It's Intraparty-Squabbling Season for Tennessee Democrats
It's been a while, but we're here again. The Tennessee Democratic Party is reeling from a rough election cycle, and a fight for leadership of the beleaguered party is heating up.
We learned this week that two Democrats will challenge TNDP chair Mary Mancini for the top job: Williamson County Democratic Party chair and longtime party operative Holly McCall, and Chris Hale, an Obama campaign-and-administration alum last seen running an unsuccessful campaign in the 4th Congressional District.
The vote for party chair should take place at the TNDP executive committee's next meeting on Jan. 12. If Mancini is defeated, the party would have its fourth chairman since 2008. At the helm prior to Mancini was Roy Herron, a former state senator who could be most charitably described as an old-Tennessee Democrat ― that is, he kind of seemed liked a Republican. Before Herron, the party was led for five years by Chip Forrester, who often boasted successful fundraising efforts but also presided over the party's fall into super-minority status at the state legislature. (If you're newer to state politics, think of it this way: Republicans have large enough majorities in the state House and Senate that they could legally conduct business, writing and passing legislation, even if the Democrats didn't show up.)
Bill Freeman — the Democratic superfundraiser, 2015 mayoral candidate and possible 2019 mayoral candidate who owns the Scene — has been in the fray in the past. He was once the TNDP's treasurer, and in 2015 he led a vetting committee that produced names of possible candidates for party chair, including Mancini. A year later, though, he called for her to be replaced.
Read more: https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21036973/its-intraparty-squabbling-season-for-tennessee-democrats
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