go from a place where you couldn't get a salad to a place that, somehow, the Metro Council all they seem to do is talk about stadiums. It's been quite an evolution. I understand that Nashville wanted to grow. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson being thrown out of the legislature was shocking to me. It reminded me of Jim Crow stuff. It remains shocking, and it should not be forgotten.
I spoke at the public comment for the stadium hearing, which I didn't intend to do. I went down there to just watch. The gallery was so full of people the Titans had paid to be there that I was only given the choice to stand in the hall or speak, so I ended up speaking. There was a great response to that. People said, "You should run for something." There's certainly a lot I need to learn. I'm not a politician. I'm not even a community organizer. I'm a person who's spoken publicly about these issues for many years if people have been paying attention. There's definitely a time where I was more known for my off-the-wall comedy, but anybody who's been reading my advice column in the Nashville Scene, I've written about everything from guns to gender pronouns to abortion. You can find out everything you need to know about me in those columns.
My voice, that was why people were excited by what I said at the city council. I knew they were going to approve the stadium. There was a fight to even get that hearing. There were a few councilpeople who voted against the stadium, but there was a sense in the room that this was a formality. They were going to pass this. They had the votes by a long shot. There was a "who cares what these people have to say?" feeling in the room. That made me upset, and it made me exhilarated to be able to say what I said. And also to say some colorful stuff to get people's attention. I noticed people poking their heads out from their desks as I spoke. I was saying stuff like, "This is corruption." Heads were popping out, and they were the heads that were voting for the stadium.
I want to be more than a voice, but what I'm bringing this is a huge heart, definitely some naivety. But in the current context, I prefer naivety to jaded cynicism. There's a cynicism in the council, and I want to be the voice against that. There are many exceptions. My voice is the starting point. All the stuff that's happening is showing us that we have to be engaged at the local level. This is my attempt to put my money where my mouth is, because I've been talking about national issues.
Why at-large versus anything else you could have run for or gotten involved with?
My friend Sean Parker, District 5, I spoke to him about running. I said maybe I'd like to run in a couple years. He said, you can run now, like right now, and you have two weeks to get your signatures in, or you can run in four years. I thought the councilmembers' terms were two years, so I didn't even know that. [He said,] "Even if you don't win, you can get some people to vote who don't vote because you might be able to reach your sort of hipster audience." Hipsters don't vote. I was one of them. Especially when I drank. People don't vote. They sleep through it. While the Republicans are drinking Diet Coke and doing horrible, horrible things, liberals are sleeping off the Vampire Weekend concert. That's got to change. For me, my district, Sean said, "You're going to lose to Tonya Hancock. She has a pretty good amount of money behind her and she knows a lot about zoning law that you don't. You will lose, but at-large, it's a countywide thing, it's mostly a name recognition thing." He said in a sort of funny, dark way, people don't know who they're voting for, so they will vote for random people in the Metro Council at-large race, and you have a head start because you have a name in this town. A lot of times it's simply, "Oh I recognize that name." I'm not trying to get votes that way. Obviously I want to earn votes. I think his point was you have a better chance of winning at-large.
You've been pretty critical of Vice Mayor Jim Shulman over the years, including during the stadium debate but also during the 2020 budget process. How would you work with him effectively if you're both elected?
I consider the way he acted during the 2020 budget process, the way he acted toward the defund the police people, was not the way an elected official should treat constituents. That was an activating moment for me, too. I've heard nothing but "Jim Shulman is a nice guy." I probably won't get along with Jim. I'm open to meeting with Jim. I'd love to talk to Jim. I couldn't sit by after the way he acted toward the people who were there. I don't care if my fucking constituents want me to paint the Ryman Auditorium orange, I have to listen to them respectfully. Being civil is part of being an elected official. I feel like Jim lost it in that moment. I don't know if he's like that all the time. Anybody who approved that stadium deal is not paying attention, and I think they should be. These people will also say, "You don't know the nuts and bolts of this. If you know the secret stuff we know, you'll know the stadium deal was a good idea." That's a failure of communication, then. I don't believe that's true, first of all. I believe I have a pretty good understanding of the stadium deal, and it was bad. I realize that those "progressive" people who voted for it are in big trouble. They should be in big trouble.
I'm certainly not angry with Jim Shulman as a human being. I realize that part of this job is to maintain your composure. I don't intend to be yelling and screaming. I intend to bring passion to what I'm doing, and I have strong opinions. I'm also open to information, even from Jim Shulman. One of the things I want to run on is a return of empathy. I don't care if you disagree with the people that are showing up to talk at your budget hearing, but you do not berate them. You are there by the grace of them. You are an elected official. Don't forget who put you there. I'd be happy to work with Jim Shulman, and I have nothing against Jim Shulman as a person. Maybe Jim Shulman had a bad day that day. There's enough meanness in the world. Let's try and not be mean. If I have to stand up against mean people, I will. I don't have to be civil if someone else isn't being civil. I didn't think Jim was being civil, so I wrote something about it. I'm looking forward to meeting with him.
The stadium deal is what you set you on this path. What should the council have done differently?
My most reactionary thought was let's sue the NFL. This was a bad deal. Let's try to renegotiate the contract we signed in 1996. This city has got pressing needs now that it didn't have in 1996. It's 2023 now, and we have homeless encampments. My first thought, as a naive person, would be let's sue the NFL. This is not a fair contract. Let's sue them so we don't have to update the stadium. Let's make them pay to update the stadium. But it turns out that I don't know what that would entail. I found out the very least we could have done, and what I would have advocated for, and the thing Delishia Porterfield advocated for, was to delay it. Delay it and discuss it more. At the very least. If your constituents don't understand the deal, and you vote for it anyway, that's not serving your constituents. If your constituents don't understand what's happening and they feel like they're getting fucked over, then you need to slow things down before you give away their tax money. I'm not opposed to suing the NFL. People sue everybody all the time. This was a big enough deal, a big enough tax giveaway, that every option should have been considered except for rubber-stamping it in a hearing that people had to fight for and then where certain people in that chamber looked like they were about to fall asleep during that public comment.
You've talked a lot about getting money out of politics. I think you're referring to Citizens United and stuff like that. But I do want to ask what kind of financial support you're getting for your campaign.
Well, it's a concern for me. I have very little money. I'm getting money from supporters. Small donations. I have my ActBlue going. The first thing they tell you to do when you run is go through your phone and find your richest friends and ask them for $1,800. I do have some friends who have some money, but I don't really [think] it turns out. I have a lot of friends who I consider to be very accomplished, especially in the arts, but they don't have any money. I probably have $3,500 or something like that, which I'm thrilled about. I'm getting yard signs. I've got these great campaign buttons. I'm trying to do it sort of old school. For me, it's going to be buttons and yard signs and digital ads and the reach I have through my fairly popular Instagram and Twitter. I don't have a lot of big money. I think people would also think I'm anti-development. I understand that there has to be housing here. I'm clear on that. If you'd asked me 15 years ago, I didn't understand the idea of density being important. If we have demand, we have to have housing.
What showed you that?
When I was living in Los Angeles, I was living in a back house. My landlord, who ironically had like two acres, he was like, "You liberals, you don't understand. You're this idealist. You liberals have one big hole in your plan for life to be a kinder, gentler place. You don't want any new housing in your precious neighborhoods, your historic neighborhoods." Which I thought was a little rich coming from him because he was in a historic neighborhood with two acres. He just educated me that building is essential. I get that now. I also know that since the state of Tennessee has no income tax, there's a possibility that we could build nothing but luxury housing here and it would actually fill up and everybody in this town would have to move. We have to figure out a way to incentivize affordable housing. I would say incentivizing it is sort of a pipe dream, because developers have no honest reason to want to get involved in affordable housing. If you're a developer, you're going to want to make a giant profit.
Yeah, I saw in one of your questionnaires where you said the city should build housing on public land and public-private partnerships won't work because of that profit motive. So you think this should solely be on the city to do?
After I said that, liberals said, "Oh, you don't like the Barnes Fund? You don't like Section 8?" I'm grateful for the Barnes Fund, and I'm glad there's a fund. But it's a $92 million fund. With the stadium, they're talking about $700 million. There are lots and lots of costs that are not included in that, like this crazy neighborhood that we have somehow agreed that we have to build. The Barnes Fund is $92 million and it all gets given to nonprofits. Every nonprofit has a board that makes big salaries. Why does it have to be such a pittance? Why can we not put giant public money? Why can't we put public housing where the fairground is and scrap the speedway? These are the things that need to be on the table. This is an emergency.
The stadium is happening. There are finite resources. Where would you get the money to do that?
My first thought was let's just add another percent on our hotel tax, except this is for affordable housing instead of for the stadium. My friend pointed out that it's only so high we can raise the hotel tax, and that unhoused people in Nashville use hotels. In the end, you're taxing our unhoused. I was blown away by that. That also introduced me to the depths of these problems. I consider the stadium deal to be a disaster because any new taxes should be going toward our city, people, our roads. I understand that the Tennessee legislature is responsible for a lot of the roads, but there needs to be a sense of urgency. It seems obvious to me we need more dedicated funds for public housing, and I want to fight for that, however that looks.
During your public comments about the stadium, I was struck by your description of it as fascism. Later you clarified that you did not mean that as hyperbole. How can you work with people on the Metro Council if you think they're fascists?
I wasn't saying the Metro Council is fascist. I'm saying the whole United States is fascist. I'm saying we're living in a situation post-Citizens United, where whether or not you want to define it as fascist depends on whether you own property or not. If you own property in a fascist situation, for a while you're probably not going to be very aware of it, because your property values are going to be going up. Fascism serves property owners. When I say fascism, I'm referring to the strict definition of fascism. If you look up fascism, it means when public government is taken over by private money. I would argue that's been happening in this country since at least Citizens United, but before that as well. It has to do with endless tax cuts for corporations and then on top of that adding a hotel tax so we can give it to the NFL. That's the part of fascism I mean. Fascism doesn't mean it's going to look the same as fascism in the '40s.
I also would argue that a lot of this demonization of the LGBTQ community, demonization of immigrants, that's an aspect of this. Fascism really uses racism as a misdirect while they loot. I'm not saying there weren't actual racists involved in every fascist regime, but in general we're dealing with a situation where three people in America, as Bernie Sanders recently said in Nashville, three people have the same amount of money as the entire lower half of the United States. People can't get their heads around that. It's too depressing. It's what comes from 50 years of people just voting for president, not voting in their local elections. When I say fascism, I'm not picking out a person to say they are a fascist. I'm not saying someone on the Metro Council is necessarily a fascist. I'm saying to participate in this system that gives public tax money to the NFL is to participate in a system that should be fought, not accepted as the way things are.
Are you supporting anyone in the mayor's race?
Yes, Freddie O'Connell.
Most of the other at-large candidates avoid this question. Why do you feel confident to say it outright?
Because, Stephen ... in a good sense, I don't know what I'm doing. If running for council means I can't say what I think, then I don't want to be on the council. I'll be a community organizer. I also am open to the idea that this doesn't work out and I end up involved in community organizing. This is me trying to inspire myself and also inspire others, especially artists who are already good at communicating, to enter this political space so it's not just left to people like Cameron Sexton. Let's get some people who actually can make these people look like what they are. Every person with heart and compassion that shows up in politics makes the transactional politicians look like what they are. Justin Jones is the model for that. Justin Jones is a beacon for me, and Justin Pearson. He's in that legislature, those people fucking hate him. He can't do anything, because there's a supermajority. Back to the fascism thing, how do you explain gerrymandering? If it's not fascism, what is it? Authoritarian democracy? Because that's not a thing. There's no such thing as authoritarian democracy. It's fascism. That's the name for it. The idea that there's a supermajority of people from counties that have about 100 people living in them that can boss around Nashville and make most of their tax base from it and also insult it as some Sodom and Gomorrah while they also have apartments here is insane. I'm voting for Freddie because Freddie is the most informed by a long shot. I'm not disrespecting anybody running for mayor. There are some people I really like. I really like Stephanie Johnson. I love her. She's someone to watch. I like the real estate assessor [Vivian Wilhoite] but don't know much about her. When I see her, I'm inspired by her energy.
[O'Connell is] the one that has a plan, and he says it. I might have some disagreements with Freddie if he becomes mayor and I'm a councilmember. I feel like there's more pressing concerns than making Nashville a walkable city, but that's Freddie's thing and I respect that. He's got a mission.
What should we do about transit?
We're going to have to raise more money. It's immoral to keep cutting the taxes of the wealthiest. When you deal with a state with no income tax, you see there's no money to do anything. We don't have enough revenue, and I think we need to whip this city into a frenzy about generating more revenue. We can't depend on the legislature. Nashville feels all disconnected now because your neighbor's running an Airbnb and you're trying live in your regular house. Neighbors are looking past each other. The thing that sucks about public transportation not existing is when I'm in New York and I ride the subway, you get a certain sense of community. We are a city of people honking at each other. Even the communal spaces that are shared, those are denied to Nashvillians. This is an area where I'm not an expert. I want a Nashville where people don't have to own a car. There's a lot of poverty here. I have no substantial money. Having a car is kind of a nightmare, especially in a town where the roads are all trash. It's a serious problem. We need public transportation for more than just convenience. This is an essential part of a society.
Big picture, this whole Republican-Democrat thing has turned us all against each other, and communal transportation is what makes cities come together. I'm not clear exactly on how we're going to raise the money. In light of the stadium deal, it's very hard to get people to approve a tax. But we need to have dedicated funding for transit, we need to have dedicated funding for affordable housing, and I don't know how we do that. I would say we should have a state income tax, which I of course have no power over.
If you were able somehow to get new taxes in place how would you protect vulnerable or working class people from being impacted by those?
The hotel tax, I didn't even realize that has a dark side. The idea was tourists pay for the hotel tax. It didn't occur to me that the unhoused are having to live in hotels. If you're voting for me, you're voting for someone who's going to have to listen. I made up this acronym for my campaign. E.A.R. It stands for economic growth for all, affordable housing and return of empathy. Return of empathy covers a lot of stuff. That covers tax policy. How do we look at tax policy and make sure it's not impacting our poorest people. Our most vulnerable people. It's such a crappy model we have in Tennessee. No income tax and then sales tax. Sales tax is the most primitive, brutal form of how to raise money. I don't know the answers to that exactly but I know I'm going to be on the case like a motherfucker to try to figure out how to raise money from the people that can afford it. There's so much money here. All you have to do is look around.
We need to figure out a way to get revenue from these big companies like Oracle. I'm not exactly sure how, but I'm going to be engaged with that. We need revenue to help people. I would rather be making music or doing standup. This is a dire moment and we have to get the liberals that own property on the side of liberals that don't own property. We have to unify. I understand there are some people in this town that consider themselves progressive but their property values have tripled in the last 10 years, but that does not mean things are good.Â
