Tennessee Republicans are suffering one humiliation after another

As if they needed another headache, House Republican leaders found themselves in another pickle Thursday when news broke that Rep. Scotty Campbell was guilty of sexually harassing at least one intern.

Word circulated through the House chamber early in the day that Campbell had trouble. Around noon when NewsChannel5 reported on the matter, the funk hit the fan.

Campbell told the Tennessee Lookout he wasn’t resigning. But, apparently feeling pressure from leadership, Campbell was gone by the time the House returned to the chamber shortly after 2 p.m. to start stumbling through the rest of its calendar.

His name vanished from the House vote board and from his desk.

If only the House could act so expeditiously all the time.

In fact, it took about three weeks from the time the Ethics Subcommittee found Campbell guilty and sent a letter to House Speaker Cameron Sexton for the word to leak.

We still don’t know if Sexton urged Campbell to leave, though the timing was sketchy. He wouldn’t answer that question Thursday.

Instead, Sexton laid the decision on the Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Subcommittee, saying he had no role in “any kind of correction action” from the bipartisan panel, which is made up of Reps. Pat Marsh of Shelbyville, Sam Whitson of Franklin, Minority Leader Karen Camper of Memphis and Bill Beck of Nashville.

Asked if he saw the letter March 29, Sexton said the time couldn’t be determined but that the decision was by the subcommittee, which meted out no punishment other than the letter in Campbell’s file.

During those three weeks before Campbell’s departure, though, we saw a Democrat-led protest on the floor for stronger gun laws, a proclamation of insurrection activity, a scrum over a cell phone, a day-long expulsion hearing, revelations of Republican Caucus finger-pointing and reinstatement of two young, Black lawmakers.

Since then, they’ve made their voices heard consistently.

The two lawmakers, Democratic Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin J. Pearson of Memphis, tried to gig Republican lawmakers by bringing up Campbell’s resignation Thursday. They were quickly gaveled out of order by Speaker Sexton.

But the sudden departure enveloped the chamber like a bad hangover.

His name was even removed from the Legislature’s website vote tallies, including resolutions to remove the so-called “Tennessee Three,” which includes Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville. Campbell definitely voted for removal, even saying if they’d disrupted a court proceeding like that, they would have been jailed. But there’s no record of it, unless someone has the paper trail.

It’s as if he never existed, leading one to wonder whether he could have starred as George Bailey in the Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Things apparently haven’t been too wonderful, though, for the intern[s] he was found guilty of harassing, and the state spent money relocating one of the young women, moving her to another downtown apartment and sending her furniture back home, according to the report. We don’t know the expense yet. But what the heck, the state is wallowing in excess cash.

Just another trippy day on Capitol Hill.

The elephant in the room

The Senate turned down a Thursday plea by Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro to call a bill straight to the floor enacting an extreme risk protection order and gun storage requirements.

His bill was delayed until 2024 after Senate Judiciary Chairman Todd Gardenhire said his committee wouldn’t consider any gun bills after The Covenant School shooting that killed six people, including three 9-year-olds.

The Capitol has been the focal point of rallies and protests since that terrible day.

This is not some radical concept,” Yarbro said, arguing 70% of Tennessee voters support keeping guns away from people deemed dangerous to themselves and others.

Gov. Bill Lee proposed his own version of the bill this week, but it hasn’t gone anywhere.

With that in mind, Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat and mayoral candidate, took a stand, saying such laws have been found constitutional across the country, including states such as Florida.

Yarbro pointed out his bill would provide more due process than the state’s protocol for taking children away from parents.

“Is that where we are, where the right to own a gun is more important than the rights of children?” Yarbro asked.

Ultimately, however, Sen. Bo Watson argued that no bill has ever bypassed committees and gone straight to the Senate floor.

With that, Gardenhire called for a move to defeat Yarbro’s request. It passed 24-7, and with that, efforts to pass an order of protection appear to be on life support.

Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Nashville, later said on the House floor he will ask the governor and speaker to call a special session to deal with gun legislation.

“They are begging us to do something,” Freeman said, pointing toward a group of women in the balconies called Voices for Safer America.

He received applause that would have to be considered the definition of tepid.

Where have you gone, Speaker Casada?

When the Legislature set up the education savings account program four years ago (aided last year by a Tennessee Supreme Court technicality), the only way the bill could squeak to passage was to remove Knox and Hamilton counties.

This year, Hamilton County Republican lawmakers sought to have their county school district added to the voucher program. Soon afterward, Knox County Republicans, including Rep. Jason Zachary, who asked that Knox be removed four years ago in return for his vote, requested Knox to be added as a voucher district.

The amendment guaranteed an extended debate on the House floor.

Rep. Mark White, an East Memphis Republican who carried the original voucher bill, opted to sponsor this year’s bill and continued his mantra, saying “I’m a believer in school choice for parents.”

White reminded colleagues the program providing $8,000 to go to private schools is capped at 5,000 students in the first year. So far, the number is far below the max.

But Democratic Rep. Bo Mitchell of Nashville reminded House members about one critical thing: “It wasn’t passed on this House (floor). It was purchased on that balcony.”

Mitchell was referring to that moment of infamy when then-Speaker Glen Casada held the vote board open for nearly 45 minutes to work the chamber for a tie-breaker. Business was conducted on the balcony behind the speaker’s dais, and reporters were barred.

Former Rep. Kent Calfee famously told the Lookout he heard Casada say he would call the governor to try and get a promotion for former Rep. John Mark Windle to general in the National Guard – in return for his vote, of course.

Windle, who held the rank of colonel, refused to take the bait. But as Casada and his chief of staff worked the body, offering perks for votes, Zachary ultimately offered to vote for vouchers with Casada’s guarantee Knox County Schools would be removed from the bill.

The FBI soon launched an investigation, interviewing members to see if they’d been offered anything of value for their votes.

It doesn’t appear Casada and staff members were caught in that probe. But the former speaker and staffer Cade Cothren are facing trial in connection with a kickback scheme that forced former Rep. Robin Smith to resign and plead guilty. She is cooperating with the feds.

Back to those vouchers, Rep. Johnson of Knox argues that voucher students across the nation aren’t performing as well as public school students. And Democratic Rep. Yusuf Hakeem of Chattanooga says White never consulted him about the matter.

“Why is it good for young people in the inner city but not good for young people in the rural communities,” Hakeem asked.

White responded that a district has to have a certain number of struggling schools to qualify. Students also have to qualify financially to receive the money, which is probably about half of what they would need to enroll in a good private school in Davidson County.

But while White complained that the debate always turns back toward money, that’s exactly the point. The entire program is about giving students public money to go to private schools, which at one time would have been considered heresy.

One more point lost in the debate: Most rural lawmakers don’t want private schools siphoning money from one of the biggest employers in their county. The bill passed, anyway, 57-35 with four abstaining.

By the way, the Legislature also voted this year to expand eligibility for students to apply for the program, maybe because there weren’t enough who wanted to move.

The state is supposed to backfill the money lost by school districts when students transfer with that cash. But critics say school districts will suffer a loss anyway, because it will continue to cost the same amount of money to operate.

Incidentally, the Senate refused to agree with the House move to add Knox County to voucher expansion. This bill could change or die.

I love you, I love you not

Our beloved lawmakers continually profess their love and respect for teachers. Thus, they can put a feather in the cap this year by passing a bill to push starting teacher salaries toward $50,000 over the next four years – as the governor proposed in his State of the State.

But while handing out a small pay raise with one hand, they approved a backhanded slap by the governor with the other.

Republican Rep. Debra Moody of Covington acknowledged the bill came straight from the governor.

Teachers won’t be able to use the same automatic dues deduction for union fees as other public employees in the state. And while they’re already being advised to use a cell phone app to send their money to either the Tennessee Education Association or Professional Educators of Tennessee, it’s a bit of a slight to the people Gov. Lee and lawmakers claim to love dearly.

In fact, Rep. Charlie Baum, R-Murfreesboro, appeared to have split those two deals into separate bills during floor action Wednesday with an amendment supported 51-45.

Moments later, though, yet another amendment was put forth to unsplit the split. It passed 53-46, meaning a handful of lawmakers flipped in a matter of minutes.

Ultimately, the bill passed 90-8, and Republican Rep. Jody Barrett put out a tweet pointing out the so-called Tennessee Three voted against giving teachers a raise. Oddly enough, Barrett voted against expelling Johnson, a former teacher, then was lashed by fellow Republicans in a closed-door meeting last week for hanging them out to dry after promising to vote for expulsion. (You’ll have to read last week’s Stump for the rest of that story.)

Blow this popcorn stand

If anyone thought House members weren’t anxious to leave town this week, consider the haste — at least initially — to cut debate on key bills, including those designed to give the state authority over Nashville.

When Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, introduced his bill Monday to reshape the makeup of the Metro sports authority in the state’s image, Rep. Chris Tood, R-Madison County, immediately made a procedural move to cut off debate and hold a vote.

Speaker Sexton, making one of his better moves in the last couple of weeks, asked Todd to walk it back, pointing out a member of the Nashville delegation wanted to ask a question.

Metro Nashville would appoint seven members to the board, which oversees sports facilities in Nashville, and the governor and House and Senate speakers will appoint two each.

It’s one of about seven bills hammering Metro Nashville for the council’s vote to reject the 2024 Republican National Convention.

A long debate ensued.

Queried by Davidson lawmakers, Williams claimed that Metro Nashville came asking for $500 million in bonds to build a new $2.2 billion Titans domed stadium.

While some might contend Mayor John Cooper sought out the money — something the mayor’s office rejects — Williams never could pinpoint anyone from Nashville who requested the funds. He did, nevertheless, call the plan to pay back the money a “sales tax scheme.”

Democrat Rep. Bill Beck, whose district contains the stadium, argued that nobody from Metro Nashville sought state help for the project. He pointed out the Davidson County delegation didn’t ask for it, and he also noted the sports facilities people across the region enjoy, ranging from Nissan Stadium to Bridgestone Arena and GEODIS Park “have always been borne on the backs of Metro taxpayers.”

Other Nashville lawmakers pointed out that a lobbyist visited the Legislature to ask for the $500 million bag of goodies and that the governor “rolled over” and dumped the money on Nashville.

“The people of Nashville didn’t ask for a dime,” Rep. Mitchell said.

Meanwhile, the Metro Nashville Council is set to hold another public hearing before taking a final vote on the project.

Amid the constant biblical references in the Legislature, it reminded me of a song from Jesus Christ Superstar: “I don’t want your blood money.”

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.