Jason Freeman is out as the Tennessee Democratic Party executive director.
Replacing him? Jeff Teague, the former CEO of Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee, who stepped down last year after 17 years with the organization.
Freeman wasn't the only person to lose his job on Monday. But party chair Mary Mancini said the cuts are unrelated to abysmal FEC filings last month that showed a negative balance of almost $18,000.
"It was not a negative balance," Mancini said, blaming a glitch on a newly hired firm to handles financials. February spending reports are due Tuesday; Mancini said Monday night she had not yet seen that filing and could not comment on the numbers.
"I wish [they] had not put that number there," Mancini said. "We are going to amend that filing."
Mancini also said the shakeups did not have anything to do with last week's crushing defeat of Gayle Jordan, the Democrat running in a special election for a middle Tennessee state Senate seat.
"So unexpectedly we had a field program going on since last June, but the work they were doing was outreach to all parts of Tennessee, and now we're switching into campaign mode, so we have to restructure," Mancini said.
She added that Freeman left of his own accord.
"This was his decision to move on, to find something else," Mancini said. "He wanted to move on, and Jeff was there to step into the role."
Freeman did not return repeated calls for comment, but multiple people who spoke with him on Monday said it was not his decision to leave, and that Teague, who was recently hired as the party's finance director, had increasingly tried to wrest control from him. One party insider commented that the move is being seen by many as a campaign takeover by people close to former Gov. Phil Bredesen after Freeman reportedly met with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on his own without going through the campaign first.
But Mancini insisted the ousters were not about not related to any campaigns or to any criticism leveled at the party for failing to successfully ride the "blue wave" that has toppled Republicans in conservative districts across the country in the past several months.
"There have only been two special elections! Two!" Mancini said, referring to Jordan's race and a much closer loss in a different Senate special election in Wilson County in December. "It's hard work to rebuild a party, and you don't do that by not taking chances and by not showing up."
Mancini said Jordan's party on election night a week ago was "the most energized victory party I've ever seen," even though Shane Reeves, the GOP candidate, garnered 72 percent of the vote.
"We have an incredible chance this election cycle," Mancini said. "It's just different now. Things are changing."
However, recent polling and analysis show Tennessee remains a red state, with a higher-than-national approval of President Donald Trump and an overwhelming number of districts drawn to maximize Republican control of both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly and Congressional seats. Although three of the latter are open seats, none are rated likely to flip. The governor's race could be closer, depending on which Republican ekes out of the already bruising primary, and Bredesen certainly does have a chance at taking the open U.S. Senate seat. But it's unlikely Tennessee Democrats realistically have a chance to do much besides taking away the Republican supermajority in the state House — and even that is a long shot.
Still, Democrats unhappy with Mancini's leadership have not been quiet in recent weeks, and unless Teague can quickly pull a rabbit out of a hat in the form of an infusion of new donations, that criticism will continue — which Mancini says is absurd.
"Who can possibly be complaining this early?" she asked.
Mancini also declined to say whether the party would spend any money on the impending nonpartisan Nashville mayoral election, as it did to support Megan Barry, a personal friend of Mancini's, during her runoff with David Fox in 2015, spending that was also criticized by some party members.
"We evaluate races as they happen," Mancini said of the TNDP's upcoming 2018 spending. "We rely on data, and on what makes sense for us."
One Democrat, who asked to remain anonymous due to his current campaign work, laughed out loud at that.
"These aren't things you plan the week of! A good state party has a plan in place for months, if not years, out," he said.
The TNDP will host Alabama U.S. Sen. Doug Jones at its annual fundraising dinner in June, in the hopes of encouraging party faithful to believe that if a Democrat can win in Alabama, he can win in Tennessee, too. Jones, notably, won without relying on the fractured Alabama Democratic Party for support.
