Members of the largest Republican organization in Northeast Tennessee are being encouraged to contact their state lawmakers and tell them what they think about pending legislation to make local elections for municipal offices partisan contests.
Jonesborough Alderman Kelly Wolfe, who is also a former state Republican Executive Committeeman, told members of the East Tennessee Republican Club last week that he believes efforts to allow local parties to call for partisan elections of all municipal offices will “coalesce and have a great opportunity of coming into fruition” before the end of the current session of the state General Assembly.
He noted that previous efforts to make races for county commissions and local school boards partisan has resulted “in growing the bench” of candidates for the Republican Party.
“In talking with folks across the state and some of our local representatives, it is become pretty clear to me that the last and final frontier — as far as people being able to choose to run as a Republican — is local municipal elections,” Wolfe said.
He also told local Republicans: “I’ve held elected office both in a partisan and a nonpartisan basis. But I think it is imperative that folks running for office in this state are able to choose to run as Republicans because the Republican Party reflects their values.”
Party Leaders Get Onboard
Wolfe said Tennessee Republican Party officials, as well as the leadership of the Republican-controlled state General Assembly, feel the same way. The former Jonesborough mayor said he has also read that leaders of the Tennessee Democratic Party have also conceded the inevitability that previously nonpartisan races for municipal offices will soon become partisan contests.
Leaders of the Tennessee Democratic Party said last month that their party will take a “more active role” in municipal elections this year. Democratic Party Chair Hendrell Remus said he has established an ad hoc committee “to better support candidates who embody the Democratic Party’s values in nonpartisan elections.”
Wolfe encouraged members of the East Tennessee Republican Club to contact state Reps. Rebecca Alexander, R-Jonesborough, and Tim Hicks, R-Gray, and state Sen. Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City, and express their opinions on making municipal elections partisan.
“I just wanted you all to know, if you wanted to have a time of influence with your local representatives, this is probably it,” he said. “Tim Hicks and Rebecca Alexandra and Rusty Crowe will all be voting on this issue this year, and I do believe chances are very good that it will come together.”
City Leaders Have Reservations
As the Press reported last month, Johnson City officials have told local state lawmakers they are opposed to making municipal elections partisan contests. The City’s Charter stipulates that races for City Commission are nonpartisan.
City Commissioner Jenny Brock told Alexander, Hicks and Crowe that the “spirit of the City Charter is nonpartisan,” and said if the state wants to go in this direction it should be the people who decide on it.
“I think the citizens should be the ones who decide it,” Brock said. “If we’re going to change the spirit of the charter, they should vote on it. If that’s what they want to do, that’s fine.”
Former Johnson City Mayor Steve Darden, an attorney who ran for Congress in 2020 as a Republican, said that during his 10 years as a member of the City Commission he often heard “directly from individuals.” With that level of citizen accessibility, Darden said he doesn’t recall a single vote or issue when party politics were necessary to the decision-making process.
“According to the Charter, Johnson City’s commissioners serve at large, which encourages them to act in the best interest of the city’s residents overall, rather than having other motivations like favoring a single district or section of town or trying to gain the favor of an organization,” Darden told the Press last week. “I’m concerned that requiring candidates to declare a party affiliation could attract candidates whose goal is to build a résumé for higher office, rather than being motivated to serve the local community.”
Asking For Citizen Input
The Kingsport Board of Mayor and Alderman approved a measure earlier this month expressing opposition to any efforts to make its municipal elections partisan.
In his weekly email newsletter to constituents on Feb. 7, Kingsport Mayor Pat Shull wrote that he wanted to know if state lawmakers have “completely abandoned the concept of local control and the idea that the best government is that conducted closest to its citizens?”
He said local legislators “have not approached my colleagues and me about changing our elections. I fail to see how our community would benefit from this radical change.”
He closed his email by encouraging Kingsport citizens to “let your views be known to our state legislators. Even if you think that the proposal is worth consideration on the merits, is it the place of the state to mandate this change? I think not.”
Robert Houk has served as a journalist and photographer at the Press since 1987. He is a recipient of the Associated Press Managing Editors Malcom Law Award for investigative reporting.
