Wilder wins Nomination

Hardly a surprise, I know. But John Wilder is the Democratic nominee to lead the State Senate in the new session. Not a surprise despite the challenge Sen. Joe Haynes. The only interesting outcome from the meeting was Sen. Jerry Cooper's depature from the meeting today without indicating his support for Wilder. Previously, Sen. Cooper had said that he would not support Wilder for another term as Lt. Governor. Next Tuesday's vote will be interesting, not to mention a weekend full of potential posturing.

Schooling the Board of Education? Vandy Survey Results

The Tennessean is reporting on some of the early results from Vanderbilt's Peabody Center for Education Policy's poll of Tennesseans. Full results will be given to the State Board of Ed later this month.

Mayoral candidates, listen up! These are 601 poll respondents who voted in November.

Some of the findings? Not that surprising. They represent a mis-mash of popular prejudices about public education in America.

-Tennesse's education system rates poorly.
-Teachers ought to be paid more.
-BUT, we're not eager to spend more money on the educational system.
-Parents are primarily to blame for the state of education. (This is my favorite one)

I hope the full report offers some sane policy recommendations.

Meet the Gatekeeper - Marsha Blackburn

Rep. Blackburn is named Deputy Republican Whip, serving under Rep. Roy Blunt. She is quoted as saying that being "deputy whip will give her the opportunity to rally the support needed to counteract democrat policies 'that would raise taxes and wreak havoc on our surging economy.'" (Tennessean)

Cast Your Vote - Report Highlights Difficulties with Electronic Voting Machines

We're all familiar, perhaps even tired, of reports of voting problems, dare we say fraud in some cases? Since Bush v. Gore, such voting issues have been a hot topic. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) only deepened the controversy by ushering electronic voting machines into our lives. Conspriacy theories about the 2004 elections popped up like mushrooms. The conventional wisdom was that the 2006 mid-terms put to rest remaining concerns about the efficiency and efficacy of electronic voting machines (notwithstanding the Florida 13th district bruhaha).

But out today is a report by VoteTrustUSA.org (homepage) that deserves all our attention. No, this is no shrill accusation of vote-fixing and over-arching conspiracies. This is a reasoned, serious, documented accounting of the 2006 vote. The full report can be downloaded here.

One of the most troubling findings among the conclusions is this,

there were over three and a half times as many reports of problems with DREs; nearly nine times as many usability difficulties with DREs; and over fifteen times as many reports of long lines and/or voters leaving without voting. In fact, scanner or EBM malfunctions only resulted in long lines and/or voters leaving without voting when poll workers failed to allow voters to deposit ballots for later scanning.

Tennesse is one of those 38 states that rely on DRE or Direct Record Electronic voting machines. Here in Metro Nashville, long lines were the story of the 2006 elections. (Tennessean) The high turn-out was great news. The inability of the of system to handle a robust electorate is not.

The Davidson County Election Commission's answer is to buy more machines. While more machines may help, this report casts doubt over the type of machine itself. It's not an issue of the brand or manufacture of machine (whether Shelby county's Diebold machines or Davidson's iVotronics). (Tennessean) Nor does it seem to be purely an issue of familiarty with the machines as the report finds,

The problems experienced cannot be blamed entirely on the implementation of new equipment in this election cycle. For example, 78 problems were reported about the DREs Georgia has been using since 2002, and the equipment which is now the subject of legal challenges in Sarasota County, Florida has been in place since the 2002 primaries.

A sobering read.

King of the County - The Debates to Come

I was just musing over the talking points and not so polite questions, dirt, and mud that may be slung as the Nashville Mayor's race heats up. Also in this list are issues that the candidates may have to confront as the race goes on. Right or wrong, these topics are likely to be aired as the candidates get running.

Karl Dean - As public defender, he represented hundreds of alleged criminals such as drug dealers, murderers, rapists, robbers and child molesters; there are questions under state law about the legality of his using his wife's money, just like the John Kerry wife money issue; he has zero name recognition(or maybe 3%).

David Briley- Briley is a Trial Lawyer (I capitalize those words to refer to the media caricature of a trial lawyer) and brags about it (see his "witty" commerical "delicately" emphasizing just this - YouTube; he is too green and/or not experienced enough; a strong advocate for immigrant and gay rights under the law; he can't raise the necessary money; he plans heavy use of internet but so will the other candidates.

Buck Dozier - Nashville Christian School closed under his supervision; he was $3 million dollars over budget when he was in charge of the Metro Fire Dept. and used equipment money to paint the fire trucks instead; very right wing.

Howard Gentry - unstable job history; lacks management ability to the point where council meetings run until 2am; his 2003 tie-breaking Metro Council vote on gay rights; he can't raise the money.

Bob Clement - Lifetime in politics; strong partisan Democrat; "old politics"; talks slow and Southern (not slick-sounding).

The list is by no means comprehensive. Just some musings as lunchtime slips away.

Legal Red Tape - The Roll goes on

The wrangling over J. Houston Gordon's place on the Judicial Selection Commission's slate of candidates to the State Supreme Court goes on. The Supreme Court itself will weigh in on the issue.

The Judicial Selection Commission had planned on submitting an entirely new slate of candidates to Bredesen this month, in accordance with a Davidson County Chancery Court decision which sided with Bredesen. But the Supreme Court's decision to take up Gordon's appeal will delay the Commission.

Arguments are set for February and we are not to expect a decision for some time. Apart from the legal intracies of this controversy, the latest twist is fascinating. The 4 Supreme Court justices will weigh in on the process for selection of their future colleague. City Paper