Day: June 29, 2018

Maury County Poll: Andy Ogles Leads By 10 in Race for Mayor, Bill Lee Leads GOP Gubernatorial Primary by 12

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Andy Ogles, Bill Lee

A new poll of voters planning to vote in Maury County in the August 2 election show Republican Andy Ogles leading among all voters in his general election campaign for County Mayor by ten points. The poll also shows conservative Republican businessman Bill Lee leading among Republican voters in the GOP primary race for Governor by twelve points over Congresswoman Diane Black among Republican voters. The poll, conducted by Right Way Marketing on behalf of Power of Liberty, a non-profit educational group, has a margin of error of 5% for both the general election and the Republican primary election and was conducted from June 24 to 26, 2018. Voters were asked: “If the election were held today, who would be your choice for Maury County Mayor, the Republican nominee Andy Ogles, Independent candidate Amanda Kelton, Independent candidate Charlie Norman or Independent candidate Sonny Shackelford?” The poll results were: Andy Ogles 33% Charlie Norman 23% Sonny Shackelford 21% Amanda Kelton 4% Undecided 19% A previous poll conducted by Right Way Marketing from May 14-16 showed Ogles leading with 32.4% over incumbent Independent Charlie Norman – 25.4%. Early voting in the race begins on July 13. With respect to the GOP Primary for…

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Tennessee Star Poll: Boyd Leads Black by 5 in GOP Gubernatorial Primary, Lee Close Behind in Third Place

Tennessee Star Staff
Randy Boyd, Diane Black, Bill Lee

Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd leads Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06) by 5 points, 32 percent to 27 percent, among likely Republican gubernatorial primary voters in a Tennessee Star Poll released today. The battle for the Republican nomination for governor in Tennessee is now a three-way race, with Williamson County businessman Bill Lee surging into a strong third position, with 20 percent. Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) is no longer a factor in the Republican gubernatorial primary, coming in a distant fourth position with only 7 percent of the vote. Only 13 percent of poll respondents said they were undecided. The poll of 1,040 likely Tennessee Republican primary voters was conducted for The Tennessee Star by Triton Polling and Research over a four day period beginning Monday June 25 and ending Thursday June 28 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percent. The Tennessee Star Poll released today indicates there has been significant movement in the race since the last Tennessee Star Poll results in December 2017. At that time Diane Black had a ten point lead over Randy Boyd, with Black receiving the support of 21 percent of likely Tennessee Republican primary voters, followed by Boyd…

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Bill Lee’s Proposed Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives Will Ask Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim Groups ‘To Help Solve State’s Problems’

Chris Alto
Bill Lee

In March, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee, who has made his Christian faith a central theme of his campaign, announced that he will create an Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives if he is elected governor. None of his rivals for the Republican nomination have set forward a similar proposal. President George W. Bush first introduced the notion of integrating “faith-based” initiatives with governmental operations after he was elected in 2000. As those initiatives have evolved over subsequent presidential administrations, and been deployed to various degrees in several state and local governments, a sticky wicket of Constitutional issues and unintended consequences has emerged. The first is that once such a program is established, all religious groups–Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and others–must be given the same opportunity to participate. The second, and perhaps most troubling, arises when government funding is provided to these faith-based groups to conduct governmental actions and that activity creates the potential for the faith group to proselytize while conducting the government-sanctioned activity. Lee’s campaign website offers this description of his proposed Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: The Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives will be housed within the Office of the Governor. It will serve as…

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Hundreds Arrested at Senate Office Building Protest

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Woman's March protest

Hundreds of protesters were arrested Thursday after staging a sit-in at a U.S. Senate office building in Washington to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policy. U.S. Capitol Police arrested 575 activists, mostly women, decrying President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy on admission of undocumented immigrants. They chanted “What do we want? Free families!” and “This is what democracy looks like,” as they sat in the Hart Senate Office Building’s atrium. Protesters wrapped themselves in Mylar blankets, like the ones given to children separated from their families at the southern U.S. border and detained. Democratic Senators Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Maizi Hirono of Hawaii and Ed Markey of Massachusetts were among those who visited the protesters to lend their support. Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, herself an immigrant, tweeted that she was among those arrested. Under the zero-tolerancepolicy, the government has begun prosecuting all migrants caught entering the country without authorization. Trump has halted his policy of taking children from their detained parents under public pressure, but an estimated 2,000 of them are still being held, with many families saying they don’t know how to locate them. Similar protests also took place elsewhere around the country. Hundreds gathered at a rally…

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Tennessee House Delegation Unanimously Opposes Ryan Immigration Bill

John Bryant
TN Congressional Delegation

Tennessee’s U.S. House delegation voted unanimously against House Speaker Paul’s Ryan’s immigration bill Wednesday, including both Democrat members, with Rep. Diane Black not voting. The bill went down in defeat by a wide margin, 121-301, despite President Trump’s subdued support. A sprawling, compromise GOP immigration bill that would have provided a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants while directing $25 billion for the construction of President Trump’s border wall failed in the House on Wednesday, despite encouragement from the president for Republicans to support it. The bill was overwhelmingly rejected 301-121, in part because some Republicans are reluctant to vote for any bill they worry could be portrayed as “amnesty.” More than 100 Republicans voted against the legislation. The legislation was given little chance of passing going in. Trump’s tweet Wednesday captured his earlier private views that he supports the bill as well as his previous tweets that Republicans were wasting their time on legislation that can’t pass the Senate, putting a different spin on the latter. “HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOULD PASS THE STRONG BUT FAIR IMMIGRATION BILL, KNOWN AS GOODLATTE II, IN THEIR AFTERNOON VOTE TODAY, EVEN THOUGH THE DEMS WON’T LET IT PASS IN THE SENATE,” he tweeted in…

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Blackburn Distinguishes Self From Bredesen in Competing Statements on Retiring Justice Kennedy’s Replacement

John Bryant
Marsha Blackburn, Phil Bredesen

Both Tennessee candidates for U.S. Senate weighed in and the length of tone of their responses would appear to make it clear Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) sees this as a clear winning issue for her campaign. Bredesen’s statement was predictable political blather, at best. Bredesen said a candidate’s character and qualifications are more important than party lines. “I just think we have such a partisan mess in Washington right now,” Bredesen said Wednesday in Nashville. “This is a real chance to start unwinding that in something that is very visible and important to the country.” Blackburn also released a statement on Twitter, calling the confirmation of Supreme Court justices “one of the Senate’s most important responsibilities.” “As Tennessee’s next senator, I will be committed to confirming more judges, like Neil Gorsuch, who will honor and uphold our Constitution,” Blackburn said. “I will vote to confirm good constitutional justices who will not be activists and legislate from the bench.” In a statement Wednesday, Blackburn said that Tennesseans want a justice “who will respect both the Constitution and the rule of law.” “They do not want an activist Supreme Court Justice who will seek to legislate from the bench,” she said. “As…

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Commentary: The Turbulent True History of the ‘Good Ole Days’ of Politics

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Founding Fathers, Reagan-Bush, Trump

by Jeffery A. Rendall   It’s only natural in times of political turmoil – like what we’re experiencing now and for as long as I can remember – that people harken back to yesteryear for a more tranquil period when everyone got along swimmingly and went out for drinks after each encounter regardless of the rhetorical fights they engaged in earlier that day. We all recall the good ‘ol days as if there was never any conflict; people had manners “back then” and even political enemies found it within their beings to bury the hatchet in their minds rather than in someone else’s back. But was it really that way? A thorough perusal of history reveals that today’s political brawls aren’t much apart from those of the past. Even America’s Founding Fathers were hardly immune from the backbiting and triviality that’s so much in evidence today. Take James Madison and Alexander Hamilton for example. Jay Cost wrote at National Review last week, “One point that I do not linger on in [my new book] is how the two of them came to ascribe bad motives to each other. In Madison’s reckoning, Hamilton was a would-be monarchist who sought the destruction of the republic itself.…

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Pennsylvania Tracks Traffic Stops of Undocumented Immigrants

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traffic stop

Pennsylvania state police will soon be required to report more fully the circumstances under which they notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents when they stop undocumented immigrants for traffic violations. The move comes amid mounting criticism by immigration lawyers and activists that state troopers have been overzealous in assisting with ICE’s stepped-up enforcement ordered by the Trump administration. It’s also part of a wider debate in several U.S. states about whether police and other state agencies should cooperate with ICE in the wake of the crackdown against illegal immigration over the past year and a half. In Pennsylvania, a recent investigation by ProPublica and The Philadelphia Inquirer uncovered cases in which state and local police helped ICE round up undocumented immigrants, especially Hispanics, using questionable traffic stops. According to the ProPublica/Inquirer investigation, there were more “at-large” arrests of undocumented immigrants without criminal convictions by ICE’s Philadelphia field office, which includes Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia, than anywhere else in the country. Some 1,740 people without criminal records were arrested in the year after President Donald Trump took office, according to the investigation, many with the help of state and local police. This high arrest rate of non-criminals has raised accusations of racial profiling. Assertion…

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Another American Confirmed Hurt by Mystery Attack in Cuba

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US Embassy - Havana, Cuba

One more U.S. Embassy employee in Havana has been affected by mysterious health incidents, the State Department said. State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the second of two Americans recently evacuated from Cuba was “medically confirmed” Thursday to have experienced effects “similar to those reported by other members of the U.S. Havana diplomatic community.” The other evacuee was confirmed to have experienced similar symptoms a week ago. The latest case brings to 26 the number of Americans affected by the mystery ailment in Cuba. The United States has said that the Cuba incidents started in late 2016. The State Department calls them “specific attacks” but has not said what caused them or who was behind them. Cuba has adamantly denied involvement or knowledge. Initial speculation centered on some type of sonic attack owing to strange sounds heard by those affected, but an interim FBI report in January found no evidence that sound waves could have caused the damage, The Associated Press reported. The new confirmation comes less than a month after the U.S. renewed demands on Cuba to determine the source of the “attacks” on U.S. diplomats. Cuba responded by once again denying any involvement or knowledge of any such…

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GOP Congressman Says He Received More Death Threats In 2017 Than Every Other Year Combined

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by Peter Hasson   Republican Arizona Rep. David Schweikert says he received more death threats in 2017 than every other year he’s been in office combined. “My fear is this is the playbook of a lot of our brothers and sisters on the left — they’re going to get fringier and fringier, louder and louder, angrier and angrier, and as you and I know, we sometimes have some folks in our society who aren’t completely healthy,” Schweikert said while appearing on “Plaidcast,” a podcast hosted by Republican Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin. “And we had more death threats last year, in my office, even one towards my little girl, than we’ve ever had in all the other years combined and my fear is that this rage that is being generated for political turnout is actually really becoming unhealthy for our political society,” Schweikert continued. The Arizona congressman has served in Congress since 2011. “It’s incredibly troubling, because I’ve had threats against my family and my children as well — horrible things said,” Duffy agreed. “We know what happened to [House Majority Whip] Steve Scalise last year and our baseball team and with that, I don’t think the left recognizes that…

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Mark Green Picks Up Another Endorsement For Congress, This Time From Williamson Business PAC

Jason M. Reynolds
Mark Green

The Williamson Business PAC on Thursday announced its support of Dr. Mark Green for U.S. Congress to replace Marsha Blackburn. The PAC conducted interviews with all the candidates running for the vacant 7th District congressional seat, and its board concluded that State Sen. Green is the best choice, according to a press release from Green’s campaign. “Representing the Williamson Business community, our board members endorse Mark due to his strength, fortitude, integrity and compassion. These are all needed qualities in a statesman and well exemplified by Senator Mark Green,” said Cherie Hammond, the PAC’s chair. Having run a business in Brentwood, Green also based his congressional campaign headquarters in Cool Springs. His campaign is supported by many of the county’s leaders, including State Sen. Jack Johnson, Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson, Franklin Mayor Ken Moore, Fairview Mayor Patti Carroll, Spring Hill Mayor Rick Graham and Nolensville Mayor Jimmy Alexander. “I’m honored to receive the Business PAC’s endorsement,” said Green. “Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. As I travel the 7th District, I’ve heard from countless business owners that burdensome federal regulations are stifling their growth. Having built a company myself, I will fight every day to get…

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Phil Bredesen Afraid to Admit He’d Side With Schumer to Delay Vote on SCOTUS Nominee Until After Midterm Elections?

Chris Alto
Phil Bredesen, Chuck Schumer

On the heels of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing his retirement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), called for delaying the Senate vote on the President’s nominee until after the November mid-term elections. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07), who is running to succeed Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), issued a statement shortly after Kennedy made his plans known and indicated her intent to support President Trump’s nominee. The Tennessee Star asked Democrat Phil Bredesen who is also running to succeed Corker, a simple question – “Do you agree with Chuck Schumer that no vote should be held on the SCOTUS nominee until after midterms?” Whether out of loyalty to Schumer who personally recruited Bredesen to run for the Senate, or because he is afraid to alienate potential votes, Bredesen had no response. Bredesen has gone out of his way to avoid giving direct answers to some of the more defining issues in the November elections including whether he would vote for a Constitutional originalist like Neil Gorsuch and whether he agrees with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding President Trump’s travel ban.          

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