Governor Haslam is concerned enough about the final outcome of next week’s proposed gas tax increase vote on his IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017” to set up a series of private 20 minute meetings with state legislators who are on the fence.
In an email sent to staff assistants of fifteen members of the Tennessee House of Representatives on Wednesday obtained by The Tennessee Star, one of the governor’s administrative assistants “requested” these targeted legislators appear in “his conference room on the first floor of the Capitol,”beginning on Thursday. The purpose of these meetings appears to be for the governor to give these state legislators the “hot box” treatment.
“Hot boxing” is a method of interrogation in which the person being interrogated “is locked in a ‘hot box’ – a small, hot room,” according to List Verse.
In the political world, “hot boxing” usually refers to intense one-on-one pressure applied by a powerful political figure to a less powerful political figure. The treatment is delivered in an environment totally controlled by the more powerful political figure. Its purpose is to coerce the less powerful political figure to comply with the political will of the more powerful political figure.
“The Governor has set aside 20 minute slots in his schedule tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday. He would like to meet with each of your Representatives in his conference room on the first floor of the Capitol,” the email began.
You can read the complete email, with names of the sender and recipients redacted, below.
One of the fifteen targeted State Representatives has a message of his own about how he intends to vote on the gas tax increase bill for Governor Haslam.
The fifteen targeted State Representatives who received this emailed invitation from Governor are:
Barbara Cooper
Martin Daniel
Tilman Goins
Marc Gravitt
Bud Hulsey
Darren Jernigan
Kelly Keisling
Sabi Kumar
Joe Pitts
Mark Pody
Jason Powell
Dennis Powers
John Ragan
Dwayne Thompson
Rick Tillis
“The value of this list is it tells you who the governor is targeting, Â and who taxpayers need to target” one Capitol Hill insider tells The Star.
This governor is willing to burden the taxpayers for his families fortune! May the representatives send him home without putting and yoke on working class people.
[…] private 20 minute meetings with state legislators who are on the fence,” The Tennessee Star reported last […]
Lame-Duck Governors … go figure.
http://bit.ly/nonewgastax
Thank you, Rep. Mark Pody, for standing strong against the gas tax. Your constituents appreciate the fact that you are watching out for them. We are over taxed now by almost two billion dollars. Some of the Tax monies already there can go towards road and bridge work.