Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy was joined in the studio by Tennessee state Senator Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield).
During the second hour, Roberts disclosed that he was still unsure of what the Tennessee General Assembly’s agenda might be once it reopens next week. He added that the predicted models of the coronavirus have not materialized and that the pandemic has truly become a political tool and was in favor of staying and working but not unless the public was allowed.
Leahy: We are in the studio with a good friend. All-star panelist State Senator Kerry Roberts. Senator Roberts, has anything changed from your prior descriptions of what will be happening when the Tennessee General Assembly reconvenes next week?
Roberts: It’s still a mystery. (Leahy laughs) I kind of say that with tongue and cheek. The calendars are usually published a week in advance. We don’t have next week’s calendar online yet except for Thursday at 1:00 p.m. the Senate’s Finance Ways and Means are going to meet. I didn’t think to look up to see if the House has published their calendar but the kind of push and pull on this is the House wants to stay in and do business and the Senate just wants to deal with the budget.
Leahy: So I saw a report I think was from the Tennessee Journal that actually had an extensive list.
Roberts: That is true yes.
Leahy: On the Senate side.
Roberts: Right, right. So there is a list of bills. In fact, I set it out to bring it this morning and I didn’t bring it.
Leahy: Well you’ve got such a good memory you can do it right?
Roberts: (Chuckles) In Tennessee, Speaker McNally is one of the senators and elected by us to be the Speaker.
Leahy: He’s the Speaker of the state Senate and also lieutenant governor of the state.
Roberts: Correct. So part of his request was to look through the bills that we had set aside when we adjourned and pick and choose what’s really important to you versus something you’d like to do. Obviously if something has an adverse impact on the budget it’s a total nonstarter because we’ve got a lot of budget cuts that we’re facing.
That list of what’s essential and what’s not essential would not be the list that would be shared by the House. And so since we have this bi-cameral legislature, basically if the Senate doesn’t take up the bill that’s in the House then it doesn’t go anywhere. So here’s the dilemma that I have. I’m in favor of staying and working with this caveat…Not if the public is not allowed.
Leahy: Are we still considering the public may not be allowed in the House?
Roberts: I think that probably as of today yes.
Leahy: Really?
Roberts: But I think that can continue to evolve. Let’s just think about it Michael. What are we learning every single day? We are learning that things have not have materialized as people thought they would. Now we’re seeing how political it is.
We’re seeing these analyses of how a red state has reacted versus how a blue state reaction. Low and behold there are so many more COVID-19 deaths in blue states per million than there are in red states. How can that be? Did the virus know? It’s political.
Leahy: Allot of it has to do with the treatment of nursing home patients.
Roberts: Yes.
Leahy: Most of the blue state governors have made terrible decisions by forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-19 positive patients.
Roberts: So the point being though that every single day that new data becomes available we are almost required or ought to be. It should be something we do naturally. We should revisit and reevaluate the decisions that we make as new data become available.
Leahy: Who governs the conduct of the committee rooms? Is it the city of Nashville?
Roberts: No.
Leahy: Or is the state legislature?
Roberts: It would be the speakers of each chamber.
Leahy: So speaker of the House Cameron Sexton.
Roberts: Right.
Leahy: And Speaker of the state Senate Randy McNally.
Roberts: Yes. What you find out when you become a legislator is that so much of what occurs down there is at the discretion of the speaker. And we’re very fortunate in the Senate in that Speaker McNally is always, if we want to call him and talk to him and say hey I don’t agree with this he’s very easy to talk to. You can freely share your opinion. I know a lot of times people think you get told how to vote. Oh he puts pressure on you.
Leahy: It’s not all speaker.
Roberts: No. He is elected by the Senate.
Leahy: 33 members of the Senate.
Roberts: So he’s got to get 17 votes and I find him to be very responsive. We don’t always agree on things and I don’t ever feel that there’s a consequence to that. Sometimes we just agree to disagree. I find him to be extremely reasonable. I think a lot of these decisions that are being made, although he’s the one who sort of has to sign on the dotted line. I think he does do it with input from the leadership team of the Senate.
Leahy: Just to remind our listeners you are a Republican. There are 33 members of the state Senate. 28 Republicans and the speaker, of course, Lieutenant Governor McNally is a Republican. And then there are five Democrats in the state Senate.
Roberts: Correct. We have the second-most lopsided General Assembly in the nation.
Leahy: And the first is?
Roberts: I can’t remember.
Leahy: Not Tennessee! (Laughter)
Roberts: Ron Ramsey used to famously say whatever state it was and I don’t remember if it was North Dakota or South Dakota.
Leahy: It could be North Dakota.
Roberts: He said, its the only time in my life that a Republican loses so that we would be number one. (Leahy laughs) And we may be at this point but it’s incredibly lopsided. And one of the things that we have to remember is that Tennessee is an interesting state because if we look at the percentage of 28 out of 33 well that’s not reflective of Tennessee.
Leahy: If you look at the presidential race it was like 60% for Trump and 36% for Hillary. Not quite two to one.
Roberts: We have buckets of a third. We have a third that is Democrat. A third that is pretty Conservative or Republican. Then we have a third that is basically right of center. In the center, right of center but they’re not really on the left. Those are the traditional Democrats who realize the Washington Democratic Party left them long ago.
Leahy: Part of it is the way these districts are drawn up.
Roberts: Are you suggesting that there has been gerrymandering in the past?
Leahy: I’m just stating a fact my friend. Stating a fact.
Roberts: It’s better than it was. I know the Democrats may scoff but I think the Republicans were about as fair as you could be and far more fair than the Democrats ever were. Keep in mind, when you draw a line.
Leahy: Two words that will never go together. Fair and Democrat.
Roberts: I believe it.
Listen to the full second hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Background Photo “Tennessee General Assembly” by the Tennessee General Assembly.
Of course the State Senate is going to cut things as short as possible, for the most part, they are like an old folks home, just a bunch of tired codgers, afraid to get the disease, and more importantly, afraid to do their jobs!