Victory lap: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee walks through the Tennessee Capitol on his way to a press conference January 30 after the legislature passed a universal school voucher measure. (Photo: John Partipilo)
(Photo: John Partipilo)
Dark money groups poured millions of dollars into Tennessee’s primaries last year to bring Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee a private-school voucher victory. But instead of winning with an injection of new supporters, the governor got his prize from the old guard.
For instance, first-year Sen. Jessie Seal, a Tazewell Republican, benefited from spending by the Education Freedom Fund as he defeated veteran voucher opponent Sen. Frank Niceley of Strawberry Plains in the primary.
But when it came time to push the button, Seal voted against the governor’s bill, joining first-term Sens. Bobby Harshbarger of Kingsport and Tom Hatcher of Maryville to oppose the plan, which comes with a first-year cost of $450 million and is expected to grow annually.
Seal said Thursday he has no regrets about the vote in spite of the dark-money boost.
“I’m all man,” Seal said. “And I represent the people in the 8th senatorial district, and that’s what I did. I’m not influenced by any money or any person.”
Harshbarger’s campaign remains caught in the midst of an investigation by the Registry of Election Finance, which subpoenaed Thomas Datwyler and Roberts Phillips III, the two officers of the East Tennessee Conservatives political action committee, to determine whether it colluded with Harshbarger’s campaign as he defeated incumbent Sen. Jon Lundberg.
Sen. Ken Yager, chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus, filed a sworn complaint last year claiming the East Tennessee Conservatives PAC and Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger’s campaign, both with Datwyler as treasurer, illegally coordinated in the Lundberg-Harshbarger Republican primary after two groups, including American Policy Coalition, poured $600,000 worth of dark money into the race.
Despite the three “no” votes, the Senate passed the bill 20-13 with veteran Republican Sens. Paul Bailey, Rusty Crowe, Todd Gardenhire, Ferrell Haile and Kerry Roberts talking themselves into supporting the bill after wavering or opposing the bill. Leaders such as Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, Yager and Senate finance Chairman Bo Watson never had a doubt and led the charge.
As expected, the House told the story with a final vote of 54-44, and even that is suspect.
Only one race in the GOP primary spending barrage, the Williamson County District 65 House contest, netted a vote for Lee’s voucher plan. A pro-voucher political action committee spent nearly $1 million backing new Rep. Lee Reeves in the primary, as he defeated County Commissioner Brian Beathard by 95 votes.
Reeves replaced moderate Republican Rep. Sam Whitson, who opposed Lee’s plan to provide more than $7,000 apiece to students statewide to enroll in private schools. Reeves said Thursday he favored the private-school voucher plan before he entered the race.
“That’s probably why I got the support,” he said.
Several other critical changes took place, too, as House Speaker Cameron Sexton of Crossville/Nashville, Rep. Ron Gant of Piperton in Fayette County, Rep. Mark Cochran of Englewood and Rep. Kevin Vaughan of Collierville flipped their votes from opposition to the 2019 education savings account bill.
Readers might recall former House Speaker Glen Casada held the vote open for nearly 45 minutes to break a tie as he worked the chamber for just one more “yes.” Complaints about Casada led to an FBI investigation.
I could have been a noble protester like I was last time. . . Or I could participate in the process and try to help my folks.
– Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville
Sexton said Thursday he changed his mind about vouchers during the COVID pandemic when schools closed, districts forced students to wear masks and school boards refused to listen to parents.
Lest we forget, the governor declared an emergency, encouraged school closings, and the state even bought a boatload of masks that weren’t worth a plug nickel.
Vaughan, a former Collierville City School Board member, was adamantly opposed to vouchers six years ago but decided to vote for the new plan so he could help Collierville tap into more special education funds and a $17 million fund for high-performing school districts. Some folks refer to that as a “sweetener.”
“I could have been a noble protester like I was last time. I was the 48th ‘no’ last time. Or I could participate in the process and try to help my folks,” Vaughan said.
Cochran felt the ire of the pro-voucher group American Federation for Children in 2019, and that could have affected his decision this time. More than likely, though, he sided with House leadership as assistant majority leader.
Rep. Jerome Moon was present not voting when votes were cast last week, and he told the Lookout his decision was “tantamount to a ‘no.’” He voted for the education savings account program in 2019.
Six years ago, the vote finally came in at 50-48 after Republican Rep. Jason Zachary offered to change his stance in return for the guarantee that Knox County Schools wouldn’t be made a voucher district.
Casada wouldn’t have had to go vote hunting that day if Republican Rep. Debra Moody of Covington hadn’t been absent because of the death of her mother. She ultimately voted for the bill when it came back from the Senate.
Republican Rep. Dave Wright of Knoxville also was prepared to switch his vote but didn’t do it in time to count on the official tally. Wright backed the bill this year.
Some onlookers say legislative leaders wanted to get vouchers out of the way this year so they could control primary outcomes with their own cash instead of letting out-of-state dark money rule the day. But considering the outcome, a handful of idiots spent millions of dollars for nothing except threats. The rest of us got stuck with a new bureaucracy that critics say could run the state off a “fiscal cliff.”
Oh well, it’s only money.
Who voted for Pearson?
Democratic Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis caught colleagues off guard last week when he was recorded as voting for the voucher bill. He was distraught when he found out he did.
In an official statement, Pearson said he stepped out of the House chamber that day to support a hospitalized family member and asked Rep. G.A. Hardaway to make his “no” vote. Instead, Hardaway accidentally hit the “yes” button because he was distracted by a conversation.
Pearson was shocked with the vote outcome and filed paperwork with the House clerk to change his vote to “no” for the official record. He called the voucher bill “nothing more than a giveaway to millionaires and billionaires” and said it was “unjust.”
It’s against the rules for one member to vote for another, although one trip to the chamber and you’ll see this rule is made to be broken.
The bigger problem is that once the clerk recorded the vote at 54-44, there was no turning back. Thanks to vote-flipping, a constitutional crisis was averted.
Messing with Musk
House Minority Leader Karen Camper of Memphis is asking Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and the District Attorneys General Conference to investigate Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency to determine whether data about Tennesseans has been extracted wrongfully from federal payment systems in the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management.
Camper said “considering Mr. Musk’s public statements regarding his desire to see the United States default on its debts and his history of data misuse for personal gain, it is imperative that he be deposed” about his plan for these systems.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro and Rep. Jason Powell, both Nashville Democrats, followed suit and filed a bill Thursday to stop Musk from interfering with the distribution of government funds such as Social Security and Medicare benefits. (The bill has an acronym so long my laptop would run out of ink if I typed it.)
More than likely, Republicans will relegate it to the legislative scrap heap, which is sort of like the junkyard in “Pulp Fiction,” full of bodies.
Anyway, folks tell me the Doge of Venice was the highest official in the land for more than a century, elected for life, and head of the ancient Venetian oligarchy, formerly the leader of a military force with authority to operate outside the province.
The biggest difference is that Musk hasn’t been elected or vetted to be our first prince.
“It’s time we stopped / Hey, what’s that sound? / Everybody look what’s going down”*
* For What It’s Worth, Buffalo Springfield
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