State Senator Frank Niceley Speculates Residency Bill Fate After Monday Night Noncur in State Senate

Live from Music Row Wednesday 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. –  host Leahy welcomed State Senator Frank Niceley (R-Mount Carmel) to the newsmaker line to discuss Monday evening’s Senate session, where the residency bill in the House did not conform. He explained the next steps and speculated that the delivery and signing to Governor Lee would be swift.

Leahy: We are delighted to welcome to our newsmaker line, our friend, State Senator Frank Niceley from Strawberry Plains. Good morning, Senator Niceley.

Niceley: Good morning. How are you this morning?

Leahy: Well, I am looking for some help in understanding what happened in the state Senate last night. And, of course, we’re looking at this bill that’s been passed, 31 to one, that you sponsored in the state Senate that would, say, if you want to run in a primary election for a federal candidate here in Tennessee, either for the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate, in order to be eligible to be on the ballot for a primary, you’ll have to have been a resident of the state of Tennessee for three years prior to that registration date.

And your bill would go into effect immediately. That would apply to this current election cycle. The House bill passed I think unanimously 86 to zip.

I think the bill sponsor, State Representative David Wright, intended to have that bill to conform to the state Senate, but for some procedural reasons, this is my understanding of it, it passed the bill to have it go into effect in the next election cycle. Last night, tell us what the state Senate did on this bill.

Niceley: You’re exactly right so far, and none of us really know where Wright went wrong. But he put the amendment on after he substituted to conform to the Senate bill. So it came back to me last night and I refused to concur or to recede from my actions.

And we suspended rules so we could hear it immediately. It was going to be put off till Thursday. So we suspended the rule, brought it up, heard it immediately, and then sent it back to the House. And we did not concur with the House.

So we’ve stuck to our guns. The Senate version will take effect immediately. And so hopefully they will suspend the rules on Thursday. And if they will just concur to the Senate bill, all Representative Wright needs to do is say that he wants to concur with the Senate bill, he has plenty of votes, and they’ll pass it.

And then at that point, it will go to the governor and the governor will have 10 days to sign it, or it becomes law either way or veto it. Which of course he could veto it.

But the only holdup is, the Speakers could slow-walk it to the governor. Now, they have done that before a time or two. The governor can’t sign it and the 10 days don’t start until it’s received by the governor.

So what we got to make sure is that the Speakers get it to the governor and then the 10 days start and it either becomes law with his signature or without his signature.

Leahy: So here’s the question: How long, let’s just say on Thursday it goes back to the House. If Representative Wright does it the way that he’s told us he wants to do, which I believe he intends to do, to conform to the Senate bill, and if the House passes it, and it likely would be passed unanimously or close to unanimously, so then the two bills would be an agreement, and that would be March 24th.

How long will the Speaker of the House Cam Sexton and the Speaker of the President of the Senate, Randy McNally, how long do they have to transmit that bill once it passes to the governor?

Niceley: That’s a really good question. Normally they go ahead and send it to the governor, but if they wanted to play games, I suppose they could kind of hold it on their desk a while and slow-walk it and run the clock down.

We really need to pass this thing before April 7. I’m not saying that that has to be passed by April 7, but it would be great if we could sign it into law before the qualifying deadline.

Leahy: You’ve been up there for a long time, but I think typically once a bill passes both Houses, it arrives on the governor’s desk.

They’ve got to do a couple of procedural things first, but it usually arrives on the governor’s desk, what, three or four days, maybe five days after?

Niceley: It could be that fast if they want it to. The Speakers have tremendous power. People don’t realize that the Speaker of the House is more powerful than the governor or the Speaker of the Senate.

Speaker of the House, I mean, they taught me that when I was a little kid, they said that the Speaker of the House got more power than the governor. That’s hard for a lot of people to believe. But if you slow down and look at it, he really does.

Leahy: What is the longest time that you know of that a bill passed by both Houses has been held off before being given to the governor?

Niceley: I don’t know how long, but I know that there have been times when they slow-walked them.

Leahy: Got it. Even if it’s like if it were to pass on March 24, if they slow-walked it and didn’t give it to him, I don’t know, for 10 days and sent it to him on April 3rd or 4th, the governor would have 10 working days. I don’t think they count Sundays, but that would probably bring it to maybe April 17th or so at the latest.

And so if the governor didn’t act, if the bill were to pass in the House in a concurrent format to the state Senate, then it would automatically become law, say about April 17th. Is that a timeline that makes sense to you?

Niceley: It could go that long, but if the governor’s got anybody around him that’s doing any polling and got their finger on the pulse of the people he’ll sign the thing pretty quick.

Like you say, I’ve been here a long time. I’ve never had a bill that had this much bipartisan support. Normally someone will come out of the woodwork and fight you on anything, and this bill has just practically been unanimous with Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate. So the governor should jump right on board. Especially in an election year.

Leahy: Especially in election years, it’s a very good point. Now, this has been somewhat contentious in the sense that it is probably most relevant to the 5th Congressional District race here in Tennessee.

We’ve got two candidates that definitely would not meet the standard of this bill of having been a resident of Tennessee for three years prior to the April 7. 2022 filing deadline to get on the primary ballot.

And clearly, that would be David Vitalli, who moved here and registered to vote in July of 2021, and Morgan Ortagus, who registered to vote in November of 2021.

We’ve reported that it would also likely make Robby Starbuck ineligible because he registered to vote here in July of 2019. He disputes that, claiming that because he established residence, he claims to have rented a house here in December 2018.

We’ve not seen any of those documents. He’s presented them to others. But I guess my point is that, let’s say this becomes law. What would be the process by which a candidate is determined to be not eligible to get into the primary?

Niceley: Well, the state party is going to have to get involved at some point and say, hey, you violated state law and we’re not going to let you on the ballot. The state parties would have to step up to the plate.

Leahy: So the state party could, and they’ve already apparently, all three of these candidates have challenges. Separate from your bill, the state party has bylaws. And right now, as best I can tell, the bylaws basically say you have to have voted in three of the last four statewide primaries.

As far as we can tell, neither Robby Starbuck, David Vitalli, nor Morgan Ortagus would meet that standard. It’s possible that the special committee in the Tennessee 5th, that of the state executive committee, could review their bona fides, and the state party could then say, no, you’re not eligible. And I do believe that whatever the Tennessee General Assembly does would be also a factor in the party’s decision.

Niceley: Well, it would. And the party has been kicking people off the ballot. Tim Wargo, who served several years as state representative, was kicked off the ballot because he had run for a local office as an Independent.

So they kicked him off the ballot, even though he had been elected as a Republican several times. I served with Tim maybe eight or 10years, and they kicked him off the ballot.

So if the state party’s going to kick off Tennesseans who have actually served in the legislature and kicked them off about it, how can they not kick these carpetbaggers off?

The state party is going to have to step up to the plate and do the right thing. And I know it’s tough sometimes, but that’s why they make the big bucks.

Leahy: State Senator Frank Niceley, as always, great having you on the program, and look forward to having you on probably next week or so when you’re can give us another update on this residency eligibility bill. Thanks so much for joining us.

Niceley: Thank you, Michael.

Listen to the full interview:

– – –

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.

Sign up here to receive morning updates, plus breaking news, and special offers

CONFIRM

You have Successfully Subscribed!